My Nellie Stevens Holly & Arborvitae Plantings Progress (growing, Maple Trees, worms)

[Cambium]

Finally... up to speed now...


April 2016. I feed them in Mid Spring and Early Fall including adding organic compost to them in Fall. I actually pruned them over winter. Got too wide for my liking. Hoping they get taller faster now.

[Robino1]

Nice pictorial! Love the new fence also.

[Cambium]

As promised... Here is the progress of my Green Giant Arborvitaes


June 2008. Planted. 5 feet apart. Soaker Hose on them.







June 2009. Soaker hose off. Did it by hand when mother nature wasn't producing.
Fence came down in 2009 or 2010.





I don't have any from 2010 but then came winter 2011 and I began to realize something...







Beautiful trees but so weak to snow and ice. I have to shake them off each time but they survive.







1 week later an Ice storm...





But after some melting and come warm seasons its like they didn't go through anything...


April 2012







Side view April 2012







June 2013. I used the Fertilizer spikes this year. Amazing growth since 2008.





June 2013 Side View







December 2013. Ice storm.

[Cambium]

May 2014. Nice and full.







May 2014:


Roots from the Maple must be affecting the ones on the right.







November 2014. I ended up trimming the tops after this. I don't need them 30 feet high.





I don't have any from 2015 but...




February 2016 the inevitable happened.







I tied it back up and tight hoping it would come back...







September 2016... Notice the brown at the end... it didn't. Lost a big chunk of that one.





And now we're caught up... April 2017..





It's time to cut the dead branch.. Oh well.

[Cambium]

Lastly... A Comparison.. June 2008 vs April 2017. 8 yrs of growth (this yr not over yet). Not bad..
Averaging about 1.5 feet a year..


I almost decided to pull them up and add the Nellie Stevens Hollies just based on the weakness of them and the hassle of shaking them off from snow and ice.

[Cambium]

April 22, 2017. See anything?





Those aren't Berries. New growth all over the plants. Excited. Lots of rains, some warmth and the Holly Tone giving them a nice boost.

[Cambium]

March 2017:


No words.





Had 6" of cement snow that came down fast and furious I wasn't able to shake off the snow as I usually do. add wind into the mix and you can see why I have no words.


Ended up going out there and shaking this off. They were upright the next day except some lower branches.


I'm going to have to use bungee cords to tie them up.

[gentlearts]

Thanks Cambium. Wow, those arborvitae are really resilient! Everything looks nice.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

Thanks Cambium. Wow, those arborvitae are really resilient! Everything looks nice.

Thanks! Yeah, they are but I'm thinking I will cut them down 2 feet to strengthen the leaders maybe.


Look what I ended up doing.





To be honest, because Bungees are flexible and give way, I didn't see a big difference with the next wet snow we had. Branches were still bending over. And there's so many little ones its impossible to support them all.

[greatblueheron]

Cutting 2 feet will definitely cause more fullness with each plant. Looks to me like they did well with the snow...brushing off heavy snow helped keep them from setting in an unusual position or from breakage.

All looks good....few more weeks til spring, hold on...