HYDRANGEAS AND AMERICAN CHESTNUTS

P G HYDRANGEAS, FINALLY IN BLOOM 

RIPENING AMERICAN CHESTNUTS

Saturday, 8:15 AM.  66 degrees F, wind blustery but changeable, mostly from the west.  The sky is  filled with low black clouds which are moving fast.  The humidity is 87% and the barometer has started trending up, currently at 29.61".
   Hydrangeas of all kinds are finally blooming beautifully now, the P G Hydrangeas in the back yard being at least two weeks late.
   The American chestnut tree, Castanea dentata,  on the corner of Tenth and Manypenny has a good number of developing chestnuts.  A few have already fallen to the ground, where the husks will split open and the ripe nuts will germinate.  The radicle, the seedling rootlet, will emerge from the nut and grow into the ground.  Like many other nut trees, the native chestnut establishes its seedlings in the fall, and now is the time to pot them up for later transplanting.   Once they are  rooted it is very difficult to successfully transplant chestnut seedlings.