You are looking at a huge "Bo" tree at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. The sign beside the tree says, " The "Bo" tree is beloved by Hindus and Buddhists who believe the Buddha meditated under one for years until he attained enlightenment."
The bottom photo shows the view of Sarasota Bay from the gardens.
Photo by Michael Kersch
On September 14, 2001, Tropical Storm Gabrielle struck the west coast of Florida and thousands of trees were destroyed. This "Bo" tree was completely uprooted.
But local people were galvanized into saving the tree. Arborists quickly pruned the tree's canopy by 30 per cent to reduce weight and moisture loss through transpiration. A barge, equipped with a 50 foot crane, was brought in at high tide. Cables were looped around five of the tree's large branches and the crane gently tugged for 90 minutes until the tree was upright. Soil was packed around the root system to support it. With much love and care (and water!)
the tree survived and showed signs of new growth within six weeks.
I have sat beneath this tree many times, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend, and often with a grandchild. We look across Sarasota Bay and get a quiet feeling of beauty and peace. I remember taking a very young grandson in a stroller on a slightly windy day. We stopped to have some water and the soft breeze off the bay reached out and caressed his cheek. The look on his face was pure delight and enjoyment. It was a lovely moment for me.
Each of you reading this could have this meditational moment that I experience when I let my mind wander to "trees I have known". I grew up in West Virginia. I visited on a farm each summer, over the mountain from Bluefield to Rocky Gap. On the farm was a very old apple tree. The apples were small and gnarly and not really very good for eating out of hand. One had to climb atop a small, falling-in out-building to get them off the roof, but they made delightful ammunition!
In a neighbor's yard was a large weeping willow. It's greenish-yellow, leafy limbs swept the ground like a young girl drying her hair by throwing it over her head and leaning forward. We could hide from others and really escape our parents under that tree.
My house was on a hill and we had a terraced back yard. On one level of the terrace, there were two trees at either end. They were perfect for hanging sheets and making a stage. After we perfected our "shows" and called our parents to come and sit on Adirondack lawn chairs to watch, we became early "American Idol" contestants. Our parents were long suffering but patient.
Our school yard had many large pine trees with roots running across the yard. I can't remember exactly what we played, but the roots delineated our territory and we defended our special place form others by throwing pine cones at them.
And who could play hide-and-seek without a tree to lean against while counting to one hundred?
Years later, our home in upstate New York had a Birch tree in front. It's large, beautiful white trunk extended above the bedroom windows and we could see eggs within a birds' nest there!
Behind the house was a row of cedars. It was in those trees that we once saw a white Ptarmigan, way off course on his migratory path. And in the Hawthorn tree, a great barn owl spent a few days giving us a show before moving on.
We moved to Florida in 1950 and our yard was a veritable tropical garden to us! We had huge pine trees dripping with purple wisteria! We had twenty or more swaying palms that sounded in the night like rain had come. We had a small lime tree that was always loaded, and a grapefruit and orange tree besides. None were suitable for climbing, but I was beyond that stage by then.
What could be more special that fresh-squeezed orange juice right from the tree?
In South Florida, we had a coconut palm, a species no almost wiped out by lethal yellowing disease in South Florida. My boys didn't particularly like the coconut or its juice, but it was great fun to see who could smash the coconut by throwing it hard against the pavement.
Dream up your own memories of trees and share them with me.
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