My dogwood is the lead character of the Tree Grower's Diary. See, it's cold outside and since I don't want to go outside to
take pictures, I can simply open the upstairs window and get tree close ups without having to get my shoes wet. Aw, what a
good tree! She's interesting, has good stories of both
misery and
triumph, is colorful year-round and what's more: I can reach her lowest branches, plus, because of that upstairs window, see way
up inside her crown.
But does she deserve so much more attention than the other trees? Well, she does have a distinctive place in New Jersey history,
sort of, I mean not so much THIS tree, but dogwood trees in general. Dogwood --
cornus Florida -- is the official "New
Jersey State Memorial Tree." The 1951 resolution declaring this refers to the tree having been planted along New Jersey's
Memorial Highway known as the "Blue Star Drive" in honor of people who serve in the Armed Forces.
Boy do I feel dumb. I've lived in New Jersey for 18 years and I don't believe I'd ever heard of any "Blue Star Drive" until
I went researching dogwood trees. But somebody better do something because anthracnose is threatening to kill off all the
plain old dogwoods. What's a state to do when no official memorial trees are left?
But the true hero of New Jersey tree lore has to be the red oak --
Quercus borealis maxima (March) Ashe. The wording
from the general assembly's resoution is downright bold: "...it is
declared that the red oak is a representative tree of New Jersey with
beauty of structure, strength, dignity and long life, that it is most
useful commercially and enjoys great freedom from disease, that it is
adapted to our New Jersey soils and is compatible with all native shrubs
and evergreens, permitting lawn and grass areas to be successfully grown
under its canopy, and that the fall color of its foliage places it
foremost in our natural landscape scene..."
Question is: why no red oak in the Tree Grower's Diarist's yard? I just love that
borealis maxima stuff!
I need a bigger, uh,
maximus yard.
Comment. Photograph of the week.
In the theme of checking in on the babies, I thought I'd look in on the
baby ginkgoes. Everyone seems happy; all three look similar except for the number of leaves serving as mulch. Hmm, now that I think about
this, I've been really busy since fall. I was going to set these pots in the ground, wasn't I? I never did. Bad tree mommy.
Comment. Photograph of the week.
This has been a strange winter. Up through January, the weather was unusually warm. And I don't mean warm as in not-so-cold,
but I really mean WARM. The trees were budding. Some of the purple leaf plums in the area had flowers (not mine). Just a few
weeks ago people were whining about wanting a real winter complete with frozen lakes and snowmen. Me? Never. The only time
I like snow is when I have no place to go. And I never have no place to go.
I went out a few days ago and took pictures of the trees to see how the buds were doing. They expect cold, so I was thinking
the warmth had to be confusing. Sure enough, my
dawyck purple beech thinks it's spring. Problem is, not long after I took some pictures, winter arrived in full swing. I don't think the temperature
has risen much above freezing in two weeks. Still, I have faith that my beech will survive. I'll take another look later this
week; one radio station is calling for a blizzard. Oh bother.
Comment. Photograph of the week.
