I fell in love this spring and I can’t stop thinking about it. I went to our local May Market to buy some plants and was having a lovely time browsing the stands when a garden-designing friend pulled me aside to ask me about a tree.
“What is that tree?” she asked, pointing to a 30-foot specimen planted in the garden at the end of the row of tents I was walking through. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s just so beautiful,” she said.
I looked up, expecting to see something familiar. “Is that a white wisteria wound up in the tree?” I asked her. “Maybe” she said.
We walked up to it but didn’t see any wisteria vine at its base, though that’s exactly what it looked like. Hummmm…no identification sign there, even though we were at a botanic garden.
I left dumbfounded and awestruck. I hadn’t seen this tree before but clearly it was there the hundreds of times I have visited the botanic garden. Why did I never notice it before? Was it not in bloom at last year’s May Market? I guess I needed Carol to make me look up and take notice.
So, I went home and looked through my tree books. There it is. Yellowwood. How beautiful!! How did I not know this tree? Ahhhh, but I did!
Years and years ago a woman who once worked for me gave me a tour of her garden. I recorded the visit for a radio segment and in it she goes on and on about her favorite tree … the yellowwood. It wasn’t blooming then and I thought she was a little weird to be so crazy for a tree. She had just acquired one and was uber pleased with herself.
I didn’t get it then, but I get it now. I need to go back to her house and see that tree. I bet it’s gorgeous and I bet she’s happy as a clam when it flowers every May.
Funny how you can spend your life looking at gardens, both public and private, but never notice something so beautiful until someone else spots it first. Now I have to have this tree. I have to tell people about it. I have to be a little weird to be so crazy for a tree.
