Spectacular Sango Kaku and J. Maple Fall Color and a Vacation

From In the Garden

I cannot help but showcase the fall color of some of my Japanese maples. Japanese maples are my favorite small trees (crepes come in second place) and I think you can see why from the fall color of a few of mine. Pictured above is Sango Kaku. I call this my Christy tree because she was here visiting when I planted it in 2003.




I don't believe I've ever posted on this little Japanese maple, cultivar unknown. It was also planted in 2003 when I came home from Iraq and finally had the time to garden. The red is wonderful. This tree was damaged quite heavily in the freeze of 2007 but has recovered nicely. I'm looking for good things from it as it grows. I have other Japanese maple cultivars that are putting on a good show but they are very small so I'm not ready to share them. Aside from the fact that I simply love Japanese maples, I have more of this kind of tree than any other kind of tree here; hence I call it my signature plant. Someday all of them will be big and it will simply be a sight to see with them all here. I anxiously await that day!

Well, now that the obligatory pretty pictures (sadly the pictures cannot compare to the real thing) are out of the way we come to the real reason of my post. We here at In the Garden will be taking the month of December off from blogging in order to spend quality time with our families and loved ones. In the meantime we thought we'd leave you with some favored posts from the past. These are in no particular order but they are older posts regular readers may have missed or may want to look back over. I have provided a brief description so you don't waste your time looking through them all in case the subject does not interest you. Browse them if desired or not. We all know time is precious. Some of these do not have photos due to them being old. I lost many of pictures when I switched my blog over from the FTP website to blogger. Sigh, such is life. Enjoy.

1. Patience? Who has any of this in the garden?

2. Fertilizer? Get some energizer bunnies.

3. Silent Spring? A tribute to a wonderful pioneering woman who stood her ground and changed America.

4. Things You'll Never Hear a Gardener Say. 'Nuff said.

5. Land Grant Universities. Interesting information about your local extension offices and the universities they are affiliated with.

6. Who's In the Garden? One of my favorite posts of all time. This post generated a lot of comments-conversations amongst the core group of commenters of this garden blog when it first started. It was like sitting on the front porch and I do miss that.

7. Gigantic Snow People. Putting the quirks of a great north eastern state to work and utilizing that cold snow to make lots of fun.

8. The Masters in Georgia. A wonderful look at spring colors and an American tradition.

9. Cedar. A wonderful versatile tree with many uses that brings back memories.

10. Wildlife In the Garden. Sharing our gardens with a multitude of life.

11. Fiddleheads. Love them all and a special tribute.

12. Mom's Vegetable Garden. Where memories are made.

13. Flying Flowers. A lovely look at butterflies.

14. Shenandoah Color. A colorful drive.

15. Citrus in the Deep South. The yummy flavorfulness of healthy citrus.

Fifteen posts are more than enough I think. You all take care.

Do be safe over the holidays and here's wishing you all Happy Holidays from all of us here....

in the garden....