Thank god 2008 is over! As I am sure you are aware, I haven't posted since this time last year. 2008 was truly the year from hell and I won't be sad to see it turn over to 2009 at midnight tonight. My mother fell ill in the early spring and died on August 3. I am continuing to process her death as I am sure that it has affected me in many ways in which I am not yet aware. It has made me more reclusive than ever, but I have to shake this isolation and communicate with the world again.
Mom's death was of course the major tragedy of the year, but it wasn't the only one. One of my favorite aunts, Mom's closest sister, died two months before she did. Boo (BabyDog) our deaf Aussie of eleven years died a week after Mom. But death wasn't the only dark cloud this year. After two dry seasons in a row, our well began to fail this summer and the unthinkable became a distinct possibility- we were running out of water. It's a long story, but we managed to hobble through the rest of the summer on about 50% of our normal flow and now we have a new well, although it isn't operational yet. The continuing bad news on that front is that we are seriously behind in rainfall thus far this winter (again), and I just read the long range forecast that predicts no significant rain through the middle of January. At this rate, we will have only the months of February and March to make up about 80% of average yearly rainfall (which wouldn't even bring the water table back up to normal). After the end of March, we don't get a lot of rain until the next November (weird as that sounds to Easterners). Last rain season, it stopped raining about mid February (2008) and we got no more significant rain until October. It was the driest spring on record.
We have stopped all overhead watering except for the smallest plants that cannot be watered any other way and have adopted drip spray for the rest. I have always wanted to do this, but at a somewhat more leisurely pace rather than immediately out of necessity. At this point, we hope and pray that the water table will come up at least a few feet before spring so that we have enough water for frost protection, but it's not sure thing.
As I have said for the last two years, our age and decaying bodies is now dictating how we do business, not to mention how we live. It's still a one man operation, so some things will just have to go. We have already eliminated a few things in the catalog that are slow movers, and this process will continue. Our emphasis is beginning to change from supplying starter plants almost exclusively to concentrating more on specimen plants. The new 2009 Catalog doesn't yet reflect this, but the process has started. More and more larger plants are being repotted, pruned, and shaped for sale as individual specimen plants and eventually should find their way into the specimen section of the catalog. This is very exciting for me since it was my original goal of the nursery, now over 25 years ago. Be patient a little longer. Let this also be a heads up that a lot of the rare material that has been listed for years in the catalog as liners is going to start to disappear as we make the shift. I will continue to graft and make cuttings of my favorite plants for as long as I can, but the numbers will diminish and at some point I will have to stop.
You will see more one gallon plants in the new catalog. A few of these are immediately available, but most will be ready this summer and fall. These include more Japanese maples, Trident maples, various junipers, beech, cherry, and Zelkova. These, for the most part, are still starter plants, but you are buying the first five years of growth and at least three root prunings. Many of these will have far superior root systems to ordinary nursery stock. The tops have been pruned down in most cases to about 16 inches to encourage lower branching and taper development. $30 may sound like a lot for a one gallon plant, but what would it be worth to you if you had to do all this work yourself (as well as keep it alive that long)? They aren't in the catalog yet, but we should also have some Supersized starter cutting grown Japanese maple cultivars. These were repotted into 2 gallon cans last year and will have to be chopped back one more time to encourage branching before release this summer. Most should have calipers around 3/4 inch and will be about 16 inches tall. Some of these will also be specimen grade and priced individually. These include: Ao Kanzashi, Kiyo Hime, Yuri Hime, Sazanami, Shishio Improved, and Sango Kaku.
