One. Two. TREE! Spring is coming to Wake Forest.
Written by Jennifer Kima -
Trees are an interesting thing. They’re beautiful, lasting, and local. When I say local, I mean everyone has local trees that they take for granted. Take the Crepe Myrtle (some say Crape) for example. I had never seen one of these until my first trip to the Raleigh area. They fascinated me with their spindly branches shooting up in every direction bursting into a spray of white, purple or pink at the top. Our tour guide at the time didn’t think much of them because he had always lived in North Carolina. He grew up with crepe myrtles at his Wake Forest Home. After living in Wake Forest for 7 years, I still have yet to take these beautiful trees for granted and feel lucky to have one in our front yard.
Sitting right underneath our Crepe Myrtle, however is a transplant. In a little pot…waiting to be planted in our yard. Much like the people that relocate to Wake Forest this tree has relocated. A part of a tree from another area of the country where I grew up. My parents brought a “cutting” down from our family home in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. A tree that I stood under for my band front picture in high school. It was the tree in the background when my Dad took the picture of me in my first car as well as me in my wedding dress…..a beautiful Japanese Red Maple. Now its’ offspring (let’s call him Baby Red) sits beneath our Crepe Myrtle just waiting for his permanent home in the ground here in Wake Forest. My biggest concern is where to put Baby Red so that he will flourish for our own family to enjoy.
Even though Baby Red resides in a different zip code than his mother, I think he’s happy here. How could he not be? I can tell because he’s already sprouted little buds in anticipation of spring. Something that doesn’t happen in his momma’s area of the country for another couple of weeks or even months. Spring is my favorite time to live in Wake Forest. The weather that most of the rest of the country is praying for…comes here first!
Now just waiting for the Red Robins and Cardinals (North Carolina’s state bird) to show up…..
Very nice article!
hey, jen. great little story
Great post Jenn! You are so right, I never think of the trees that way….but very cool. Keep us posted on Baby Red
[...] Baby Red got a bunch of little neighbors yesterday, courtesy of the 5th Annual Wake Forest Tree Seedling Giveaway Saturday morning in downtown Wake Forest. Despite the early morning chill, dozens of residents had already selected their four tree seedlings by the time we arrived around 8:30. The line of fifty or so Wake Forest residents we joined stretched around the corner as excited families waited patiently to choose seedlings to plant in their own yards. Their wait wasn’t long—with the help of Wake Forest Presbyterian Church Boy Scout Pack 5 Webelos and St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church Boy Scout Pack 511 Webelos, as well as some master gardeners and arborists, the line moved quickly. [...]