Strike two

Thanks to poor landscape design and Alabama Power, I lost the cedar tree in the front yard.  Today, I cut down my precious little Japanese maple, yet another victim of the drought of 2016.

I purchased this maple as a four inch seedling in 2007 while touring a Japanese maple wholesaler with my Master Gardener group.   Named and marketed Japanese maples are all grafted (and thus expensive).  The nursery was also filled with volunteer seedlings that had cross pollinated from their extensive maple populations.  The nursery workers would pot up the ones that looked interesting and let guests to the nursery purchase these little "mutts" for $4. 

After carefully perusing the hundreds of baby Japanese maples in the nursery, I chose one with deeply cut leaves in a deep shade of burgundy.  I brought my baby home, named him Acer fitzgerald and enjoyed the show he put on every year as he grew to a sturdy six foot specimen. 

Of course, we all knew that even established trees and shrubs were struggling from the horrendous conditions of last summer's drought but my Japanese maple seemed to handle it well.  He leafed out right on schedule this spring.

However, yesterday, I was outside just when a sunbeam burst through the clouds and illuminated Acer fitzgerald.  Much to my horror, I realized that his leaves were not burgundy red, but a sickly shade of orange.  Closer inspection revealed its dry and crumbling leaves.  Apparently, the root system was so damaged by the dry conditions that it could no longer support a canopy of leaves. 

This morning, little Acer fitzgerald came down.  There is yet another painful gap in my landscape.  My small hope is that the seed pods that I found on some of the branches will sprout and we can try again.