I moved into a neighborhood with relatively small houses (fear of mortgages hanging over my head). Small houses are older neighborhoods here and one nice thing about them is that the trees are mature. Across the street, there are huge maple trees and down the street, giant pinoaks (which I'm glad not to have - the tree man cometh at several grand a year for those folks).
at some point in the past, someone planted a japanese flowering cherry tree in my yard. These trees don't last long in my area (supposedly) because of low disease tolerance, and this one has had a split in its crotch for years. But it keeps on keeping on.
25-40 years is the expected lifetime, but it's scarcely changed size in the 15 years that I've been here, so I have no clue how old it is. I trim the wandering branches off of it now as it will fan out and then drop branches down below its canopy and whack people in the face. The wife likes it to look a little round. It's a little free delight each year.
Many little blooms yet to open - it suddenly got cold last week, and the tree gets confused. If we get a few warm days, it'll go the rest of the way (and look doubly dense and colorful), and then in about a week or so, all of the blooms will come off as individual petals and it'll be everywhere on my street.
I took a closer picture of one of the little groups that's managed to open up (you can see the little tiny rose shaped bits in the background at the top of the picture - those are blooms yet to open. I guess it does its things bottom to top).
Last year, the power line people cut an L out of the top front of it (I don't personally care what they do as long as the power stays on) - where I grew up, the power company was intolerant (and cable) of any foliage around lines. Here, they seem to let the lines go right through trees and only address it occasionally.
It's not an easy tree to keep round as it's soft and fast growing with the shoots - we call the things zooming out of the top "alfalfas". The mrs would like it to look like a geometry text book, but I try not to be so harsh with pruning, so those alfalfas will get removed this summer and they'll come again.
at some point in the past, someone planted a japanese flowering cherry tree in my yard. These trees don't last long in my area (supposedly) because of low disease tolerance, and this one has had a split in its crotch for years. But it keeps on keeping on.
25-40 years is the expected lifetime, but it's scarcely changed size in the 15 years that I've been here, so I have no clue how old it is. I trim the wandering branches off of it now as it will fan out and then drop branches down below its canopy and whack people in the face. The wife likes it to look a little round. It's a little free delight each year.
Many little blooms yet to open - it suddenly got cold last week, and the tree gets confused. If we get a few warm days, it'll go the rest of the way (and look doubly dense and colorful), and then in about a week or so, all of the blooms will come off as individual petals and it'll be everywhere on my street.
I took a closer picture of one of the little groups that's managed to open up (you can see the little tiny rose shaped bits in the background at the top of the picture - those are blooms yet to open. I guess it does its things bottom to top).
Last year, the power line people cut an L out of the top front of it (I don't personally care what they do as long as the power stays on) - where I grew up, the power company was intolerant (and cable) of any foliage around lines. Here, they seem to let the lines go right through trees and only address it occasionally.
It's not an easy tree to keep round as it's soft and fast growing with the shoots - we call the things zooming out of the top "alfalfas". The mrs would like it to look like a geometry text book, but I try not to be so harsh with pruning, so those alfalfas will get removed this summer and they'll come again.
