The NY Times had an interesting article about those who collect trees. The author recounts the tales of those who collect trees. Tree collecting is unlike flower collecting. You plant a flower and year after year if lucky it blooms. Like my day lilies. However tree collecting is not cyclical like flowers. It is linear in time, trees just keep growing and from year to year they are different. I am a tree collector, yes on my 15,000 sq ft of New Jersey clay.
I started with ginkgos. I have dozens and hundreds of seedlings. My Ag Agent got a 5' one this year, she has quite a few now. I got seeds from the NY Botanical Garden back in 1990, and now have dozens. Then I got metasequoia, an assumed extinct Chinese tree rediscovered in 1947. They grow 4"+ a year. I have the largest collection on the East Coast. Of course the locals in town are clueless and I am called "the tree man". I kind of like it. Some neighbors are former city types, the cut down all the trees and planted grass. My tree however make up for the callous grass lovers and reduce run-off. I have more than 50 tree species. Such as catalpas, 30' pea plants. I have pinus rigida, from Island beach, trees which grown from Florida to the high mountains in Canada. They have no fear of any climate change.
My taxodium, or swamp cypress enjoy the run off from those with just grass, it helps prevent flooding. Then there are cunninghamia, many pines, magnolias, maples, oaks, chamacypirus, and the list goes on.
I realize that being in New Jersey when I sell the house the new owner will likely cut every tree down and plant grass! It must be some mental defect, on them or me, but I prefer to believe it is not me. To prevent this I have spread ginkgo nuts across the country. Despite the professionals the ginkgo does naturalize, especially with squirrels around.
Tree growers like myself look at the long term. Each year I can see the trees expanding, growing taller, enriching their shape.
I am not a grass lover, have little of it. But I can sit on my deck and enjoy the pallet of green from the variety of trees, then the fall change, winter clarity of branches and Spring budding.
So yes, I am a tree collector. I hope the next owner has at least a bit of the same delight. But it is New Jersey, so I fear they will not.
Posts
