Monday, March 25, 2013

Red Dragon is Coming

In our continuing trend of bouncing around from project to project, Jeff went out this afternoon and cleared a patch in the front planter for a new tree. We had a bunch of gross roses out there that probably had grown out from the root stalk so they were awful (very thorny and barely any flowers). I'm glad to see them gone.

Instead, we'll have an ornamental hazelnut tree.
Red Dragon (corylus avellana contorta) contorted filbert tree, 8 years.
Of course when we get it on Wednesday, it will look more like this.  It will take 8 years to look like the trees above. =)
I'm a sucker for purple plants so when I found this last summer, I needed one and I wrote the nursery. They've written back and they're just now selling them.

This variety of hazelnut tree is supposed to be immune to filbert blight. It will add a bit of winter color to our front yard as it shows catkins during winter. And we may get a few hazelnuts as a bonus.
Birkemeier Farms is selling them right now and I'm gonna get one! We're picking it up on Wednesday.

Jeff has also gotten his garden started this year. These are carrots and radishes he planted a week or two ago.
I'll also be picking up a few starts this coming weekend at the Multnomah County Master Gardeners Early Spring Edibles Sale. It was mostly pre-order, but they're going to have some extra stock to sell on Saturday and I'll go poke around and see if there is anything we want to pick up.

Update on Thursday, it was indeed more of a twig when he got it home. If not for the tag, you probably couldn't pick it out in the picture at all. But hopefully it will be tall and beautiful in 8 years!
Thank you Jeff for planting it.

7 comments:

  1. Y Ddraig Goch ddyry cwchwyn! (The Red Dragon takes the lead!)

    LOL

    (Now you've got me wanting one. Especially for the Welsh association.)

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    1. If you really want one, they ship. I can forward their email if you're interested.

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  2. Haha! Gross roses! We have some really old ones that I just don't know how to take care of.

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  3. I am jealous, most of my yard is still covered in snow and the frost is deep in the ground. Last week the lows were around 7 to 9F. We may reach 50 on Easter.

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  4. You picked that tree for the name, I know you did.

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  5. What a fascinating contorted hazelnut, I didn't even know they had a red one. Stunning! I have a tiny little 1' tree, I hope it puts on some height this year. I've seen one that had chandelier ornaments hung on it in winter, very pretty. I just love the look of the twisty branches with the catkins.

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