Move that plant

Mahonia is a great plant for Hummingbirds 

because it blooms in the winter, bright yellow flowers.

They love that.

It's a fairly fast grower and did pretty well in the pot next to the Hummingbird feeder on the deck.

Those were the pros.

The cons: prickly leaves which die, drop off 

and get caught in the interior of the plant.  There are always dead ones, year round.

They're always prickly, even when dead and brown, so cleaning them out is problematic.  

Also, if the flowers get snowed upon, they die.

The neighbor across from us is redoing her yard, which is wonderful for us 

as we look at it from the kitchen windows and for years it's been layer upon layer of juniper hedge.

  (And not in a good way.)

Now there is grass, a two-tiered rockery for flowering shrubs and bulbs and they've limbed up the apple tree and big maple that overwhelmed the front of the front yard.   We've been offering her plants that we thought would work in our yard but didn't, for one reason or another.  

The Mahonia is one such.  

She has a perfect place for it in the ground, rather than a pot.  

She was home yesterday and so we did the hand-off.

 It was easier than anticipated because we trimmed up the lower branches 

and didn't get nailed by the leaves.  We carried it across the street in a bag.

This little tree came in it's own stump.  

It wasn't getting enough water in it's current situation  

and we found out why, once it came out of the stump: it was all roots and no dirt, poor thing!

We decided to put it in that now-empty deck pot.

That's a long root system!  The roots are longer than the tree is tall.

It's not very big, but maybe it qualifies as 'big bonzi'.

Where are all the roots going to go?

They fit.  Sort of.  We didn't want to cut them off.

 Add new dirt. $10. a bag at Costco.  We need more.

Clean up and waala!  It's cute and a better fit for that spot on the deck.

The Hummers can go across the street for their winter flower fix.