This specimen is just outside a dental office.
I am impressed that on the not visible to you (in shade) very skinny trunk that the branches are all upright.
Nice hydrangea tree standard
It may be in an area with little wind or it may have a hidden wire holding it. I just saw some standards of Fire Light delivered to a local plant nursery in the middle of our awful 100-degree weather. Last week. Talk about an awful timing. Who wants to buy water intensive shrubs when it is 105 without the heat index... Oh well... I plan to visit today so we will see if they have sold any. I am actually checking out some VSs in bloom that they have to see if they turn from green to pink or go directly to brown.
Very nice! I may have to start training mine into a standard.
I wonder why the stores charge more for ones pruned into a standard than just the shrubby forms. Way back when (35 years and more) the only paniculata seemed to be P.G. and was typically trained into a standard with no fanfare and easy to do.
The one tree I wished I had paid more attention to when it was young for training into the "lollipop" form was the dappled willow. Very tidy looking in that form but left to its own devices it soon becomes a semi-tall multi-trunked small tree. GRRR! I lopped my two dappled willows a few weeks ago to about four feet tall and swore to myself I would try to make this right going forward but I fear I may have to take them clear to the ground since none of the multiple trunks are straight up and down.
Maybe a hydrangea paniculata is easier to train than the dappled willows but I have not tried it on any of my paniculatas other than the old P.G. (which is being shaded out by a big beech). Has anyone tried it on Limelight, Pinky Winky, Phantom, or Vanilla Strawberry?
I haven't tried it but I have seen it done with Limelight.
Seen quite a few standards this year at Home Depot and local nurseries but they want $50 and up for them. Figure I could start chopping all the multiple trunks from some of mine down to the straightest best single trunk and give it a haircut. Then I'd be pruning it every year to keep it as a "standard". Sometimes it is easiest to let a plant do its thing though.
Ah yes, the eternal question. Should I buy for $50 now and get instant gratification? Or buy for ?? and wait "x" years to get the tree form looking good? Decisions, decisions... Ha!
I like getting smaller plants for a lot less. Call me a miser.
A one gallon Japanese maple for $20 or less beats a two gallon maple for $60 or $120 for a 3 gallon pot. One year's difference is all I see between a one gallon and a two gallon plant, yet the price is usually 3 times more. ARGH! I think the same applies to azaleas, hydrangeas, and other shrubs and trees. Often the smaller plant grows faster probably because the planting hole is not as hard to dig and the watering requirements are less than an older bigger plant. The only thing you need is patience.
Interesting comment as I was just thinking about a place for one JM last weekend.
I had made a habit of buying four JMs (in gallon pots ranging from $15 to $20 per pot) each year and moving those to a 3 to 5 gallon pot. They would double in size in a year so I put those in the ground. I would repeat this each year for a 3 to 4 years so I had a nice little allée of JMs. Some are not as fast growing here as they may in other regions of the country but what the heck. I think if I put them in fuller sun then they would grow faster but I am not in a hurry.
The worst performer is the Full Moon variety - maybe they don't like it as hot as it gets here yet at Callaway Gardens at Pine Mountain (Columbus, GA) they are a fairly nice size.
The first one is one I dug up from my last home and moved. Plopped it in its present location in a burlap bag. It rooted and the rest is history. About 7 feet tall and probably 8 to 10 foot spread. It really needs a haircut. Been there for 11 years and maybe 2, 3 at the last house.
A nice cut leaf at my parents. Probably 15 years old. Full sun.
One of my favorites is also one of the smallest - Pygmy is probably no bigger than 2.5 feet tall but fully covered with bright green leaves.
Have you tried some of those that have red or orange-y trunk and branches?
Coral bark JM? Yes, I have two.
Not the strongest red colors but maybe it is because they are in more shade. A red twig dogwood is a bolder red.
Here is a portion of one of my coral bark maples with a red maple blooms that got caught in the JM. (I sure would like to get rid of the red maple but it is probably 35 feet tall and in between lots of other trees).
