Pruning the Apple Trees. 1/4/2021

 There is a role for summer and for winter pruning of apples.  Summer pruning is more dwarfing, but can expose apples to sunburn.  Growth on winter pruned apples can be too vigorous.  There is more time in the winter, and without leaves the form shows up better.

This is Liberty apple on the minidwarfing M27 rootstock.  The tree is 20 years old.  I moved it from the Vancouver place about 5 years ago.  It never did well there, but in Battle Ground  got a new lease on life.  I don't want branches that are too high to reach with a ladder, but also don't want them so low it's hard to keep the soil clean around the tree and hard to get to the apples.  So, I've been progressively removing the lowest branches, and bending the top growth to a horizontal shape, sort of a 3-dimensional Espalier.  I bend those, tie them down for a year or two, then shorten branches that grown one them, in the summer by a Lorette-type approach.  So far it's working OK.

This is the Jonagold.  It's also on M27 but much more vigorous than the Liberty.  Probably because it is triploid.  I'm trying to use the same approach, bending the upper branches to a horizontal position, then prune for spurs in the summer.

I'm not sure about the rootstock on the Winecrisp apple.  It seems to be a dwarf or mid size tree, maybe semidwarfing rootstock.  Again, a similar approach.  I've added some grafts as well, Sweet-16, Fameuse, and Mile Gibson.  So far. the Sweet-16 and Fameuse seem promising.  I'm not sure about the Milo and may change that over to something else.  Anyway, I'm aiming for the same idea, horizontal top branches.  Not pictured.

This was the first tree I grafted.  The base tree is Sutton Beauty, on M26 Rootstock.  I think.  I've added Baldwin, Liberty, Airlie Red Flesh, and Prima.  I'm not impressed with Baldwin and might remove it.  Same for the Airlie Red Flesh, which is good but can be scabby.  No harm in keeping them another year.  This tree remains quite dwarf.  It needs a little more tying down.

These columnar trees are North Pole on M27.  I'm keeping them to single cordon, with spurs about a foot long or less.  They do need support.

 There are still lots more apple trees that need pruning.

Columnar Apple Tree Progress Report. 7.14.19

Columnar Apple NorthPole, Transplanted Fall 2017.  7.14.19

New Columnar Apple Golden Treat.  7.14.19

 Here are some of the columnar apple trees.  As I age and become less able, I think they will be a great way to have home grown apples, easy to care for, prune, and harvest fruit.  They are also easy to grow in a fenced in bed, for protection from deer.

Some day I'll summarize my findings and experiences with columnar apple trees.  I've grown NorthPole for nearly 20 years.  Northpole is descended from excellent parents, one being MacIntosh, and has great flavor for fresh eating, pies, and apple sauce.  It's no novelty.  The main problem is it seems to bear in alternate years, if apples are not properly thinned each year.

The 2 NorthPole apple trees in my fenced bed are my own grafts, from unknown ("dwarf" or "semidwarf") rootstock that I obtained from suckers off a tree that had been removed.  That's not a good way to know what is happening.  Those trees are growing well.  I transplanted one at a large size - more than 6 feet tall - in fall, 2017, and one at about the same size in fall 2018.  Both have a few apples.  I don't expect much one to two years after transplanting.  I also transplanted the Golden Sentinel, much larger tree and much smaller rootstock, last fall.  It has no apples but is growing very nicely.  This year I added to sapling size trees, Tasty Red and Golden Treat, which have settled in and are growing nicely.  They probably wont bear for a few years.

To make up for my random rootstock experimentation, this year I grafted NorthPole onto Bud-9 rootstocks.  I also grafted Golden Sentinel and Scarlet Sentinel, which as far as I can tell from a long time searching patent literature, have never been patented in the USA.  Ditto for NorthPole, which as far as I can tell is past its patent or was not patented in the USA.    I'm growing four of those in containers - one did not take, and died.  I also have three in the soil, near two other apple trees, protected by fencing.  Those are also growing nicely.

