Plantings and poison ivy

Eventually reached the shiny, green leaves in the heart of the briar--and yes, they are poison ivy. I took a branch to Forge River Nursery to have it checked out. Yes, we are definitely sure, it's poison ivy. So, probably, are many of the dead vines I've been hauling out. If you don't hear from me again, the Poison Ivy has taken me.

So I treated it to a nice shower with RoundUp. Should toast it a gentle shade of brown within a couple of weeks. Then I have to cut it all down and wait for it to show up again, then repeat the treatment ad infinitum.

I did some planting today:

- three chrysanthemums, Chrysanthemum morifolium, in pots: two pink and one bi-colour, red in the center, yellow petals
- two more junipers, one Juniperus squamata "Blue Star", one low-lying greener dwarf whose pot was labelled Large Leaf Hydrangea, but I beg to disagree (Home Depot stock)
-two willows from Forge River nursery; a French Pussy Willow Salix discolor, which has been planted in the new ground to the left of the front door looking from the street and a Dappled Willow, Salix integra "Hakuro-nishiki', which is still in its pot but which will have a home in the very wet corner near the street.

I will probably need to keep both willows well pruned--coppiced, almost--so that they stay shrub-like rather than tree-like. the French Pussy Willow (someone had a sense of humour) will grow up to eighteen feet high if left to its own devices, and the Dappled Willow up to twenty feet with a spread of fifteen to twenty. Both should flourish in the damp to wet conditions of this low border. I hope the conifers will be OK. I may have to lift them and put them into raised beds, but for now we just have to see.

Everywhere that the brush was cut down a few weeks ago, the wild hibiscus is popping up.