To Do --- Ta Da !!

We had a little snow to close out March.  A little rain too.  About half an inch altogether, and it was much needed.  April has started cold and gray.

I am amazed at the To Do List for spring.  All the big tasks got done in March. . . . ta da! 
Finished! 

The berm was expanded and the yellowroot moved.  The sourwood was transplanted and a birch put in its place.  Other things were moved around, the bridge installed, the gravel garden borders filled in.  Etc.  Another To Do list for April must be generated.

Yesterday Jim and I went out to Stonegate Landscapes in Granby.  Mike DeSanto at Bartlett recommended it for a source for an American holly. 

What a place . . . a long maple lined gravel drive leads to an open field edged in zig zag rail fence.  The house and barn are gorgeous.  Just gorgeous. 

Ten acres of huge mature landscape plants are in back.  Don Forde, the owner, took us through the mud to the back lot to see the seven foot tall holly.

Backed up against a pine tree, a little shaded, it was not as impressive as I thought for $850, but we're going to get it. 

Healthy, field grown with a strong single leader, the leaves are beautiful and it will fill out when planted in our more open sunny site.  It will go where the pear tree was to the east of the house. 

What I'm after (I may not get the low branching)

It's a female, and has produced berries.  The pollinator?  Will my meserve hollies or the Jim Dandy winterberries pollinate it?  There are no wild Ilex opacas around here that I know of.

It's not quite branched down to the ground, but again, the sun in our site may encourage the lowest branches to fill out.  Maybe.

Don comes Monday to prep the site, and will plant it this week.  He was quite the plantsman, and spent a long time talking trees with us.  His property was new and his trees were tiny 30 years ago when he moved there.  Now massive maples line the drive, and a forest of giant white pines screen the planting fields from the house. 

I loved talking plants with him and he seemed to enjoy it as well!

(One thing he said is that his sweetbay magnolias -- Magnolia virginiana --- have a heavenly scent.  Mine are 'Moonglow' and I don't think this cultivar will ever have a lemony fragrance like he describes with the species.  Sigh.)