Saturday, April 12, 2014

Arboreal Heirlooms

Every spring, I keep an eye out for the first new green on my potted ginkgo that lives by the front door.

Today, I saw this year's new growth.


This little fellow (and I do literally mean fellow) was one of my Dad's collection of what were termed his bonsai trees, even though they were not bonsai in the technical sense. They were miniature, potted versions of their larger brethren, but not pruned, shaped, or sculpted in the usual sense.

In 2005, for my birthday, instead of the usual cartoony birthday card, my dad sent me a card with a photo of the ginkgo tree and a somewhat melancholy note.



After he passed away in January 2006, I brought the ginkgo up to Seattle. I repotted it into a larger pot, where it resides now. One summer, I failed to water it well enough during a hot spell, and most of its leaves turned brown and dropped off. But it pulled through.

I tend to it better now.

Another shrub that I associate with my dad is wild azalea. Some 20 years ago, he gave me a small bush that we planted in the corner of the back yard of my previous house.

When I moved in 2009, I had to leave it behind. But I still have some photographs that I took of its pretty flowers. It also had a pleasant scent, that you had to get pretty close to smell.

I wonder it it is still there. Since I sold that house, it went into foreclosure and, according to Zillow, was sold again last August.



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