Tragedy

Winter Daphne (Daphne odora “Marginata”) – 3/3/2020

I usually try to share my joy and excitement with the plants in our garden.  That’s what I felt when I took this photo of our 11 year old Winter Daphne back in March of this year.  It was just starting to bloom.   When it’s in full flower the blossoms scent the entire front yard with an incredible intoxicating fragrance.  You can even smell it out on the street.  In the time it’s been here it’s grown to over 4′ tall and 6′ across.  A pretty big Daphne in my experience.  I love this plant!  So what’s the tragedy?  Read on…

9/16/2020

Here’s why.  I took this photo a few minutes ago.  I’m heartbroken.  Starting about 3 weeks ago I noticed some of the leaves on the plant were looking kind of wilted.  I thought maybe our hot summer was getting to it.  Tho I haven’t had to water it for years now I thought maybe that was the problem, so I gave it tons of water.  It just kept getting worse.  You can see what it looks like now.   Sigh…

Daphnes are known to break your heart.  I learned that decades ago in my first nursery job.  They tend to just up and die for no apparent reason.  I lost a beautiful “Summer Ice” Daphne a couple of years ago just like that.  I never knew why.  But I’ve been so proud of our Winter Daphne and so pleased it has survived so long.  I should have know better, but I chose to believe maybe I’d had something to do with its longevity.  What hubris…

I know that with all that’s going on in the world today it may be odd to count this as a tragedy.  There are so many much worse things happening all over.  But I live in this garden and the plants here matter to me.  It’s my job to keep them healthy. But to be honest sometime things happen in a garden that the gardener can’t control.  It’s always a lesson in patience and acceptance, even submission, to the vagaries of Nature.  But losses like this are still hard to take.

I still have a couple smaller Daphnes I like a lot, but none of them come close to what this plant offered us.  As I said the scent was overpowering and so wonderful.  I’ll miss it a lot.  I don’t think I’ll try to replace it.  I don’t have the patience to start over with a baby plant.  And the garden would look odd with such a small plant in with all the bigger ones here now.  So I’m going to move a large Rhododendron from the back yard to fill  the space when I take out the Daphne.  It will still be nice, but it won’t fill the garden with delicious fragranced like the Daphne did.

Such is life for a gardener.  You grow something for years and then it betrays you by dying on you.  Am I taking this personally enough do you think?  I’ll get over this in time, but it makes me so sad.  Time for some radical acceptance I guess.  Despite losses such as this the garden will still be beautiful.  Just without our lovely Winter Daphne.

Beware of taking your Daphne for granted – Treasure it while you can!

Steve

Sango-Kaku

Coral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum “Sango-Kaku”) – 4/28/2010

This is a well known and popular Japanese Maple.  It’s called Coral Bark for its bright red stems which are said to resemble a tower of red sea coral.  The stems are brightest in Spring when it first starts to grow.  This photo shows the tree a couple of weeks after it was planted.  It kind of stuns me how small it was 10 years ago!  I made a point to get a tree that had a tight vase shape to it.  I wanted it to fit here at the intersection of the path from the driveway that goes up into the house on one side, and the path that goes into the front garden on the other.

10/29/2010

Here it is in October with the beginning of fall color on it.  This year it had a lot of red  in it, but it changes each year and other years it has more gold in it than red, as you’ll see as we go along here.  No matter the color, it’s always beautiful.

2/16/2011

You can clearly see the bright red stems in this photo.  You can also see how much it’s grown in just one year – it grows fast!    It’s a perfect fit for its space and is well away from the paths, as intended.

11/18/2011

It grew even more its first year in the ground.  The color this year is stunning, tho most of the leaves have fallen by now.

8/23/2012

I didn’t have a Spring photo for this year so you’re seeing 2 years of growth here. It’s still narrow but getting very full.

10/25/2012

The fall color here is more orange than red, which is more what we’ve seen over time.  You can still see the red stems.

