We have some amazing hickory trees on our property. They are good looking trees with edible fruit. The hickory nut is sweet and I personally think comparable to a pecan in flavor. It’s unfortunately much tougher to crack and mostly consists of shell.

Anne often collects these hickory nuts and spends some time every year cracking and eating them with her dad. There is something very satisfying in the cracking of a hickory. The sound of the splitting shell inspires us to crack more. The hickory nut tastes like inspiration.

This year, I got to looking at some nuts and thought they deserved their own little photo shoot. So I took some pictures and then didn’t really know what to do with them. I could just load them to Flickr and forget about them, I thought. Or maybe, just maybe, I should load them to Facebook and share the hickory nut message with all my hickory friends.

But if I’m going to do that, I better make the messages really blatant and also include disclaimers, warnings and general words of caution (look closely for these). Inspiration is, after all, 90% stinky.

In 2009 I visited The Oregon Garden in Silverton, OR. What I saw there made me want to rush home and do a large scale planting in that style. The Oregon Garden designers use mainly trees, shrubs and ground covers that look good all season, and very few ephemeral flowers- and they are obviously geniuses. If you ever find yourself in Oregon, Silverton is not a far drive from Portland and in my opinion, the gardens are much more interesting than anything else you’ll find in the area. Plus it is also a resort- a sort of Disneyland for people like me. Pictured below is my Oregon Garden-inspired planting. There are a few blooms here and there, but it is more about the contrast between high and low, leaf shape and color, and texture. It is proving to be much lower maintenance than our other perennial beds.

Our magnolias are blooming, but the flowers are fleeting. They are a magical sort of tree/shrub.

I had not heard the term hoarfrost before moving to Iowa. I suppose it existed elsewhere in the world and no one told me. Did the world think I wasn’t to be trusted with such a word? Maybe. And perhaps they had good reason.

It turns out the Internet has information that explains the phenomenon of hoarfrost. I like this one that appears to be from a site titled snowcrystals.com (though the address is really from Caltech). As the title suggests, the site also has fascinating descriptions of all the different crystal forms of snow.

As for the hoar in hoarfrost — according to my friend the internet, it is a reference to its white/gray aged appearance. A bit of a let down in terms of interesting etymology. And yet it makes for really nice winter photos.

Now, as I am typing this post, the frost is gone;  A big fat robin is hopping about the dry grass, and geese can be heard as they fly overhead.

And so it begins…

The first shipment of new willow cuttings arrived this past week and Anne has sprung into action. Trays were at the ready. Dirt and sand had been thoroughly mixed.

The deep cell trays are new this year to accommodate more than 300 willow cuttings. And it may reach over 500 if our stock plants are ready to provide. Some of the cuttings in the bag above will be used to generate more stock trees and shrubs.

The deep cells will encourage plenty of roots. At least that’s the plan. Like much of what we do around here, we haven’t really done this before. We’ve done willow cuttings, just not on this scale and not with these cells.

Even if the roots aren’t as productive as we hope, the forest of sticks in our bedroom is interesting. I’m tempted to put little forest creatures or plastic soldiers in the forest. I think that would be fun.

I know, it’s about time I posted. Now would be a great time to reflect on the 2010 gardening season, but that’s a bigger topic than I can manage at present! This one will be about yellow curly willow, which I now think I like even more than coral bark curly willow! Time will tell. My yellow curly willows are a little older than than my 2 newer varieties: coral bark and scarlet, and the branches tend to become more contorted in years 2 and 3.
Below I managed to capture yellow curly willow on particularly good day, with great color saturation. I have taken shots on other winter days that barely revealed the stunning color I see through the lens. Notice the different tones: the oldest biggest branches are a dried grass color, next oldest are more golden, and the youngest tips are a coppery orangish hue.

This tree was planted from an unrooted cutting in 2009. It is already 8 – 10 feet tall! Other unrooted cuttings were planted in less ideal places- one in compacted gravel and others in quack grass, and they are much smaller and poorly developed in comparison. When planting any tree always remove competing vegetation (especially grasses since they are water hogs) at least 3 feet in diameter around your tree and add 2-3 inches of mulch.

Anne did find time to construct a nice group of branches for the holidays. Not at all traditional, but it adds the necessary spirit and opportunity for nostalgia. It also provided a place for presents. Prior to these decorated branches, our gifts sat on a chair – a bit uninspired by comparison.

The ornaments are mostly handmade and from Anne’s childhood. That naturally gives rise to nostalgia.  Nostalgia is fragrant this time of year. The black and white rabbit near the top of the tree is Snoopy, Anne’s pet rabbit as a child (It seems that from a young age Anne looked to color for pet naming inspiration). Anne did not have a pet elephant or bear as other ornaments might suggest, yet each one comes with a remembrance and more than a little cheer.

It was more colorful in person. You will need to take our word for it.

Click the image for larger view

Anne announced she has a few more trees to plant and protect before the really cold temps arrive. Someone also needs to plant garlic before the ground is frozen. And that someone is me. I’m wonderfully tempted to plant two beds of garlic next year. And more California poppies. These proved to be a nice combination this year. We followed the garlic with sweet potatoes. I still need to see if they had enough time to mature. I’ll check tomorrow before the looming hard frost arrives. Brrrrrr.