Fog and mud…not exactly what one has in mind for December; although highly appropriate for lowland Scotland….which this isn’t.

Still, I can’t mind.  What will no doubt be only one of my planting projects for next year showed up finally; a collection of slightly unhappy (thanks to the delivery service) bare root trees.  They are settled in for the winter in the vegetable garden, and this sort of warm, wet weather is just what they needed.  Several experiments in the lot.  I may be pushing the zone and microclimate with a Sweetbay Magnolia, but it would be nice to have and an ideal replacement for an overgrown Burning Bush.*  Two Carolina Silverbells, which contrary to name should grow this far north in cultivation, also replacing some Burning Bush.  Two Downy Serviceberries, location TBA but likely replacing…you guessed it: Burning Bush; I believe that they are the type that we had at the other house: a lovely tree that made a delicate lace cloud of hanging clusters of ivory blossoms followed by purple-red berries beloved of the birds.  A crabapple, precise location TBA, also hopefully of a type that the birds appreciated. 

*I am of two minds on Burning Bush…it can be structurally elegant when properly trimmed, the fall colour (whether pale salmon or crimson is spectacular), my grandmother loved it, the animals do use it….But, the stuff is wickedly invasive and entirely too common in the landscape here. It is also a labour intensive shrub needing yearly major pruning to look its best, and even then presents a rather coarse and boring outline.  It Only looks good or dramatic at least (not the same thing!) for a week or two in the fall, the rest of the time it is just a big shrub.  There are a few that will be kept, here and there, but they are gradually getting replaced.