5/7/2013

It’s getting really full now and starting to look like a “real tree”, which for me means when it gets taller than my head!  I’m only 5’4″ tall so I guess that’s really not a very high bar to meet…

10/31/2013

I guess you can tell this was taken on Hallowe’en.  It’s gotten significantly taller this year with vibrant orange color.

5/8/2014

I love how it droops down in this photo.  The first full flush of Spring growth covers it here and it’s heavy.

11/1/2014

The new growth at the top always turns color more slowly than the older growth.  It’ll get there but it takes awhile.

5/6/2015

It’s still growing in a tight vase shape, with a little help from my lopers.  I don’t prune it much, just enough to keep it that way.

10/30/2015

Another Hallowe’en photo.  We don’t decorate the house for trick or treaters till Hallowe’en day but you can see the corn stalks we line the driveway with behind the tree on the lawn. The kids love how we do it and we have fun too!

3/25/2016

You can really see the red stems on this one.  The leaves are just starting to appear on the branches.  It’s still a tight shape.

10/23/2016

This is the typical color it seems to turn most years, tho sometimes it has more red in it, which I personally prefer.  Not that I don’t love the colors here.  It’s getting much wider at the top but is still narrow where it needs to be out of the way.

2/6/2017

It doesn’t snow every year here in Seattle so I like to take photos when it does.  The snow really makes the red stems shine.

10/23/2017

There’s a tinge of red on the upper leaves this year, extending down somewhat to the lower parts.  This color makes me happy.  The tree is getting both taller and wider here but still stays out of the paths.  Only takes bit of pruning to do this.

4/22/2018

It’s so lovely when the leaves first start to grow.  I said it looked like a “real tree” earlier.  It’s so much more so now!

10/17/2018

Here the fall color is trending more towards a deep yellow rather than much red.  Again you can see the top colors up later.

2/9/2019

I took this after a huge snowfall last February that destroyed the big coniferous shrub behind the maple.  People called it the “Snowpocalypse”.  We almost never get this much snow.  I love to look at it but we had a lot of breakage of limbs.  Very sad.

10/24/2019

I seem to have a lot of photos taken in October here.  You can see how the stems darken to a light brown as they age. If you look closely you can still see some vestiges of red here and there.  In the back is a gorgeous Waterfall dissected maple.

6/6/2020

We’re finally up to this year.   This was just a few ago, in June, and it’s got quite a lot of new growth on it.  But as you’ll see in the next photo it still has a ways to go.  I don’t know if you’ve been watching the pine to the right here.  It’s gotten a whole lot bigger too.  I guess everything has…

9/9/2020

I took this one a couple of hours ago, just before I started this post.  Like I said you can see that it’s grown since the last photo I took in June.  It Really looks like a “real tree” now.  It’s not only taller than I am – it’s way taller than the roof!  I had to prune off one branch that was drooping down over the roof when it rained.  I try to keep things off the roof, but really we only have 2 or 3 trees that I have to worry about that with.  Most of the large trees are far away from the house and garage.

I’ve been so pleased with how fast and strong this tree has grown.  It’s wonderful to be able to walk under it when you go into the house.  And tho you can’t really see it much here I also trained the maple to merge with the Green Pine on the right to form an arch over the path as you drop down onto the lawn and into the garden.  I love tree arches and have created a few more here and there throughout the garden.  I’ve even made them with large shrubs.  They make it feel like you’re entering a different world and help to create a feeling of enclosure as you walk under them.  Maybe I’ll do a post on them sometime.

I hope I’ve given you a good look at how this special tree has grown over time.  I tried to get photos that showed it at different times of the year, including early Spring when the tree is bare and in fall when it’s in full color.  There are also a few that show it in summer when it’s green and growing.  I think it’s awesome all year long.

This tree was introduced in Ireland in 1920 and is now widely planted over much of the world.  Eventually it will grow to 30′ or 40′ tall and 20′-30′ wide.  I’m glad we have it here in our garden and that it’s taken its place in such a short time.

I hope you have some trees in your garden that you love as much as I love this one!!

Steve