It Takes a Busload of Faith to Plant a Tree




A fully mature fringe tree - Chionanthus virginicus


The tiny bare root sapling fringe tree I just planted at my new home

As Lou Reed so aptly wrote, "It takes a busload of faith to get by." I believe that this also is fitting for those of us who plant trees. We plant trees knowing full well that most, if not all, will outlive us and that we may never see them reach their full potential.
Since moving south of the Mason-Dixon line, I have been planting fringe trees in my landscape. I simply love the tree. There is no real ecological reason behind it. They just make me feel good. I wait all winter for the buds on the scrawny branches to begin to swell and I start making plans for when the flowers might actually burst forth; plans that include which friends I need to invite over to share their beauty with me. I believe we need these kinds of plants in our landscapes. A landscape that does not include joy and anticipation is simply too boring for my taste.
It's true that the fruit of a fringe tree is eaten by birds (and squirrels), but it is not a top choice for any of the birds that have visited my yard over the years. The flowers are fragrant, but they are not a top choice for pollinators either. In addition, because fringe trees are dioecious, you need at least a male and a female for them to produce the elliptical purple fruit.  I find the flowers very difficult to sex, so I often end up planting three and hoping for the best. The thin branches and sparse foliage make it a very poor choice for cover, but the showy white-tassel blooms that cover the crown of a well-grown fringe tree make up for all of these deficiencies in my mind.
I just planted my first fringe tree two days ago. I may add another once I map out the area in the backyard that will someday become my woods, but I may decide that I don't have room. I will make that decision when the time comes. For now, I have this tiny two-year-old sapling that will share this landscaping journey with me, and like so many of my plants it will carry with it meaning that transcends its simple presence in my landscape. It was purchased for me by one of my dearest friends and it came from one of my favorite nurseries. In a way then, all of us are now bound together by this one small tree and I will be reminded of them through the years ahead. 
Many of my favorite plants in my landscapes have those kind of stories. Either I've collected the seed from a favorite place and grown it myself or they've been given to me or purchased from special people. We create stories with our plants and that is what ties us to the land we share with them. Gardening is more than plants. It becomes a community of shared experiences. As our landscapes mature we share them also with other living creatures; the birds, butterflies, bees, etc. and these add the other indispensable layer. The first bumblebee, the first bird nest, the first visit by a hummingbird are all significant milestones and the reason we garden. I await all of these in my new home that right now offers so little. Each plant I add adds to the story we are writing together. I will be documenting this journey in these pages over the years ahead and I appreciate your interest and shared experiences as I do.

Comments

  1. Michael LemmeFebruary 22, 2019 at 2:34 AM

    Wonderfully put.

    I look forward to reading your blog regularly to track your yard’s development, and to hear your thoughts on whatever it is you’d like to discuss. I’ve got a 1/2 acre I’m transitioning to an all-native refuge-just starting season 2 of my first plantings- and am going through many of the same thought processes and planning as you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge along the way.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wildflower Meadows - The Importance of Grasses

Image
A Natural Wildflower "Meadow" - Apalachicola National Forest I grew up in the prairie Midwest and was fortunate to have been caught up in the prairie restoration movement that blazed brightly in the last few decades of this past century. Very little of our original prairie ecosystems remain as the rich prairie soils were quickly converted to agricultural uses as European settlers swarmed their way over the continent.  These ecosystems are extremely diverse, regardless of where they occur. From the tall-grass prairies of the Midwest to the rockland prairies of the Mid-South and the true dry prairie systems here in Florida where I now reside, there are several universal characteristics - they are some of the most species diverse systems in the world and they are dominated by grasses. Grasses, in all their many shapes and forms, are what form the foundation of any "meadow." That must also be true for all the "wildflower meadows" I see extolled on s
Read more

The Ethics of Collecting Seed

Image
I've been writing lately about seeds and using them to create what is often called a pollinator meadow. A great many of the plants in my new landscape were grown from seed. Frankly, I have always loved sowing seeds and watching them sprout. I started in early childhood and I've been doing it since. It's rewarding and the anticipation of waiting for seeds to sprout is difficult to match unless you play the lottery. I rarely purchase seeds. I collect them. When I can, I purchase a few plants of a species I wish to add to my landscape and I then collect their seed after they bloom. If a plant doesn't prosper sufficiently to set seed for me, it is not a plant I wish to continue to grow. Over the years, I've tried a great many plants that I've failed to adequately provide for. Today in my landscape, I'm trying a few that I've never tried before. The exceptions come from plants that are not available in the trade. To grow these from seed, I need to collect
Read more

A Pollinator Garden is More than Wildflowers

Image
A natural grass-dominated meadow in the shade Splitbeard bluestem - Andropogon ternarius Lopsided Indiangrass - Sorghastrum secundum Sites on social media that are promoting pollinator gardens are rife with posts about wildflowers. Folks seeking to make their landscapes pollinator friendly seem to be almost-universally focused on wildflowers. What these well-meaning people seem to not understand is the importance of native grasses. Meadows, prairies, and other wildflower-dominated systems are mostly grass. Grasses form the backbone of every one of these plant communities. It isn't the wildflowers. They simply provide most of the color - but a living landscape is not about color, it's about creating habitat, and this habitat requires us to incorporate native grasses. It is true that the vast majority of grasses, and their graminoid relatives, are wind pollinated. They do not provide nectar and pollen for the most part, but despite that they are significant. More s
Read more