Columnar Apple "Golden Sentinel" Transplanted 10/2018.  7.14.19

The goal with trying Bud-9 is to see if I can make a reliably compact, early bearing, either container size or garden bed size columnar apple tree from these varieties.  Since the grafts took for 7 of these trees, I have enough to play with during the coming years.

I need to add photos of the other trees, including the 19 year old NorthPole on unknown rootstock - maybe not dwarfing? - which is a handsome tree, and which I now have ideas about keeping relatively compact and suitable for a suburban yard. 

Healing Whip and Tongue Graft, NorthPole apple on Bud-9 Dwarfing Rootstock.  7.14.19

Columnar Apple Trees Grafted to Bud-9 Dwarfing Rootstock.  7.14.19

Apple Grafting Progress Report. 5.27.19

Columnar Apple Grafts on Bud-9 Rootstock.  5.27.19

Some of the new fruit grafts were quite stressed by recent hot weather.  They were not ready for it.

These grafts are columnar apple trees on dwarfing rootstock Bud-9. They had the advantage of being bench grafts, growing in containers.  I moved them to the shade when it became hot.  I wondered if a couple would make it.  They are looking good.  There is some slug damage, so I gave them some slug bait. I think all of the grafts have healed together, and actual growth is commencing.

Grafting Update. 4.17.19

First Growth, Northpole Apple on Bud-9 Rootstock.  4.17.19

First Growth, Northpole Apple on Bud-9 Rootstock.  4.17.19

This is the update for tree grafts that I did this late winter.  Almost all have pushed out buds.  As is usual for me, all of my grafts this year were whip and tongue grafts.  I like how straight-forward the method is, once I knew how.  I think any method with good cambium contact, and with good strength, will work.  By using whip and tongue method, if there is a good match in size of scion and rootstock or understock, the cambium heals all around and new bark forms, so there is no bare wound remaining.  The method would not work so well if there is a big mis-match of size between scion and stock, in which case cleft grafting or bark grafting would be better.  But for me, it's almost always whip and tongue.

This year, all of the plum grafts are looking good.  It's only 2 varieties, 3 grafts - two for Black Ice and one for Beauty.  I'm glad to get to try Black Ice, but have some doubts.  Black Ice is an American x Asian plum hybrid, and most of the ones I've grown, so far, bloom but don't set fruit.  I read they need American Plum as a pollinator.  I don't know why Asian plum, which I have a lot of, won't work.  But so far, only Toka has produced.  And that one is almost gone from a canker infestation.  These are grafted onto a tree of Ember, another Asian x American plum hybrid that has never fruited.  The tree also hosts a seedling variety that bloomed this year but doesn't appear to have set fruit.  This tree was created as a graft I did about 6 years ago, grafting Ember onto a cutting of Hollywood plum. 

It's interesting to see one of the Bud-9 (Budagovsky 9, a cross of M.8 x ‘Red Standard’ AKA Krasnij Standard) rootstock pushing some leaf buds on the columnar apple tree grafts that I made.  Apparently Red Standard is also called Red-leafed Paradise or Bud 9, pruduced by Michurinsk College of Ag, Michurin, Russia, in 1946.  I'm guessing there is some Antonovka in there somewhere.

Regardless, it's interesting to see the growth.

Kiwis are more difficult.  The stems are hollow, with a delicate pith center and thin layer of wood with delicate cambium.  I struggled to get these to match, and wrapped firmly.    The other challenge is knowing which way is up.  I don't think they will grow if grafted upside down.  I did some one way, and some the other.  Looks like a couple of those took.

Fuzzy Kiwi Male Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Beauty Plum Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

 I think this growth is more than the small amount of sugar stored in the little kiwi stick can support.  Therefore, I think this graft took.

It will be interesting to see if any of that growth on the quince multigraft, is a precurser to flowers.  Of course, I won't let the grafts produce any fruits.  But one of the branches was left ungrafted, so I can allow that to make a fruit if it blooms.

