Moving Sale

Posted on May 18, 2013 by paohorticultural.com

Happy Victoria Day weekend! What a beautiful day! The yard is alive with flowers and everything looks so fresh and green. We have moved several hundred trees already to our new location so only 27000 to go! Over the next few weeks we are promoting our moving sale – so feel free to come in and browse. We just know something will entice you and that will relieve of us having to move one more tree – every tree counts! There are thousands birds nesting in the trees and it is so noisy around here. Interestingly enough we were delivering and installing a tree to a residential property in Mississauga – a beautiful Serbian Spruce. It was moved from the nursery and loaded onto a large diesel truck on an angle. It was then tarped and traveled 20 km to it’s new home. There it was then loaded onto a machine and planted in the backyard. Once installed the foreman noticed a nest of blue eggs in the tree. The only way those eggs could have survived that trip is if the mother was sitting on the nest. Sure enough later in the day they noticed the mother sitting on her eggs. Such a nice story – hope the father finds her! The nursery is changing daily as prepare for big move so when I go to look for a certain tree I can’t find it. And then later in the day I find it in our island planting or tucked in the heal-in area. The yellow Magnolias look stunning – the pictures don’t do them justice. The Crab apples are all in bloom and the nursery is alive with colour. The Redbuds draw your to their neon pink blooms. If it wasn’t for my colleague Wayne – I would have missed our Red Delicious Apple tree covered in blooms. Last year the frost hit the blooms and we got no fruit – so hopefully this year we will be able to sample some. Here are are few samples of the hundreds of pictures I take…enjoy…

Red Delicious Apple Tree covered in blooms

Rows of Yellow Magnolias

Yellowbird Magnolia bloom

Yellow Magnolia Bloom

Columnar Crab Apple sin Bloom

Weeping Crab in Bloom

Ohio Buckeye Blooms

Rows of Ornamental Pears

Rows of Princeton Gold Yews

Red Purple Beech

Robin’s Nest

It happens so fast…

Posted on May 9, 2013 by paohorticultural.com

Just a couple of days ago everything was pushing bud and ready to pop. Now, a couple of days later it is all popping out. Take a look at the pictures below and see what happening. I have also included some pictures of what is happening as we prepare to move to our new digs. Thousands of trees have been moved – only twenty five thousand to go! It is hard to believe that the same time last year everything had finished blooming by now.

Espalier Pear in Bloom!

Japanese Maple starting to leaf out

Serviceberries in bloom and my dog enjoying the spring scents

Rows of Ornamental Pears in bloom

Japanese Maple ‘orange Dream’

Lilac Std ‘Miss Kim’

Redbud beginning to bloom

So much going on….

Posted on May 3, 2013 by paohorticultural.com

Everything always happens at once. Especially here and in the Spring. Everyday I come in here something else is blooming or some more leaves are coming out. We are digging hundreds of trees at the moment and moving them to our new location before they leaf out. People are calling and coming in anxious for our plants to be showing off a bit more spring growth. In the new age of technology I am constantly being asked to go out and take a picture of something so I can send it to them so they can see what it looks like before they come out. So I think that is going to be how I handle part of this blog. I am going to post some of the pictures of what people are asking for and also what is going on here at the farm. So stay tuned – as I am downloading pictures every day you might as well see what people are asking for…

Weeping Green Beech

Cornelian Cherry

Weeping Willow turning yellow…

Lilac Buds Ready to Burst

Japanese Maple ‘Orange Dream’

Row of Magnolias

Magnolia Blooms

Kwansan Cherry Blooms

Japanese Maple in back field

Camperdown Elm

Weather or not – we are moving the trees out…

Posted on April 5, 2013 by paohorticultural.com

Boxwood Sprial – Nice bright green

Japanese Maple buds coming along!

Japanese Maples

The evergreens starting to come out cold storage

Blue Spruce – Still a nice blue colour

Beech Trees – Still looking winterish

Lilac Std -The buds are there

More stock coming out

Specimen Spruce

Pine Topiary – Looking good

More stock slowly starting to come out

You will notice him throughout the season

My dog enjoying the dry field!

Redbud in bloom

I dunno where you live in southern Ontario but this past week has not been spring like it all. It can be sunny one minute and then a blizzard the next. Like literally – snow squalls! But enough about the stupid weather – we our starting our Spring regardless. We are moving plant material out of the poly houses All the Japanese Maples have been moved out as well as all the large boxwood and pine topiaries. It is still cold and blustery out there and it is funny to see the machines hauling trees in what looks like a snow storm and poof – it is sunny again. It is happening here again today sun and snow. Some of the fields are still too muddy to get into but as soon as we can, we will get into them and start snapping pictures. I have been viewing other nursery sites and they have pictures of plants in full bloom – but we do reality here – so you see things as we get them and as they come into bloom. Here is a few pictures of what is starting to happen here…

Spring is in the air…NOT!!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by paohorticultural.com

