Fall

Posted on by

With all the activity happening around the yard it has been almost impossible to find time to blog.  I did find the time to take pictures though!  This fall showed some amazing displays of fall leaves – it was stunning.  It is almost impossible not to take a million pictures of the red burning bushes that are all around the yard they just automatically catch your eye.  As the days get shorter it is most important to get out early and catch the rights sunlight.  Today there is a high wind and all the leaves are blowing off the trees.  Soon there will another landscape to take photos of!  Please see the pictures below and drink in some of that fine autumn glory!

National Tree Day…

Posted on by

You would think that being a tree nursery – I would know when National Tree Day was!  I could have blogged about it and made some special promotions to celebrate the event. But no – I was unaware that there was such a day until it was too late.  Turns out that National Tree day is celebrated on September 26th (next year it is July 26th – take note – Ha! – also watch for promotions!)…and the only way I found about it was when a teacher phoned from a local High School who was wondering if we had any trees available for her class to plant.  Do we have trees?  We have thousands of them – how many thousands do you need?  They didn’t need thousands of them but 8 would do…well this turned out to be a big event.  A class trip was planned to our facility and we ended up helping the class dig the holes and even donating a Pyramidal Oak.  The local TV station was there as well as local newspapers.  On further investigation I found that National Tree day is everywhere (how could I miss it!) it is on facebook and twitter – heck – they even have their own website and everything! I have to spend more time on my social media stuff and get out from under the proverbial rock I have been under!  It has been quite busy here this past week as the weather has started to change and people want to get their fall gardening done.  I hope to get out this afternoon and take some pictures of the leaves starting to change colour and it looks like it will be a bright sunny afternoon.

Our crew measuring the holes
Some of the students preparing to plant
The day I missed…
Local tv cameras…
Craning the trees into the holes
Some more trees…
Planting the grasses
The new look…
Finishing up…
Job well done!

Ahhh September…

Posted on by

Well to those who came out to our 5th Annual Open House – thank you so much – hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!  The weather held out and the sun shone and the barbecue was loaded with peameal bacon on a bun.  The tent was up and the fire was going and the trees were gorgeous.  Now the tent is gone and it is back to the reality of  fall and packing things up for the move.  The crews are out busy planting trees and it is business as usual again.  I will be out and about taking pictures these next couple of weeks as all the foliage begins to change as well as our nursery.  Fall is great time to plant as the trees start to go dormant and they are not stressing out about shooting out more leaves.  We are busy digging up trees on a daily basis.  While out tagging trees I couldn’t help but notice the subtle fall changes beginning to occur.  The Tiger Eye Sumac (which I have blogged about before) is beginning to change colour.  The white blob in the picture of the Sumac is my dog Monty who is constantly messin’ up my photos! But now that the heat of the summer has passed he is back out on a regular basis running beside me in the buggy everytime I go out.  The Pee Gee Hydrangea’s blooms are starting to turn their fall show of pink.  Some of the burning bushes are just beginning to turn to their brilliant red.  The Highbush Cranberries fruit is a beautiful deep red and the top of the bushes are just starting to turning to a tinge of red but then my battery died…and there is still a crap load of photos to take…

5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
5th Annual Fall Sale
Tiger Eye Sumac and my dog Monty
Tiger Eye Sumac foliage
Row of Pee Gee Hydrangeas
Pee Gee Hydrangea turning thier fall pink
Highbush Cranberry fruit
Hihgbush Cranberry starting to turn red
Burning Bush
Burning Bush

Some Big Trees for a Big Sale…

Posted on by

As we prepare for our big sale we are starting to dig a few of our big trees.  Not only are we getting ready for sale we are also starting to get ready to move them to our other farm.  It never ceases to amaze me how this process is done.  Unlike other companies we hand dig our root balls so that we can actually create a root ball that reflects the actual roots of the tree.  Rather than tree spading them and guessing at the size of the root ball.  And we know what we we are doing .  We hand dug these four huge trees pictured below all in one day.  Notice each root ball is a different size reflecting the actual size of the root system and you don’t see any cut roots in the holes – the tree moves as a whole unit.  This provides less stress to the tree. It looks like the last of our big Pines have found a new home – the lane way looks bare without them. I love White Pines – they remind me of cottage country!  I am eagerly anticipating September and the photo opportunities that await.  All these trees and all that fall colour will be spectacular to see to see.  We have a busy week ahead in preparation for the big sale.  The tent arrives on Wednesday and then the balloons and then we have the food to prepare.  And with the rain we have had an opportunity to finally start to dig some of the smaller plant material to showcase in the tent.  Some beautiful Blue Spruce and some nice burning bush which are starting to show their brilliant red leaf display will be some of the plants showcased.  It is an exciting time of year and it has been a busy season – I can’t believe it is September already…

