Trees, Again

Before I share more about trees in this entry, I must clear up a misunderstanding from yesterday's posting.  I did not draw those wonderful cartoons (wasn't the one of the delivery of the refrigerator great?).  Usually I credit my source but I was in a hurry yesterday and forgot; the two cartoons came from a search on Google's Images for clip art. 

I told you I'd get back to you about the weekend trip to David's Alma Mater, Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York (near Utica).  Since it was an "All Alumni Bicentennial Reunion" there were far more activities than usual for a "mere" reunion.  What I want to share with you today is the tour we took called the "Legacy of Trees" with the Arboretum Director. 

When David and I were dating, we would walk around the campus, and the only trees I really remember are a larch and a ginkgo - both because D pointed them out to me.  Both intrigued me - first because D clearly was fascinated with them: the larch because it is a deciduous evergreen (there's an oxymoron for you!)  and the ginkgo because it is such an ancient tree.  I think the larch he pointed out way back then is gone now, but the ginkgo is still there (remember, we were dating almost 50 years ago).  I don't have a photo of it from those days, but here it is now.



Ginkgo Tree - between 120 - 140 years old



Not the prettiest of trees, I know (although its leaves look very lacy from a distance), but remember, it is an ancient species.  Hamilton College now has 11 different varieties of ginkgo on the campus.

 Here's a Japanese Umbrella Pine (the photos don't do these trees justice - it was rainy and very cold!).  The close up shows its needles that are very soft and silky feeling; it gets its name from the way the needles fan out all around the branch like the spokes of an umbrella.



Japanese Umbrella Pine

This one is one of many, many different oaks on campus.  Its size is amazing even though it is not the largest oak; I couldn't get far enough away to get the furthest extent of its branches.

I hope you can see all the small trees (relatively speaking) that are in some of these photos.  When David was going to school here, there were few trees among the buildings or in the large open spaces.  The arborist has been at Hamilton for about 35 years, and he has made it his mission to plant trees that will thrive in this climate, soil, and conditions.  I've shown you some of his successes.  He showed us some of his failures - trees that are struggling and probably aren't going to make it.  He spoke about the need to plant a great variety because if one plants only one kind of tree (the Lombardy poplars that lined the streets in the 1869's live only about 50 years) and it doesn't thrive . . . well, you understand.  The emerald ash borer-beetle, "Dutch" elm disease, chestnut blight, dogwoods, sugar maples - all of these trees are being or have been seriously compromised so he's planting many varieties of as many as possible to help bring them back (Chinese elms but no ash trees right now, for example).  I won't go on any more, but it was a great, though all too brief, tour.

I'll leave you with one last photo; this one is a Korean dogwood.

Be kind to a tree today!