Last year (2012) at this time on this day March 22 – it was 24 degrees Celsius and sunny. I was wearing short sleeves and outside soaking up the much needed sun and snapping pictures of the ever changing landscape here. This year (2013) – March 22 – it is 2 degrees Celsius and overcast with the occasional sun popping out – which I guess is better than the past week with snow flurries and grey days. I have not been taking pictures cause everything is covered with snow and it has been windy to boot. Who wants to trudge outside in that? Having said that the sun has come out and I stepped out to take some pictures of the nursery as the snow slowly fades away. It is cold and windy and the only one who enjoyed it was my dog! Spring is in the trees – the buds are there – just waiting to pop. I couldn’t get into the fields as they are frozen and snowy. However – it will change soon and then all of a sudden we will be a bustle of activity. There will be alot of changing around here this year and it makes me kind of sad – which was I haven’t been blogging lately (that and the internet was down for a week). We are moving our nursery this Spring which will make for lots of impromptu sales and liquidation offerings as well as getting our new facility under way – which will be exciting. We will sell, move, transplant over 30,000 trees – which to my knowledge has never been done. And this is exciting – cause I don’t know how we are going to do it! But as with everything here at PAO we manage to get the job done. The crews are out planting some 20 foot pines today and the phones have started to ring – so here we go…..

The lower yard where the smaller plant material goes…

The shade house and the loading area (and my dog)

The healin bed

Evergreens in the island bed

Entrance to the tree blocks and the the field

Entrances to the tree blocks and the fields

The island bed

A large Dawn Redwood ready to be moved

More of the tree blocks…

Evergreens in the laneway

Large White Pine in specimen box

Even the rock bridge has to be moved!

My dog not looking to me to come into the office

My dog not listening to me to come back into the office!

Changing….

Posted on August 3, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

Yes things are changing. Everything has changed since we got rain! Yahoo! As much as I like the sunny days the plants needed the rain. The Pee Gee Hydrangeas are in full bloom and just down the road from the them the Yellow Bird Magnolias are putting out their second flush. There are lots of buds so they should look great next week. The nursery looks good even with the drought. Of course some trees are suffering and showing signs of burnt tips on the leaves – but we are hoping they will pop back in the fall. In the heat of the summer not much is happening bloom wise, and just as I was thinking that, I see some Viburnam Wayfarer bushes all covered in berries. It looks so vibrant in the sun. The lady I work with in the office pointed out the sumacs the other day. She is waiting for them to ripen to she can pick them – apparently they are edible. I can’t rememeber what she does with them and she is on holidays so I can’t ask her. I will find out though. There also some lovely Tiger Eye Sumacs that look funky. She also pointed out some knarly Black Pines in the island bed – she loves them – not my favourite but I can see them in a cottage setting. Speaking of changing – I am starting to see the small changes happening around the yard. We are moving our location down the road and for the life of me, I dunno how we are going to do it. But today it struck me. We are starting to get prepared. The polyhouses are coming down and are to be moved down the road. The Ash trees are being cut down as we can’t sell them due to the ash borer. It is a shame to see the process. They have been growing for years in the back field and when you are under the canopy of the leaves you can’t tell that they are sick. But alas, they have to be destoyed. The orange tape signifies trees to be cut and the roots lifted up and removed from the ground. As much as I like to photograph the happenings of the nursery, this made me a little sad. It’s a day in the life…

Pee Gee Hydrangea Stds

Pee Gee Hydrangea

Yellowbird Magnolia

Viburnam Wayfarer

Viburnam Wayfarer Berries

Tiger Eye Sumac

Sumac Bush

Sumac Fruit

Black Pines

Polyhouses coming down

The dreaded orange ribbon!

More ribbon

The cutting of the trees

Cut trees

Roots being removed

The corpses!

The berries are ready…the trees are blooming…

Posted on June 22, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

It is already the middle of June – where has the time went? Within a week the Amelanchier berries have ripened and we have been sampling them along with the birds. The Dawycki Gold Beech trees have spectacular gold foliage I noticed while eating berries so I took a picture. In the Spring they were brighter and they will return to that brightness in the fall. These columnar plants are small now – only 10′ to 12” feet but they will be spectacular in a few years. The Hydrangea Standards are just pushing to bloom and there should be some fabulous photo ops next week. The mulberry trees are fruiting – I went to pick some berries to eat and it took days to get the purple juice from the berries off my fingers. The birds love them, they are really pretty colours with a combination of pinkish, red or purplish violet multi drupe berries. The trees are nice and full with their weeping form. The Gledistias are now forcing out new growth – spectacular yellow new foliage looks neat against the lime green older leaves. Beside them in the field is the Paperbark Maple. I noticed it because of all the neon green keys (seedlings). These are one of my favourite trees. The picutre doesn’t do it justice but the bark of the Paperbark Maple is similar to that of a Birch only it is brown in colour which looks magmnificent in the winter. Not to mention the bonus of beautiful red fall leaves – so typical of the maples. Some of the plants that arrived last week are now healed in their beds. Check out the huge Japanese Maple – just gorgeous! And look how the sculpted pines look in the ground – looks like they have been there forever. The Hostas are starting to bloom – I could almost do an article on them alone! Next blog I will focus on the island bed – and add some of the pictures I took this week. Too many trees, too many plants, too many pictures, too much to say…I almost have to start doing this daily!