Acer rubrum ‘Armstrong’
Acer rubrum ‘Armstrong’ root ball
Beautiful Big Oak!
Quercus
Oak root ball
Beautiful specimen Oak tree
Fagus sylvatica roseomarginata ‘Tri-colour’
Tri-colour Beech root ball
A beautiful Tri-colour Beech
Notice how big the hole is…
Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyki Green’
Green Beech root ball
There go the the big White Pines!
Loading…
Picea pungens ‘Baby Blue Eyes’ ready for the sale…

Fall Sale Preview..

Posted on by

Well it is still summer and it is still hot but the evenings are getting shorter and fall is around the corner.  Here at PAO we are getting ready for annual Fall sale.  The farm looks great and we have gotten rid of a lot of product.  We drove around the farm this morning and started to choose items for the fall feature promotion.  We have ordered the tent and the chairs and balloons!  What is a sale without balloons?  While on the drive through the farm I noticed the highbush cranberry still red with ripe fruit.  Some of the burning bushes are starting to turn a few red leaves and some maples as well.  Pretty soon it will be a riot of colour here and action too – everybody will be getting into the fall season.  Here are a few of the items we will be putting on sale..

Shademaster Locust
Sunburst Locust
Skyline Locust
Deborah Maple
Emerald Lustre Maple
Emerald Queen Columnar Maple
Baby Blue Eyes Blue Spruce
Redmond Linden
Blue False Cypress
Sargenti Crabapple
Ornmental Pear

 

Crimson King Maple

 

Shangri La

Posted on by

In one of my previous posts I wrote about the highest trees in Toronto.  Twenty six of our Hornbeam trees were lifted to the 65th floor of the Shangri La Hotel in downtown Toronto.  We have since planted them in June as the construction progressed.  Now, as the hotel is nearly finished so was the final part of our installation.  We had to install some large Sculptured Pines to the third floor and the sixth floor.  This installation also included installing some large granite rock.  Not any rock mind you – this took weeks of preparation and searching southern Ontario’s quarries to find the perfect pieces.  Many quarries were searched with the final selection coming out of Havlock Ontario – east of Peterborough. It was not just one trip to the quarry – it was several.  It was necessary to place the rock before it left and cut it so the pieces would fit in the precise manner required on the the third floor. And then there were the trees.  They were sourced last fall from a nursery on the west coast.  They came to PAO early in the Spring and were healed in the ground and maintained and pruned until the construction of the third and sixth floor were complete.  Which was last weekend.  Then there was the prep work of the actual installation.  These rocks weigh 10,000 lbs – not easy to move. So with the coordination of several people, we finally were ready to install.  We required an extra large crane for this as the rocks were so heavy.  We finally got a permit and were able to close down two lanes of University Avenue for the weekend.  The crane was set up and then it was show time.  The rocks went up first followed by the trees.  Once the trees were up they they then had to be manoeuvred into position.  These trees are very valuable and have distinct formations so the placement of them is crucial.  Once they are in position they will not be moved again.  It was exciting and neat to see it all come together (didn’t need the rain though!).  The crane operators were amazing – the coordination between the two of them was tremendous.  Think of it -the crane guy (Michael) on the ground can’t see a thing on the third floor or sixth floor – yet he is operating the crane.  So the the guy on the third floor (Scott) is directing him literally every inch of the way. Pretty spectacular.  And of course there are our guys – who just adapt with each obstacle.  It doesn’t matter how well you plan things in this industry, there is always something unforeseen.  I think the pictures are self explanatory – and there are alot of them – hope you enjoy!

Changing….

