Native Woody Plants of Southern Alberta

From ‘The Book of Trees’, Alfred C. Hottes, 1932

Why We Plant Trees

1. We plant trees because we love them. Some trees linger in our memories as old friends, from whose branches we have swung and “skinned-the-cat”; under whose cool shade we have rested from play or work.  Some trees seem to have moods, changing from day to day, season to season, and from youth to old age.
2. We plant trees for their beauty of leaf, whether green in Summer or red in the Autumn; for the delicate tracery of the branches which frame our view of the eternal blue or star-scattered heavens; for their flowers which seem like giant nosegays.
3. We plant trees to shelter our homes from the Summer sun and the cold sweeping winds of Winter.
4. We enjoy a touch of Nature to form a background and a frame for our architecture.
5. We plant trees to furnish leaf cloisters for the birds which awaken us from our too-late slumbers when all the world of Nature, except ourselves, is awake. The birds pay a liberal rent to the tree in the form of the hordes of insects which they devour. Where would our gardens of fruits, flowers, and vegetables be if it

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This time of year we hear this comment too often – What is on sale ?, What is special?, What can I buy cheap?

One thing you can always be sure of is that everything is ‘Special’.  If you buy quality plants (or really any item you purchase) , you probably expect to pay more than a lower quality – how does that go again? ‘You get what you pay for’. This rings true for everything – from bolts to tools to landscape plants. I always say, if you can afford to be cheap, then do so – buy the cheap item – and buy often. Buy quality and buy once – this is most important in the purchase of plants – buy a better plant, and your landscape starts to grow sooner – more consistently. In Alberta, every year is valuable – we have short growing seasons and have to take advantage of every year – plant once and grow.

Why do most garden centres have massive sales at the end of their year? Some of it comes of tradition – planting in the spring and dumping stock in the fall. Some of it has to be lack of confidence in

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Often times we start hearing that question – of course the corny answer would be – you can plant until dark, unless you have lights, then you can plant later.

The true and direct answer should be – You can plant until freeze-up. We are planting in our fields now – we just lined out 1000 seedlings. The myth of spring planting started many years ago when plants were only available as bare-root, before the containerizing and container growing technology was started. As with most new technologies, the residual effect of the previous methods carry over into the new technology – and becomes either accepted practice or long standing myths. This has happened with tree and shrub planting – and perennials – the perception is that spring is the best and only time to plant.

Let’s think about this for a moment, spring might not be the best planting time – is the ground warm in the spring or in the fall? The ground (hopefully) is warm in the fall – root initiation is not going to take place until the ground reaches a certain temperature – and that was definitely not the case this spring – the ground (and the air)

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