I'm very happy with this method of wrapping the grafts.  As described earlier, I used strips made from freezer plastic bags, and over-wrapped the scion ends with parafilm.  They are all looking good.

Black Ice Plum Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Quince Whip and Tongue Graft.  4.17.19

Quince Multiple Trunk Tree, Multiple Whip and Tongue Grafts.  4.17.19

Columnar Apple Trees. 3.25.19

Northpole, 19 years old.  3.25.19

I've been growing a Northpole™ columnar apple for about 18 years.  In 2012 I added columnar Scarlet Sentinel™ and Golden™ Sentinel.   This year, I also added columnar  Urban Apples®, "Tasty Red®" and "Golden Treat®".  Next door to my old place in Vancouver is a gigantic old apple tree that gets no maintenance and has a high insect and disease load, so the Northpole™ suffers from that contagion.  Even so, they are a nice McIntosh-like apple.  Last year I had a few dozen nice, crisp, juicy, good looking, tasty apples from that tree, suitable for fresh eating, apple sauce, and pies.   The tree does require some pruning to keep it the right shape and size.  That pruning is not a challenge unless I let it go a few years.

Nurseries have been promoting columnar apple trees for a generation now.  Columnar apple trees are not a pruning technique, but rather the way that those trees tend to grow naturally. The gene for the columnar shape (Co/co)  is known, and causes thick stems, short internodes, and reduced side branches.  The columnar form is dominant, meaning that if the columnar and normal genes are both present, the tree will still be columnar.  However, there are other controlling factors, and in one study of tree and spur shapes, involving 28,000 apple seedlings, 44% of seedlings that were grown from columnar x columnar trees had a columnar shape.

Columnar apple trees look cool in the photos, and the concept is interesting.  A columnar tree takes up much less garden floor space compared to a mid range semi-dwarf tree, but about like a micro-mini apple on M27.  However, unlike the mini apples, the columnar trees can grow taller, for a bigger crop. Some articles propose that columnar trees could be advantageous in commercial orchards, due to the ability to plant them close together and not have to prune as much.  Height and shape depend on vigor, rootstock, and pruning.  Several can be planted as columnar accent trees in a yard, or in a row as a hedge, looking very nice when in bloom and fruit, and even when leafless.

Almost all columnar apple trees are descended from a single sport mutation found in 1961, on one McIntosh apple tree in Vancouver, Canada.  That sport mutation was commercialized and sold as "McIntosh Wijcik."   If crossed with any other apple variety, you should get roughly one half columnar and roughly one half normal progeny.  The actual percentage will depend on whether the columnar parent has one or two copies of the columnar gene.  The columnar mutation has been traced to a single gene. First generation hybrids have 50% McIntosh in their makeup. In subsequent generations the McIntosh DNA dilutes out, but if you keep only the columnar progeny, they will all have columnar shape regardless of what the apple looks like.

Northpole, 19 years old.  3.25.19

Since columnar apple trees are all descended from a single sport on a single tree, they all have at least a little McIntosh in their ancestry.  However, if they are out-crossed for a few generations, the 2nd generation is 50% McIntosh, the 3rd generation is 25% McIntosh, and the 4th generation is 12.5% McIntosh.  And so on.  Little information is readily available regarding how many generations most columnar trees are, from their original Macintosh progenitor.  In theory, you could make a very flavorful, disease resistant columnar apple tree cultivar if you are so motivated, young, live long enough, and use promising parents. For example, using one of the PRI disease resistant varieties as a parent, or  possibly one of the disease resistant redflesh apples, could result in unique and good tasting, disease resistant columnar apple trees.

Some other names for Columnar apple trees include Colonnade®, Ballerina®, and Urban Apple® trees.

For example, the Ballerina® series, from Orange Pippin and originating in the UK, descend from Wijick. They appear to be trademarked, I'm not sure about patent.   Examples are Flamenco® and "Samba® "protected varieties.  Samba® is described as a cross of Flamenco® x Fallstaff® and has side shoots which can become vertical".  From the internet catalog description, I'm not convinced that Samba® is truly a columnar variety.