Posted on by

Yes things are changing.  Everything has changed since we got rain!  Yahoo!  As much as I like the sunny days the plants needed the rain.  The Pee Gee Hydrangeas are in full bloom and just down the road from the them the Yellow Bird Magnolias are putting out their second flush.  There are lots of buds so they should look great next week.  The nursery looks good even with the drought. Of course some trees are suffering and showing signs of burnt tips on the leaves – but we are hoping they will pop back in the fall.  In the heat of the summer not much is happening bloom wise, and just as I was thinking that, I see some Viburnam Wayfarer bushes all covered in berries.  It looks so vibrant in the sun.  The lady I work with in the office pointed out the sumacs the other day.  She is waiting for them to ripen to she  can pick them – apparently they are edible.  I can’t rememeber what she does with them and she is on holidays so I can’t ask her.  I will find out though.  There also some lovely Tiger Eye Sumacs that look funky.  She also pointed out some knarly Black Pines in the island bed – she loves them – not my favourite but I can see them in a cottage setting.  Speaking of changing – I am starting to see the small changes happening around the yard.  We are moving our location down the road and for the life of me, I dunno how we are going to do it.  But today it struck me.  We are starting to get prepared.  The polyhouses are coming down and are to be moved down the road.  The Ash trees are being cut down as we can’t sell them due to the ash borer.  It is a shame to see the process.  They have been growing for years in the back field and when you are under the canopy of the leaves you can’t tell that they are sick.  But alas, they have to be destoyed.  The orange tape signifies trees to be cut and the roots lifted up and removed from the ground.  As much as I like to photograph the happenings of the nursery, this made me a little sad.  It’s a day in the life…

Pee Gee Hydrangea Stds
Pee Gee Hydrangea
Yellowbird Magnolia
Viburnam Wayfarer
Viburnam Wayfarer Berries
Tiger Eye Sumac
Sumac Bush
Sumac Fruit
Black Pines
Polyhouses coming down
The dreaded orange ribbon!
More ribbon
The cutting of the trees
Cut trees
Roots being removed
The corpses!

My Tree is Gone….

Posted on by

My apologies for not blogging lately, but I was on holidays.  And as usual when you go on holidays there is much to do before you leave and lots to catch up on when you get back.  While we enjoyed the nice beautiful hot weather by the lake, when I got back you can imagine my horror to seeing how the plants are coping with the heat.  Alot of the Japanese Maples leaves’ are burning as well as many of the other trees, some are defoliating altogether.  But one Japanese Maple is sitting out in the bright sun and doing well – and it is my favourite.  I take billions of pictures around here and I always take some of that guy.  It’s funny cause when it was little he didn’t look so good – so we put him in the back field where he couldn’t be seen.  Now look at him!  Cinderella story or what!  When customers come in I always point out my beauty tree but don’t really make an effort to sell it.  They always ooh and ahh on how beautiful it is! And expensive!  So I am confident my tree will be here for a while.  It was a beautiful bright red in the Spring and looked great against the evergreens and the Princeton Maple.  And it is still a nice red now – can hardly wait til fall.  So you can imagine my horror when a couple was interested in the tree.  Oh – how they tried to show them something else but the couple kept coming back to that tree.  And then -egad – they bought it!!!  Agggh!  And then to add more pain – they wanted it the next day!  Not alot of time for parting photo ops!  But I did.  I waited til the end of the day for the sun not to be so bright and then I could catch the red of the leaves.  They dug it after I left and it was already tarped when I got it in the next morning.  What!!!! So I told the crew leader who was planting it that day to phone me when he was close to the customer’s house so I could come down and take some photos.  The clients who purchased the tree were fine to let me take some photos (they were very nice!).  So I happliy clicked away.  I must say it looks beautiful in front of their home, but the island bed where it stood looks naked.  It’s weird how you get attached to some things. And I must say – I miss my tree.  Really – I mean it is a tree for pete’s sake!  I have billion things to blog about but today it is about my tree.  The client’s said they would send some pictures of my baby when the landscaping is done – hope they do!

My Tree in the Spring
Another Spring Picture
In the Summer…
The night before it left…
Another parting picture….
Ready to get plantedd
Here we go….
In it;s new home
Bye bye happy tree!
I really does look nice there…

It’s amazing what trees can do for a landscape…

Posted on by

I apologize for the gap between blogs.  And I promise not to do it again!  Geez – I might even blog tomorrow I have so much to say!  I guess I focus on going through the nursery for the ever changing scenery that I forget the transformations our crews do on residential and commercial properties.  It really is amazing.  We are currently working on a site that I was able to get pictures from the beginning and during.  And hopefully today they will finish and I can get final pictures of the end product.  I know we are known for our rare and unique plants and mature trees but we do amazing landscape creations as well.  Our crews have over 20 years of installation experience – and are very nice people to boot!  We are finding that people are looking for privacy and do not want to look at a fence.  A natural screen of green is fast becoming the most asked question.  You will see a little of this in the pictures below. We had a film crew in these past 2 weeks as well as on site with some of crews to see these transformations.  Thus the lull in blogs.  They are interested in the mature trees and the installations and all the other stuff that goes on a daily basis.  As I said before – moving big trees always creates a stir maybe because we think of them as timeless and stately.  One thing for sure is it is always interesting and it is always changing!