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sightings

Greetings from the Hawkeye Horticulturist!

I've spent a pleasant dinner with my wife Pat on our backyard deck. She
then left for one of the supermarkets having a big coupon sale (a friend
of hers spent $86 and got nearly $300 worth of groceries). I, however,
wiled the evening away admiring my perennial borders and their wildlife.

Visitors were swallowtail and monarch butterflies, plus a couple of
others I couldn't identify (they weren't as striking as the swallowtails
and monarchs). Also making stops were 5 hummingbirds, which particularly
enjoyed red, pink and purple monarda, blooms of some of the hosta and a
nectar from a hummer feeder. The butterflies flitted about to drink
among the monarda, blackeyed susans, purple coneflowers, 5 varieties of
coreopsis, marigolds, zinnias, a red daylily, lythrum, campanula and
butterfly weed. What a wonderful sight!

Bumblebees buzzed busily among the blooms, too.

The perennial borders are just one year old, containing a couple hundred
plants of all types (including several small shrubs) moved from our
former house property and planted July through early October 1996.
Growth has been amazing considering the soil is heavier (more clay) than
the previous location, and the fact that the big transfer was pretty
hard on all of the plants (as well as the gardener). There wasn't much
time to properly move the plants from one site to another, nor really
plan the borders. I just eyeballed the new site and, after tilling,
began planting. 

I see some mistakes; when temperatures cool a bit I'll make some
changes. Overall, however, I'm satisfied. Elated. Crowing!

QUESTION: What would make a nice small tree (20-40 feet tall) for a spot
in the backyard where I need a little more shade for hosta and astilbe
but don't want to block the sun from two perennial borders containing
plants requiring most to full sun? I already have a Japanese lilac and a
smoke tree (two that survived the Great Move)in the largest border.
Perhaps a pagoda dogwood? Or redbud? I'd like something that will grow
fairly fast. Suggestions will be happily received. 

John G. Adney
Marion, Iowa
jga@fyiowa.infi.net

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