Each columnar apple tree series has its own selections, such as a red variety, a green one, and a yellow one.   For example, the "Urban Apples®" developed in Czechoslovakia by Dr Jaroslav Tupy, include those three colors and a "blush" color.  I'm not sure about the protected status of these trees, for home grafters.  I spent a lot of time looking for patent information for that series, but found patent only on "Blushing Delight®" under the name "Moonlight®" (cross between Goldstar and Telamon).  Patent info.   I found trademark notations for the others (Tasty Red®, Golden Treat®, and Tasty Green®) which does not restrict propagation but prevents you from calling the propagated trees by the trademarked names.  I don't know the best solution for that issue - maybe (and I'm not a patent or trademark lawyer) call one something like "Red Lancelot" and note "compare to Scarlett Sentinel™ as an example?

One columnar apple progeny was Golden Sentinel™. That was being trialed in 1996 in Canada - where Wijcik originated- but I think NorthPole™ is older. I am pretty sure my North Pole tree is at least 19 years old, and I doubt it was one of the earliest ones.  Scarlett Sentinel™ looks to be progeny of the same parents as Golden Sentinel, just a different sibling.  According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, "'Golden Sentinel' originated from a cross made in 1986 at the Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, in Summerland, British Columbia. The cross was 'Discovery' x 8C-17-36. 8C-17-36 originated from a Wijcik Spur MacIntosh x Delicious cross."

Regarding Scarlett Sentinel™, the same Canadian reference states "'Scarlett Sentinel' originated from a cross made in 1986 at the Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, in Summerland, British Columbia. The cross was 'Discovery' x 8C-17-36. 8C-17-36 originated from a Wijcik Spur MacIntosh x Delicious cross.

Both Scarlett Sentinel™ and Golden Sentinel™ are protected in Canada until  2020-03-04, but I could not find that these trees are patented in the USA.  Due to uncertainty, I have not shared scion for these two cultivars.

Orange Pippin describes "Discovery", one of the parents of the Sentinel trees, as one of the most important English apples, a hybrid between Worcester Permain and an unknown parent, possibly "Beauty of Bath".  That makes both Scarlet Sentinel and Golden Sentinel hybrids with solid apple parentage - (Macintosh (Wijcyk) x Delicious) x (Worcester Pearmain x unknown). 

Examples of crosses with Wijcik or its progeny - again, actually McIntosh, include:

Obelisk® - "Developed in UK at East Malling, (Cox's Orange Pippin x Court Pendu Plat) x Wijcik
(U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,382).  Patent for Obelisk expired 2014-01-10.  "attractive small to medium sized fruit having a yellow ground color with a high degree of somewhat striped rich maroon red overcolor that commonly can be cold-stored until approximately April while present in an ambient atmosphere".  In the patent information, Obelisk® was to be marketed under the "Flamenco®" name.

Rosalee® "a cross between ‘Aneta’ (female parent, unpatented) and ‘Maypole’ (male parent, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,184). and which has V_f-resistance against scab, Telemon "Wijcik variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,382) of McIntosh apple tree, and the Golden Delicious apple tree.", patent expires 2033-05-16

Dalitron® -  Parents listed as ‘Golden Delicious’ and pollen parent ‘Pilot’.  Patent expires 2024-11-13

Hercules® The female parent (i.e., the seed parent) was the Wijcik variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,382) and the male parent (i.e., pollen parent) was the Greensleeves variety (non-patented in the United States),  Patent expired 2014-01-10.  Also known as "Charlotte".

Maypole®  An ornamental crabapple.  The parents of the new variety were the Wijcik variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,382 vs. 6184) of McIntosh apple tree, and Malus Baskatong.  The patent for Maypole expired 2006-04-15.

