A Steal on Japanese Maples

Boy, did we luck out this weekend on some Japanese Maple trees!  I'm on the email list for High Hand Nursery in Loomis - our dreamy new discovery with plants and trees priced totally out of our current budget.  We're talking $700 trees that are to die for, as a common feature of their fabulous inventory.  I received a email notice on Friday evening that they had some trees and shrubs that they needed to sell to make room for new inventory - with a teaser line of "Make Me An Offer".  So, first thing Saturday morning I was over there making some offers.  I think I was one of the first ones to respond and walked away with some great trees.  I don't have the names  for two of them so it will be an adventure to see what they look like once they leaf out - it was a bit rushed while '"making my deals".  I didn't even have a way to get them home yet the guy who sold me the trees (I'm not sure if he was the owner or the manager) let me use his massive truck to make the trip over to Lincoln.  (He asked for a six pack of Japanese soda for his kids from an area Raleys instead of gas . . . I bought him two six packs of a drink until then I knew nothing about.)  I found his offer to be quite generous, he didn't even know me from "Adam", and endeared me to the place even more.  The three trees together were originally priced for a total of something like $665 and I got them for $175.

I love the largest one purchased - I think he said it was already something like 12 years old.  I like how the branches have been wrapped around each other.  Apparently it's a very slow grower with big leaves.  I think it will look great between the kitchen and dining room windows.

Another is a Viridis Acer Palmatum (shade weeping green laceleaf) and the third one starts off a neon yellow and softens a bit and has a red stripe (?) on the leaf.   We'll see!  The picture above is what I'm hoping for after time, love and care.  One will go by the kitchen window and the weeping tree will go by the dining room window.  The shade garden is off to a great start!

I also picked up two Pieris japonica - a Valley Rose and a Mt. Fire.  Below are pictures of what I hope ours will look like after they have matured.

the white one will go in the

secret garden

(aka "the white garden")

here's to
hoping for
many more

fruitful plant

purchases

One Other Valentine Beauty

One other Valentine to report (besides the fruit trees) - on Friday night my husband and I headed over to our favorite find so far as new Placer County residents . . . High Hand Nursery.  They were having the grand opening of their new Flower Market.  What a wonderful, dreamy place this is.  They are located at the site of a former fruit packing building and they have the nursery, a cafe in the conversatory, the flower market, a few shops and a collaborative art gallery.  I spotted this little gem as soon as we walked into the Flower Market and knew I had to have it!  Someday I'll plant succulents to go in all the baskets - oh, and the bike pedals too!

21 Fruit Trees

Our 21 fruit trees arrived today - the first purchase for our new garden.  We headed over to Green Acres Nursery on Valentines day, opting for fruit trees over flowers this year for Valentines day. 

What . . . 21 fruit trees??? Aw, the wonder of grafting . . . 4 actual trees with branches of different fruits - an apple espalier (6 different types of apples), a pear espalier (again, 6 in 1), and two "fruit cocktail" or "fruit salad" trees with plums, peaches, nectarines, plucot, etc. And one lone kumquat tree. Now we just have to dig the holes and get them in the ground.

There is so much work, and fun, to be had as we start this new garden.  Starting off with a blank "canvas" is more intimidating than I thought it would be.  So much planning, and dreaming, is ahead and I hope to make progress on the development of this blog, as well as the growth of our little garden.