I walked around the neighborhood a bit this afternoon (after my bike ride) and got some photos of trees that are competing successfully within a few hundred feet of where the old tree was (and quite close to where the new one will be).
This is a blue spruce in the yard across the street.
Halfway down the block there is this handsome white spruce.
Down at the end of the block is a Norway pine.
*sigh* Everyone has their own personal version of history but I suspect he is correct about this story. That does not however mean that that is the version I will always tell. NNTRAGSJFTSOTT.
Probably pronounced double N trags J foot sot.
A new one, but probably too long to be useful very often.
Norway or red pine has clusters of needles in twos. White pine has clusters of needles in fives. White has five letters, five needles, white pine. Norway is also known as red pine, smaller number of letters in red, smaller number of needles in the cluster.
Did I get that right?
I currently am taking tree recommendations mostly from the University of Minnesota Extension service. They have a PDF of trees recommended for where I live.
On the subject of hemlocks, the service says they are for limited use where I live as the tree requires a site protected from winds, full sun exposure, and well-drained soils. Our soil is NOT well drained and the tree we want out in the front yard is going to be expected to provide some protection for us from the wind, not protection from us against the wind.
Yesterday featured a record for since we have been keeping records here of the lowest ever high temperature for the day.
And most of the time it was raining.
I wore a jacket today but at least I got to ride.
5 comments:
Just a small addition to the pine name story. The Norway pine has a name with two syllables, and it also has clusters consisting of two needles. That's how I remember it anyhow. And how I remember Grandpa telling me how to tell the difference.
Are you committed to evergreens as a replacement tree? A native pine is then what I'd go with. The Norway pine is the state tree. Just a thought.
Deciduous trees have some good points, too. Like the colorful colors in the fall. There are some really nice sugar maples that are spectacular when they change colors. And they are the national tree of Canada.
When I replaced two trees in my yard many years ago, I went with an oak and a maple. Oaks attract squirrels. Maples not so much.
But, of course, in the end it's your tree and your yard. I'll be curious to see what you choose.
Maybe Grandpa quit telling that story before I came along, or perhaps I didn't need to know, since I'm a girl. No fault of his, it was cultural. A different time. But I don't know how to tell the difference between the two varieties of pine.
Hemlocks do well here, but are considered native, and once planted are not allowed to be removed. I'm not sure I want to make a long term commitment to a tree. Life's complicated enough.
I'm still working on the acronym.
No Need To Ruin A Good Story Just For The Sake Of The Truth.
Of course. (Brain fog is real. BFIR)
Sorry to hear/see about your tree. It's always sad to watch one go! If you are set on an evergreen tree with a similar look to what you had...consider the Black Hills Spruce. The kind you had is called a COLORADO blue spruce for a reason. They ALWAYS get sick here and die an ugly, lingering death. I'd vote for a small crabapple myself('Prairie Fire' is nice!), but if you want to go conifer, please just don't let anyone trim up the lower branches. It's how the tree supports itself under snow, plus the ground underneath is bare and useless anyway. Good luck! U of M extension is where I learned all I know about trees, they won't steer you wrong.
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