Goldlane®. An apple tree devoloped in Czech Republic by, and patented by, Jaroslav Tupy et al, who developed the Urban Apple series.   Scab resistant.  Patent expires 2029-01-07.
Bolero (Tuscan).  US Plant Patent 6225

Telamon® (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,224)   Telemon is also known as "Waltz®" US Plant Patent Number 6,224.  Patent expired 2006-04-15.  A UK, East Malling cross, Golden Delicious x Wijcik.  "medium-sized asymmetric generally round-conical fruit havig a yellow-green skin coloration bearing a substantial quantity of red flush.

Trajan®.  Also a UK, East Malling cross, parentage Golden Delicious x Wijcik.  (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,226)  The patent for Trajan expired 2006-04-15.  "medium-sized asymmetric generally round-conical fruit having a yellow-green skin coloration with a red flush having prominent lenticels".

Jefgreen® - a colmunar, cold hardy, flowering crabapple  USPP23863P2 expires 2032-02-10

There are also two columnar mutations known from the cultivar "Cripps Pink®" that are not derived from McIntosh Wijcik but rather are spontaneous mutations directly from Cripps Pink® and are patented.  One is "Pink Chief®" (US Patent PP27187P3, expires in 2034), while the other is ‘PLFOG99’ (syn. ‘Pink Belle®’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 21,555).   Since these are two spontaneous mutations of Cripps Pink®, maybe that variety has some genetic instability, or maybe the columnar mutations will be more commonly found in the future for other cultivars.


(Part of this post is derived from info that I posted previously on GardenWeb in a different way.  I am adding significantly to that info and providing references here.  Patent information and links are provided so that it's as clear as I can make it, as to what varieties are or are not patented.  It can be confusing because some cultivars are actually renamed versions of others.)  Since I've become more interested in columnar apples, I plan to post photos of the trees as the bloom and produce this year, and better reviews of the trees and apples from my own orchard and yard.  For any one interested in the patent and trademark info, please know that I am an amateur, so propagate at your own risk.  I don't have nursery sources for the older columnar varieties but would like to find some.)

Edit:  I removed Antietam Blush, which is bred from McIntosh Wijcik but in the videos and internet information, I don't see that it is columnar

New Fruit Trees. Persimmons and Columnar Apples. 3.10.19

Yesterday I receive my order from Raintree, which I planted today.

Two columnar apples:  Tasty Red and Golden Treat.  I think the names detract a little from the trees' attractiveness, because the names are sort of nondescript marketing efforts.  Even so, these are considered disease resistant, they fit in the space I have for them, and I hope to taste-test them in a year or two.

Columnar apples have very stout stems.  It's interesting.

I also planted two persimmon trees. which are pollination partners:  Chocolate and Coffeecake.  Spicy flavored Asian (Kaki) persimmons.  These are far enough from my Saijo and Nikita's Gift, I am hoping they won't pillinate - I want those two to remain seedless. 

There was also a "bonus free gift" in the box, a Triple Crown Blackberry.  It's a giid variety.  I planted that too..

Late Fall Apple Tree Care. Pruning and Protection from Voles. 11.1.18

I've started providing some care for the apple tree area.  This is for the dwarf and columnar trees.  One of the transplanted trees was without vole protection.  Voles are the biggest reason these trees don't survive a winter.   These are hardware cloth, helt in a cylinder using zip ties.  I push them slightly into the ground, but no longer try to push them deep.  When I have them under ground level, roots grow between the mesh and it's difficult to clean up.

I pruned the trees to remove branches the almsot touch the ground, and maintain the columnar shape of columnar cultivars.

They have a nice maple leaf mulch now.  About 6 inches thick, which will pack down to a few inches.  That provides excellent moisture retention during the summer, weed prevention all year, and nourished the soil.

Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

Transplanting Columnar Apple Trees. 10.6.18

Three year old tree, made from "North Pole" scion .  10.6.18

Last year, I transplanted a columnar apple tree that I had started on a sucker from a dwarf or semidwarf apple tree, which I had cut down some time before that.  Despite the lost of significant, if not most, of the roots, that tree survived the winter, bloomed, and I allowed a few apples to develop.  The growth was less than for an established tree, but there was actual new growth, and the tree appears to be becoming established.

Today, I moved the sibling of that tree, and another older, much larger, columnar apple tree.

Above tree, replanted.  10.6.18

 The first was a tree from the same scion source (North Pole Apple), and root stock, as the above tree.  However, I had transplanted this one when it was smaller, and it had enough time to establish that there were more than a dozen large apples that I collected today.  The location is inconvenient for deer fencing, so I decided to move it.    I tried to get all of the roots that I could.  I think this has a better root ball than the previous tree, so it should survive.

The second was a Golden Sentinel tree that I planted in 2012.  This tree is much taller and larger biomass.  Again, I tried to get the most roots that I could, but losses were significant for the amount of tree.  From what I've read, we should not attempt to prune back to "match" the roots, but leave as much top as we can.  I did remove about the top 3 feet, and some of the side branches.

Because the second tree is top heavy, I also planted 3 fence posts and tied the tree loosely to the posts.

Six Year Old "Golden Sentinel" Columnar Apple Tree.  10.6.18

Above Columnar Apple, Replanted.  10.6.18

After the leaves are lost, I intend to prune back the branches and spurs, to match the ideal columnar shape.  That will be in a month or two.

I'm optimistic these trees will survive, despite root loss.  I've moved several apple trees that were similar age and had similar losses, and all survived.  They will need generous watering next year.

Apple Blossom Time. 4.7.16

Standing next to NorthPole Apple.  4.7.16

 Here are the current blooming apples in the Vancouver yard.  This is all of my varieties there.  They are all early.

The NorthPole apple is about 15 years old.  It's a nice shape and appearance.  Difficult to find photos of such an old columnar apple tree. 

The newer Northpole is a graft I did on rootstock sprouts from an old apple tree.  I think this is dwarf or semidwarf rootstock, but I'm not sure.  Northpole is off patent, so it's OK to use as scion.

The other apple trees are on M27.  This is too dwarfing for me, but this year they look like they will be productive.  I played the bee and collected pollen from the pollen fertile varieties - Northpole, Liberty - and transferred to each other and to the pollen-sterile Jonagold.  I love the Jonagold apples, hope I get a good crop this year.

No photos now, but at Battleground the other columnar trees, Scarlet Sentinel and Golden Sentinel are also blooming, as is Queen Cox. 

Jonagold on 27.  4.7.16

Liberty on M27. 4.7.16

New NorthPole Apple, at 2nd leaf.  4.7.16

What's Blooming. Fruit tree Phenology. 3.21.16

Forsythia.  3.21.16

 I love this time of year.  Buds swelling and opening, bulbs making themselves seen with leaves and flowers, trees and shrubs blooming.

This forsythia was one of the first shrubs I moved to the Battleground place Oct 2012.  Forsythias are tough and can take a lot of trauma and are drought resistant in my yard.  I grew this specimen by rooting a small stick found on the street about a decade ago.

Most of the front bulbs are transplants from the old place as well.  If you have old clumps of bulbs, they can be dug and divided, and have as much or move vigor than newly purchased ones.  Old ones are proven to grow in their current climate and soil, unlike imported ones, and do not bring viruses and other diseases into the yard.

Same Forsythia Oct 2012

Same Forsythia 2009

Mixed bulb and perennial fron flowr border, now at daffodil blooming stage.  3.21.16

Hyacinths and daylily clumps in tree-ring planter.  3.21.16

Hanska plum first flowers.  3.29.16

 The tree ring planters are nice.  They bring the plants up closer to my eyes.  They are easier to keep free of weeds, compared to the ground level soil.  They have a base of chicken wire fencing, so moles and voles do not get into them.  They are probably a bit warmer and therefore a bit earlier, than ground level soil.  I planted the hyancinths much deeper than the daylilies, so their roots should be even deeper and they can coexist.

