The Mighty Red Maple

It was a completely unconscious decision, leaving the library with a novel by Alice HoffmanTuesday afternoon. Well, the author was deliberate because, as everyone knows, one must read Alice Hoffman at Halloween.There’s Practical Magic, Black- bird House,Turtle Moon,The Story Sisters and on and on. Just choose your poi- son, as they say, relax and let Hoffman take over your imagination.

Well, enough of that. The coincidental element of the book choice is that its title is The Red Garden. Just to let you know how hard I work on these columns, I’ll tell you that this is the second writing and last night I wrote about red maples and red fall leaves in general. That I would walk into the library and select this particular title, without even remembering last night’s topic, is pretty funny, don’t you think?

Anyway, one of the subjects from last night was the fact that hairless cats aren’t the only living things with faulty genes. Red maples, as much as we would like them to be red in the fall, will most likely have yellow leaves come October. We homeowners would be much better off selecting a sugar maple, Japanese maple, Kousa dogwood, serviceberry or even a black gum for spectacular red fall color.

Now, when it comes to planting that carefully selected tree, one would think there’s nothing to it, when, in fact, there are a couple of important things to remember. When you make your selection at the garden center, be sure it won’t outgrow the space you have for it as a mature tree. Too close to the house and roots will interfere with the foundation, or worse, the plumbing.Too close to other trees or shrubs and it will lose its impor- tance as a specimen plant. Read carefully the information about the size of the tree when mature and take heed.

I hope it would go without saying that the saplings offered at the nurs- eries and garden centers in your area are appropriate to grow and thrive in your area. Retailers would certainly be remiss to try to sell you something that’s just going to give up the ghost at the first sign of frost.

Dig a hole two to three times the width of the root ball and about the same depth. Do not disturb the dirt at the bottom of the hole. Rough up the sides of the hole with a pickax or similar tool so the roots will grow easily into the soil. Place the sapling in the hole and cover the root ball with the soil you dug out of the hole, com- pressing the soil as you go to get rid of air pockets. Roots don’t like air pockets, but that’s a topic for another time. Use the rest of the soil to create a berm around the newly planted sapling and water thoroughly. Mulch your new tree between the berm and the trunk without piling mulch up around the trunk.Water every two to three weeks during the fall and winter seasons if there is not enough falling weather.

Back to the leaves…and a personal note. A cousin reminisced with me over the weekend about a poem she was made to memorize when she was a child: October’s Party by George Cooper. BRE, a copy of the poem is in the mail!