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17-11-2003, 09:32 AM

(paghat) wrote:

But one of the first things we installed when we moved to this house was a
fairly large Black Swan beach. It cost a hell of a lot. But when we were
tree-shopping I couldn't get it out of my mind & eventually I tricked
myself into believing that if I spent a thousand dollars on four trees,
the AVERAGE price was only $250 each, eighteen feet tall. A couple years later I was sorting through the
wicker-box of saved garden tags, & found the Black Swan tag-- I'd
forgotten what a major splurge it had been that day & most of the cost was
for just one tree. But as Pam points out below, sometimes a really
remarkable focal point for a garden is simply WORTH a great deal more than
a wall of mixed shrubs no one of which dominates the field of vision. That
Black Swan is just eye-popping gorgeous in its swan-like elegance, it
nearly reaches the top of our two story house, it changes colors
seasonally from green & bronze in spring, to summer purple-black, autumn
red & green & brown, then reveals its twisty limbs for winter, & it gets
hairy beechnuts to boot -- it's been endlessly interesting to observe in
all seasons. So I've always felt it was one of the SMARTEST "splurges" I
ever made as few things I've blown money on in my life have repaid me this
persistently for years on end. Visitors always remark upon it, & more
than one visitor has afterward gone on quests to find one for their own
yards. I love my hornbeam too, but no one ever says, good lord, that's the
most beautiful hornbeam I've ever seen. The Black Swan is like an
affectionate friend.

I have bought a few of what I would call specimen plants, but they
were not as expensive as the evergreens and japanese maples that I am
always looking at. And I am guessing far less expensive than your
beech.

One was a weeping yaupon holly, which I absolutely adore. And they
tend to get rather large and are not heavily planted in this area yet,
unlike the standard and dwarf yaupon hollies which everyone has ten
of. Another was an Acer palmatum 'Seiryu', one of my favorite
Japanese Maples. I paid $200.00 for the tree which had a height of
about eight feet and spread of about six feet. They are slow growing
and never reach any great size, so this was a good size to start with.
It will grow some for me but it already makes a bold statement.

We all have priorities & for me the garden rates pretty high; I'd like a
newer computer with a vast memory but I bought plants instead; my CD
player no longer works on shuffle, but it works, so I'd rather have
another plant than a new CD player. Not that even plants don't present
major limitations as to what I'm willing to spend. I'd love to have some
of the really rare very strangely flowering hepaticas I've seen -- tiny
perennials for several hundred dollars each -- but I just can't, I haven't
prioritized perennials as something I'm willing to spend even the grocery
money on, & I do settle for "regular" hepaticas which are unusual enough
to score pretty high in their own right. But back when we were busily
installing trees, we knew we only had room for a few things that were
really large & eventually we would never again be able to add another
tree, so a few that were pricy honestly do average out over time.

I am always talking myself out of buying a new printer or something
like that in order to instead buy plants. Although after I have
planted all that I want in my front yard, or at least close to it, I
will probably drastically slow down on my plant buying.