Pet Trees

While we have planted thousands of trees--hundreds of which lived!--there are still some special ones. This, for example, is one of the very first we planted: a white pine. I ran over it with the lawn mover regularly; its growth is, as a result, somewhat retarded. At some point between running it over and today's rather brutal pruning, we lost track of its growth, which was wayward. I think we'll get it back on track eventually. The main bole split into three co-dominant stems, so it's been putting much of its effort into branches low on the tree. These grow upward to challenge the leader for height. Next fall I'll take out one of the three.

This is a balsam fir that shed almost all its needles one hot summer. Instead of cutting it out, we left it--we really did nothing more. Gradually, it put out new growth and the skeletal tracery of dead branches was replaced by an increasing minority of green, which has now become an overwhelming majority.

We had the misfortune to plant a cedar directly over the access hatch to the septic tank. It was well established by the time we had to have the tank pumped, and we ending up moving quite a large tree. We had to cut away most of the root system. It looked dead for two or three years, and then sprang back to life. It is obviously less lush than the line of cedar to its right, but that is because I did not subject it to the indignities of pruning and pollarding!

And this is just a flowering shrub--catching the light of this mild and beautiful November day.