Nature Hills Gardening Community

Hi,

 Well, we tried the poplars and failed miserably.  Not sure if we failed or the poplars did.  mothers place has clay/shale pretty much for the soil, which i thought they would thrive in, but only 2 of 20 look to have survied.  Does Nature Hills guarantee anything?  they looked a bit sickly when they arrived...just twigs...and the ones that looked as though they were budding out were the only two to survive.  we had quite a bit of heat the week we planted...i just dont know, but i really had hoped for some nice 6-8 foot trees come spring next year.  Oh well, maybe they will come back?  Again, there were 20 of them to start, 18 poplars and 2 maples.  Oh, i should mention, one of the maples survived beautifully.  not much growth, but we did see some of the nice signature maple leaves.  cant wait for that one to grow up.

 So, lets see.  out of 20 trees, looks like 3 survived.  each tree has a doughnut ring of wood chips around it and a small trench around that so the water is sure not to drain down the hill.

 what did we do wrong?  how can we fix it?  I live in North Dakota, so when is the best time to plant replacement poplars if i get some?  Help please

Hi Bismark Jack,

Nature Hills does have a no questions asked guarantee, please contact customer service at 888.864.7663. Hybrid Poplars are a very fast growing tree and are sent out looking as you described them. It is unusual to lose so many but the heat you described may be the culprit. To be very honest if the trees did not leaf out this year they will probably not be coming back. A good test is to scratch the bark of the tree to see if there is any life under the bark. Did you soak the trees in a bucket of water before you planted them? Also, can you estimate for me the amount of water given to the trees each week? I look forward to your response and hopefully we can get you a great stand of poplars this coming Spring.

thanks for the info.  she will be impressed if they send her new trees.  we were all a bit broken hearted. 

She kept them moist, but didnt submerge the trees in water (was that wrong?).  I believe she watered 2 to 3 gallons a week after they were planted, and then tapered off to about half that.  we did receive rain, but i couldnt tell you how much.  it was hot during the day and in the evening we seemed to have a rash of storms that blew through.

I will have her go out and do the scratch test today to see if we are being fooled and to get a solid death toll.

here is another question.  since there is clay, how big and deep should we make the hole?  and should we replace that clay in the hole with a mixture of store bought soil and fertilizers?  or just put the clay back in there?

thanks again.