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Here She Comes

May 24th, 2018

I’ve been waiting and watching to see if my copper birch leafed out this spring. It’s planted in the main garden for now, waiting for a spot to be prepared for it in the pasture. I first fell in love with copper beeches when I visited Longwood Garden 15 or more years ago.

I’ve been looking for one for quite a while, at least one that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. Last summer, I found one at Fieldstone Gardens.


After watching all the local native beeches leaf out, I was wondering if my little copper beach was going to leaf out or die. One day I looked and saw one leaf popping out, the next day it was almost fully leafed out. This summer I’ll be preparing a place of honor for it in the garden. It will become a specimen tree, planted in a spot all to itself where it can grow to its full glory. Now that we’ve lived here for a while, it’s time to start adding specimen trees as focal points throughout the garden. This tree will take years and years to grow old and stately. No doubt it will be around long after I’m gone.

What’s your favorite tree?

2 Comments to “Here She Comes”
  1. Nebraska Dave on May 24, 2018 at 10:21 am

    Susy, what’s my favorite tree? Hmmmm, I think I would have to say the Redbud tree. It’s absolutely gorgeous when in bloom. I had one in my backyard for many years until the carpenter ants ate out the heart of the tree and killed her.

    I do like the oak and walnut trees as well but they are not garden friendly. They take a really long time to grow and the walnut especially secretes a chemical that is a natural plant suppressant.

    I do have a natural habitat on the hill behind my garden that is filled with natural run of the mill scrub trees. Some look to have been there for decades. It’s quite the stunning back drop to the garden.

    I hope your copper birch lives long and prospers. Have a great permanent planting day in the garden.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  2. Joan Ray on May 30, 2018 at 6:37 am

    I saw some magnificent copper beeches on my trip, most recently at Gifford Pinchot’s estate in CT. And many enormous common beeches as well – they don’t seem to get our beech bark disease down south, and I saw several that were 3′ or more in diameter, with bark as smooth as could be. What a magnificent tree, and definitely one of my favorites!

    Reply to Joan Ray's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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