I was out on the nursery yard this morning taking some photos and caught sight of these beauties! Thick, lush, green, and look at all those bloom stems!
These Texas Mountain Laurels were field grown, harvested, add put into 28″ boxes last December. Our goal is to add 1 to 2 feet on each tree before Spring of 2019. I didn’t have a measuring stick with me to check the progress, but, none-the-less, they look amazing!
I know that I have said this before but Texas mountain laurels have a very sparse root system. They don’t grow many fibrous roots. Native to the Texas Hill Country, I picture their few roots grabbing hold and creeping through the cracks of those limestone hills. This sparse root system makes mountain laurels a difficult plant to transplant. They can’t be too wet. They can’t have grown in too sandy a soil. They can’t be rolled. The stars have to be in alignment.
Putting this tree into a wood box is a game-changer. The root system responds to the wood by growing fibrous roots. I wish I could say that these trees are avalable for sale but they are already spoken for. We definitely plan to finish out more in this manner.
This nursery has been growing Texas mountain laurels for 30 years now. Doing this little “test” reminds me that we should always question, always try new things, and never quit growing!
