Turkish Delight

Sandra gave us a lovely tree. And all week I've been telling everyone that it is a Turkish Delight because I couldn't remember what it really was. It is a Corylus colurna. A Turkish Filbert. Ok. I got it now. It is a cool little tree. It has this rough bark that is similar to that of bur oak but it flakes off and there is this really stunning cinnamon colored bark underneath. No, you may not go out and start stripping the bark. It is a tree not a Christmas present. Well, maybe a Christmas present for the Gardens but not one you unwrap.

These are the tools that Sandra and I used to transplant the tree. Notice the breaker bar and the pickaxe. The ground was a little compacted and full of clay. We amended the soil with some clay soil amendment and compost so that our new tree has a fighting chance. It would have been a little unfair to just plunk it in the ground after it has spent all its life in a nursery. Not like the trees from the city. Those are definitely, to borrow a term from the computer world, drag and drop.