Embarrassment

          My husband has a masters degree in botany - specifically Taxonomy.  And I have a few classes, and a love of plants and gardening.  So, when he said to me this morning, "Those aren't spruce trees you got off the nurse log, those are western hemlocks", I tended to believe him.  But, oh, I didn't want to.  I don't like to be wrong is one thing, but it's also that hemlocks are prime deer food, and I will have to find those I've planted and make correct identifications and cage them.  Darn!
         Why did I make the mistake?  I think I was going on color - spruces are a dark, sad green.  And these little trees were.  The prickliness of the needles that I said was so characteristic of spruces is, but the very tiny babies' leaves might not be so sharp.  The larger (potted up last year) trees I had certainly looked like spruces.  Back to the drawing board, specifically back to the nurse logs.  There are two nurse logs involved, about ten feet apart, and maybe just maybe, they have two separate species of tree on each?  Or some spruce and some hemlock on both?
         Oh, I am so embarrassed . . . .