After some consideration and dithering, I've finally made my seedling orders for 2010 from the Missouri Department of Conservation. My focus lately has been toward planting shrubs that will provide food for the wild things, thus I haven't ordered actual trees since the pines (which are doing fabulously -- except for those bucks that have to rub their antler velvet off using them). Generally, the bundles include 25 seedlings. Last year when I ordered wild plum and beautyberry, we had fifty plants to put in the ground. We did it all in one day, one afternoon as I recall, but near the end we were putting two beautyberries in each slit we made in the ground. (This was because they looked like dried up twigs. Okay, we were also tired of planting by then.) My order this year is a bit different. It's all new things, none of which I've ever seen at Roundrock (but all of which are Missouri natives). What's really different, though, is the number of items I ordered. In April of 2010 I'll have delivered to my home in suburbia 100 plants that I'll need to get into the ground as soon as I can after they arrive. (I haven't told Libby about this yet. I figure I can wait until April to let her know.) These are the plants I ordered: Witch Hazel, Elderberry, Black Chokeberry, and Golden Currant. Most of them form thickets or take the form of shrubs. The Witch Hazel can begin blooming as early as January, and the others are scattered through the spring, ending in June, so I hope eventually to have an unbroken spring of blooms in my forest. First I'll have to get them in the ground. Update: The bill came for the seedlings yesterday. It's only $38 and some change, but Libby was reading it closely and realized that there actually are 100 plants we'll need to put in the ground. I told her we'd do it over two days, spending a night at Roundrock. Missouri calendar:

• The Missouri Natural Events Calendar is blank for today.

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