New obsession with outside garden, topiery etc.

[Leafmite]

I never knew that grafting was used in pine trees. I will need to read about that.

My late orchard (apples, cherries, pears, peach, apricot, plums) was all grafted trees and my orange trees are grafted as the lemon probably is. The figs and bananas are not but they are both fast-growing trees. I prefer non-grafted but grafting allows one to pick fruit earlier, dwarfs trees that might grow too large or helps a tree/shrub survive where it normally would not.

Good luck with your outside garden! It seems to really be a source of joy for you.

[Subrosa]

Growing outdoors in 6B hasn't helped me keep my orchid collection smaller...

[Leafmite]

Growing other plants indoors has....
I think the other plants keeps me from hovering over the orchids and worrying about them quite so much.

[Optimist]

I just got some new pine trees, a Black pine "Thundercloud" a Mugo Pine Carstairs "Winter Gold" and Mugo Pine "Yellow Marble." A new tree in a few weeks called 'Shirome janome' Japanese Black Pine (Has something to do with "eye of dragon") it is a varigated pine tree-- still a dwarf but will grow a out 8-10 feet tall in 10 years. I took a risk (several months ago) on 2 "giant size" rose roots-- a bout 5 year old bushes-- Mustard and Ketsup and Koko Loco. I am not much of a "bright" or red rose buyer, but K&M is special. Besides I have a huge area with only red roses. Well this is about all the pictures I can get in here. The two Mugo Pines. Anyway, they are from Conifer Kingdom.

[Ray]

When I moved from PA to coastal SE NC 7 years ago, I had to adjust to entirely different landscape plants.

For one, there is just something wrong with seeing a squirrel climbing a palm tree. Shouldn't that be monkeys? We have two different kinds of palms plus some massive cycads that have exploded since being treated with Kelpak.

We are also loaded with "Encore" azaleas that bloom off and on all year, and our camellias are in full bud right now.

My first foray into fruit trees was a 'Dr. Clark' heirloom fig. Developed by a breeder in New Orleans, it grows like a weed in our conditions, Kelpak and Quantum have apparently helped, as two, roughly 12" plants with 3/4" "trunks" were planted from two-gallon pots in the spring of 2021 - mine and one next door. The one next door is about 4' tall now. Mine was about 6 feet tall last summer and I pruned it back to about 2' last winter. This summer it grew to be about 14' tall and wide. I cut it back to 3' of 4" diameter stumps on Wednesday.

[Leafmite]

I admit, I am envious. Camellias are beautiful.

I think it is getting more difficult to grow the normal stuff for Ohio in Ohio right now. I had the fruit trees for thirty years an for the first twenty or so years, I had no trouble getting fruit. If we had a warm period in the winter, it was not long enough or warm enough to bring the trees into early flower so, spring came, the trees bloomed and the bees came and everything got pollinated. The last couple of years, we would get a month of warm weather in February or very early March and the trees would bloom but it was still too early for the bees and then we would get more winter weather. The local orchard where we always got advice gave up and sold the orchard. Last year, the spring bulbs and many of my perennials started growing in the middle of winter and that did not go well for them. I wish the weather would affect the invasive species but, nope, they seem to be thriving, along with the weeds.

[Optimist]

And... I got a new Mugo Pine... this one is huge!!! I do not know why I can post certain photos but not others! But it is 5-6 years old, and very large!