Not A Banner Year

 Every spring, I almost breathlessly anticipate the leafing out of our lovely tri-color beech outside the stairwell window.  It's been so stunning in the past.  We once had two, lost one (they don't like wet "feet" and we had an unusually wet spring) so we have one beech left.  I have long been enamored of the shape of these particular trees, they're almost lacy and delicate looking. 

After one of our consultations with the tree guys (we have far to much money and time invested in our 17 trees to leave their care to chance) - who regularly give our trees their nutrition and defense against all manner of pests - we knew to supplement the beech with iron.  Which we've faithfully done, for years.  

The resulting color in the lovely leaves has proved it to be the right path.  Hence my excited anticipation to see those leafy colors every spring. 

This year?  Sigh... there's very little variation in the leaves (which really are three different colors) and they're not pink at all but more like the coppery dry shade we see along toward the middle / late summer when everything is drydrydry.  Every time I walk past the window my heart does a little sag. 

And I keep wondering, often out loud, what we could have done better / more to see the real beauty of the tree.  With that thought in mind, I've been looking for other tri-color beeches on my out-and-about-errands-driving-around-town.  It's a small consolation to find the other beeches I see aren't faring any better.  There seem to be no really pretty pink tri-color beeches this year. They all appear to be struggling - I blame it on our ongoing drought conditions.  It's difficult to find hope that our tree will be pretty again next year.  But I'll persevere and hope the tree does, also.