Getting Ready for Goderich…

Posted on November 12, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

I have a backlog of all my pictures with all the loading and preparation we did for the parade of trees that we participated in this past Saturday, November 10th, 2012 in the Town of Goderich. It was a huge success. But I will have more on that shortly. I think I should go into some detail of how it all coordinated before the actual parade. The nursery was a hub of activity this past week, from digging to loading. And of course, these are not just small trees – they are huge. With many milestones and unexpected things happening we managed to get it done. It was all very exciting and we are still in the process with much more to do. But here is a glimpse of the hard work behind the scenes. Most of these trees are too big to be dug with a tree spade and require hand digging and to be drum strung. It is better for the survival of the trees as we know exactly where the roots end. As you can see from the pictures it is a lot of hard work and requires special transportation. Out of the 150 trees we have for Goderich – this is only a glimpse. We are still digging. If anyone was at the parade and saw the first planting on Saturday – there are still bigger specimens to arrive. As you can see from the pictures below – we still have alot of trees still to come..

Replacing The Trees Lost in the Goderich Tornado…

Posted on October 31, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

It is Halloween already! Geez – where has the time gone??? We thought the Spring was busy – nobody prepared us for the Fall! We have been busy this past month selecting and digging large tree specimens for the Town of Goderich. A little over a year ago the most powerful tornado to hit the province in years swept through the southwestern Ontario town of Goderich, killing one person and devastating the picturesque community on the shore of Lake Huron. Century-old buildings, churches and homes were either damaged or destroyed as well as many of the old trees. Winds of roughly 280 km/h carved a path about 500 metres wide through the town’s centre – right through the downtown core. In the downtown core is the Court House Square that was home to hundreds of large trees. Only 3 remain. It has taken the community over year to generate a master plan and start the re-building the town. That is where we come in – we are replacing some of the trees in the town square. But they couldn’t be just any trees there had to be large specimens to re-create the canopy that was once there. The trees will range anywhere between 30 – 50 feet and will require a large crane to to lift them. They will be moved into the Town of Goderich on large flatbed trucks – some of them will only fit one per truck. Quite an effort was put into selecting the trees through the Director of Operations and Parks Superintendent of the Town of Goderich, as well as Landscape Architect based out of Toronto. Most of the trees are native to Southern Ontario and include Oaks, Maples, Chestnuts to name a few. I have includes some pictures of the tagging and digging process and will be updating frequently – here is the beginning of a great project that we are so happy to be involved with…

Black Oak Tagged

Dawn Redwood being drum strung

Freemannii Maples

Kentucky Coffee Tree

Beginning to dig Pin Oaks

Showing the proceedure….

Tagging Red Sunset Maples

Scarlet Oak Tagged

More Scarlet Oaks

Birch Trees Tagged

Red Oak

Add caption

Blue Beech

Green Vase Zelkovas Tagged

Digging of the Elms

Elms at the end of the day

Kentucky Coffee Trees after digging

The Elms beig dug

Starting of another day of digging

Root ball of the Dawn Redwood

Pin Oaks

Finishing up the Pin Oaks…

Fall Sale Preview..

Posted on August 28, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

Well it is still summer and it is still hot but the evenings are getting shorter and fall is around the corner. Here at PAO we are getting ready for annual Fall sale. The farm looks great and we have gotten rid of a lot of product. We drove around the farm this morning and started to choose items for the fall feature promotion. We have ordered the tent and the chairs and balloons! What is a sale without balloons? While on the drive through the farm I noticed the highbush cranberry still red with ripe fruit. Some of the burning bushes are starting to turn a few red leaves and some maples as well. Pretty soon it will be a riot of colour here and action too – everybody will be getting into the fall season. Here are a few of the items we will be putting on sale..

Shademaster Locust

Sunburst Locust

Skyline Locust

Deborah Maple

Emerald Lustre Maple

Emerald Queen Columnar Maple

Baby Blue Eyes Blue Spruce

Redmond Linden

Blue False Cypress

Sargenti Crabapple

Ornmental Pear

Crimson King Maple

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!

What’s Blooming…

Posted on May 28, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

Driving around the yard and noticing something in bloom and then running back to get the camera! That has been me this week! I am always surprised one day you go by and it is green and then the next day it is in bloom. The Viburnam standards are a sea of white blooms. The Lilac Standards ‘Miss Kim’ are all in bloom. We have two by the front door and every time it opens the waft of Lilac fragrance comes in and it is wonderful. The peonies are just starting to open. There are white and pink ones but I am partial to the red ones. The rhododendrons are a fantastic show of colour and I am tempted to pull the one I have out at home and replace it the lovely red ones. It has taken me forever to write this blog, I just went out with customer and noticed the Dogwoods are in bloom – and you guessed it – didn’t have the camera. Next time I go out I will take the camera and come back to the them. They are one of my favourite plants. We have had some unique specimens come in and I will keeping adding a few every time I blog. Take a look at the Sculptured Pines we received! And the Japenese Maples…my next blog I will include more of the Maples…ahhh – so many plants – so many pictures…

Sculptured Pine

Japanese Maple

Rows of Viburnam Standards

Viburnam Standards

Viburnam Blooms

Lilac Standard

Lilac Blooms

Trunk Full of Blooms!

Rhododendron ‘Roseum Elegans’

Rhododendron ‘Nova Zembla’

Peony ‘Karl Rosenfield’

Sculptured Pine

The Perennials have arrived….

Posted on May 8, 2012 by paohorticultural.com

It is lovely to work in a nursery (some days – today being one of them). I love all the different vibrant colours of all the different leaves on the trees. The lime greens of the beech trees, the yellow green of the maples and the bright reds of the Japanese Maples. The light green new growth on the yews an spruce. I was out on the farm taking pictures of the Crabapple blooms and some Robins are busy building a nest nearby. They certainly didn’t want me near them as they were doing close fly bys around my head! I can move on you crazy birds – there are other photo ops out here! The tri-colour beech are starting to leaf out – got a neat picture of that. And the lilacs – I know there are a billion pictures out there of them but the frangrance lured me to them. Due to the mild winter everything is coming back so nicely. It is nice to see. However, along with the leaves and blooms – out come the bugs. I am not a big fan of flies.

Some of our perennials are doing their thing. I like the ‘Touch of Class’ Jacobs Ladder we received – as well as some cool sempervivums. See the pictures below. So many pictures to take and not enough time. The Hostas and the ground covers have arrived and and are now sitting beside the ferns that are just starting to show green.