So anyhow, one evening last week, the hubster and I were walking around the yard discussing how we wanted the landscape to look, and I saw these little doobers here and there in the grass.
Since there are no homes in the immediate area with maple trees, I figure these helicopters must have traveled across a field and way down the road a bit from a wooded area.
While we were walking and talking, I absentmindedly picked up the helicopters and just walked around with them.
Right before we went inside, I thought "I don't want to toss these back into the yard", but I didn't want to trash them either.
I really didn't think they'd sprout anyway, so I decided to stick them in a flower pot from last season that just had old dirt and junk in it.
I figured I'd give it a day or so and then fake out MiniMe by telling her something started growing out there on its own...and let her try to figure out how the pot got filled with maple helicopters.
I promptly forgot about it.
Yesterday, we went to a greenhouse and I saw some ferny things that I liked. I thought "Oooh! I want to put these in the empty flower pot on my deck table!"
So I picked three things that were sun/shade & moisture level compatible.
I brought them home and went out on the deck to find...
Maple Tree Seedlings!!
Now I feel guilty! I don't want to rip them out and toss them. They wouldn't even probably have rooted and sprouted if I didn't pick them up and shove them in dirt.
So now I have a flower pot full of old dirt and new maple sprouts sitting next to a few greenhouse ferns in starter pots.
Now what?
Anybody want a maple tree?
6 comments:
and neighbors think I'm a nutjob for transplanting "volunteer" trees from next to the house to better locations. Never planted maple seeds haha. There is a 44 year old oak tree that was planted from an acorn by my grandfather. The present owners of my childhood home had planned on cutting it down until they heard my story. Let em grow the season...
Al Gore has nothing on you ;-) No thanks, I have enough helicopters of my own.
Are you sure those aren't Pine ?
Pretty darn sure.
Maple trees grow pretty much like weeds---just about anywhere there is a crack with sufficient moisture and some blown-in dirt, they will start. They even come up through my mom's phlox.
Maples are some of my favorite trees, they provide lots of shade in the summer, and great colors in the fall, but lots of leaves to rake, and sprouts from those helicopters in spring. If you have space away from the house, sewer/septic system and power lines, I say transplant 'em. They're not hard to get started, though.
Thanks for the tip, B!
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