Serviceberry Berries

More Serviceberry Berries

More Berries!

Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawycki Gold’

Pee Gee Hydrangea Std

Mulberry Berries

Paperbark Maple

Gleditsia Foliage

Sunburst Locust Foliage

Acer palmatum ‘Crimson Queen’

Sculpted Pine

Queen of the Seas Hosta

Hosta ‘Elizabeth’

Abies conclour Lift, New shipment from out west…

Posted on June 15, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

One thing about working in a nursery there is never a dull moment! As well as you plan your day – you never get enough done, there is always something changing. On Wednesday we had to move a 25′ foot tree from your yard to Vaughan. We had no notice and it had to be dug, burlapped, roped and lifted on out truck and delivered to the crane site by 3:00. We got notice of this at 11:00. It is remarkable what can be accomplished when everyone works together. Not only was this beautiful specimen tucked in a back field – we had to move/lift it between trees! The Abies concolour (White Fir) has a beautiful conical shape and a wonderful bluish to grayish foliage – take a look at the photos below – it really is a gem of a tree. As usual with Mother Nature the plants are flowering and doing their things all the time – I can hardly keep up. The Amelanchiers (Serviceberries) are now producing their berries which you can eat (soon). The Pee Gee Hydrangea standards are setting to bloom and I will keep an eye on them. They will put on a spectacular show! Noticed a neat Ulmus caripnifolia (Elm) on my journey – notice its neat weeping shape and leaves. This time I did have my camera with me. To add to the excitement, we received a new shipment from the West Coast. Two trucks arrived at the same time (although they left a day apart). Some gorgeous product to look at – Japanese Maples, Boxwood specimens, large Beech trees and an assortment of evergreens. I will have more pictures shortly. As it is now I have enough pictures to view…more than usual this week…enjoy! It is always something different…

New Shipment – Weeping Japanese Maples

Astilbe ‘Maggie Daley’

A view of our Island Planting

Another view of Island Planting

Amelanchier canadensis

A view of the Amelanchier Shrub

Abies concolour rootball

Aiming to go through 2 trees!

An unusual view of the top of the tree

Side view of the tree

Here comes the root ball!

Onto the truck…

Loading Abies concolour onto the truck…

On the truck

Getting ready to leave.

Ulmus carpinus

Pee Gee Hydrangea Std

Pee Gee Hydrangea STD

New shipment

Our Island Planting

Japanese Maples and Ivory Silk Lilacs

Posted on June 11, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

Japanese Maples come in many shapes and sizes and of course many variances of colour. There are green varieties and red varieties, weeping forms and upright forms. Of course every tree had it’s own character and personality and it seems it depends one what time of day you look at the tree. They are slow growers and the red ones have an intense red colour in the fall.The green ones turn a beautiful yellow colour. The weeping varieties have lovely lacy foliage and mounding forms. Take a look at some of the pictures below and see if any tickle your fancy. The Ivory Silk Lilacs are in bloom and look spectacular against the blue sky!

June Bloom!

Posted on June 4, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

I know I said I would blog about Japanese Maples next time around and I will post some pictures of them soon -but there are some really good pictures of perennials that I took this week. The red peonies have popped and look so bright in the morning light. The red ones I like are the variety ‘Karl Rosenfield’ and are a brilliant red and double variety. The lovely Geranium ‘Rozanne’ has beautiful cup-shaped soft violet blue flowers – good for edging or containers. The Baptisia ‘Solar Flare’ has lemon yellow flowers and is a profuse bloomer. A mature plant can produce more than a hundred stems of flowers. The boxwood topiaries are a vivid bright green. I took a picture of the spiral one but there are many more forms. In the lower yard the Black Lace Elderberry caught my eye with its black lacy foliage and the bright pink turning to white flowers. And course them beside them there was the Cheyenne Privet in bloom as well as the massive ones he have in the back of the yard. The lilacs have finished their spectacular show and I miss the fragrance coming through the doors. The yard is alive with birds nesting away and doing their thing. To my knowledge we haven’t sold a tree yet with bird nest in it! The tri-colour Beech are a must see! A customer came in on Saturday and saw one that had been dug for another client and wanted to know if there was more. I took them to the field and they tagged one immediately. They are literally a bright neon pink. I took some pictures today but it is cloudy and they don’t seem so bright – I will take some more when it is sunny. Don’t mind the rain – the trees all look greener and happier for it.