Fruit tree blossoms -

Finished blooming -
Hollywood plum.
Crimson Spire plum.
Sweet treat interspecific plum (pluerry)

Almost finished blooming -
Methley plum
Unknown Asian plum.
Shiro plum.
 Charlotte peach

 Eldorado peach.

Late-full bloom.
Toka plum

Full bloom.
Most Asian pears - early to mid blooming
  Mishirasu
  Unknown - maybe Nijisseiki
  Hosui
  Shinseiki
  Maxie hybrid

Early opening.
The historic Asian-American hybrids
  Hanska Plum
  Ember plum
  LaCrescent plum
Green European Plum - green gage?  Came with the place, I don't know the variety
Stanley European Plum
Probably Prunus americana grown from seeds - first bloom this year.  Pollinizer for the Asian-American hybrids.
Salish peach - bought as "Q18"

American plum (Prunus americana?) flowers.  3.21.16

American plum (Prunus americana?) flowers.  3.21.16

 The American plums were from this batch of seeds, collected in 2012.  They have a slightly astringent skin, yellow very juicy, sweet, soft interior.  I have two other starts.  They are much smaller, partly due to browsing deer and partly because I chose the most vigorous for the main tree.

Plums used for tree seeds in 2012.

Maxie pear in early to mid bloom.  3.21.16

Swelling buds but not blooming yet -
Sweetheart cherry
Vandalay cherry
Ranier cherry - ahead of the other sweet cherries, but planted bare root this year so may not be representative.
Montmorency tart cherry - behind the sweet cherries.
Pawpaws -
  Sunflower - seems ahead of other two,
  NC-1
  Mango

Swelling  buds, bloom from secondary growth - later
Grapes
Saigo persimmon
Nikita's gift persimmon.

There are some new trees that probably don't count because I planted them this winter.  Their timing may be off because they were bare root and shipped, then planted.  That depends on how the internal timing works in those trees.  New ones -

Nadia interspecific cherry x plum - a few flowers, finishing and a few more buds.

Empress genetic dwarf peach - a few buds, full pink stage.

Mary Jane Peach - reportedly peach leaf curl resistant.  A few buds at full pink.

No apples are blooming yet.  A few are close - Queen Cox, and the columnar varieties North Pole, Scarlet Sentinel, Golden Sentinel.

Progress Report. Columnar Apple Graft. 6.6.15

Whip-Tongue, 3 months later.  Columnar Apple.  6.6.15

 These are the grafts I did in march on 1-year-old columnar apple trees.

There is some callous formation distorting the shape of the graft.  That does not hurt anything.  Just cosmetic.

The grafts are fully healed.  Growth is strong.

Below the graft, there are lots of spurs.  Maybe fruit next year.  There are a few spurs above the graft, but I don't expect much from those next year,

Spurs on 2nd year of Columnar Apple.  6.6.15

Apple Grafting Progress Report. 5.3.15

Whip / Tongue with Parafilm.  Columnar Apple.   Two months after grafting.   5.3.15

Whip / Tongue Graft on Columnar Apple.  Two months after grafting.   4.3.15

I grafted a 2nd columnar apple onto 1-year-old growth of another variety of columnar apple, at end of February. 

Not being familiar with Parafilm, I have tried a couple of methods.  For this graft, I used Parafilm and no other material, to wrap the graft.  It was a good fit, and I did not need a tighter material.

Now, 2 months later, the graft has taken, and the join has expanded to the point where the Parafilm wrapping is torn wide open.

At the lower end, a stock bud grew through the parafilm.  That also happened at the terminal aspect of the wrapping.

Since the graft has taken, is strong, and the wrap is no longer holding anything together, I removed the rest of the Parafilm.  That is probably not necessary, since it looks like the tree can stretch it to breakage, by itself.

This graft took very well.  The scion is growing nicely.  There is no open wound.