“Life is lived forward, but understood backwards.”
Kierkegaard
It seemed so small when I first brought it home, almost spindly. It fit in my little Honda Civic hatchback, and I think it was only in a 5 gallon pot. I was in love, deeply, dearly, in love. I had researched it’s beautiful foliage ranging from copper, and auburn, to golden yellows. My Parrotia persica,[ Persian Ironwood tree], was to be the cornerstone of my little condo deck garden. In my mind it would be gracefully shading the ferns, and it’s arching branches would spread carefully, but not invasively. It would grow happily until I found the perfect house, and then it would easily move to my new garden.
The harsh reality is this tree has outgrown every pot available to it. It is now squished into a half oak barrel, and hating every moment. It’s time to find a new home for my beloved Parrotia tree, and that’s where things start to get difficult. We need to find three strong men, just to pick up this tree. And it will be a challenge to transfer it to the top of the brick half wall that surrounds the patio, and then carefully load it onto a dolly. All the time, not damaging the branches that have determinedly grown past the floor of the condo above us. That is over 15 feet. I am not sure that three strong men will be enough. Will the brick wall hold? Will they damage the tree? Will I be able to wave goodbye to my baby? A garden should always be a work in progress. We learn from our mistakes challenges, and are always looking forward to the next interesting development. My biggest mistake was thinking that a tree growing to 50 feet tall, and 30 feet wide, would fit into a small pot forever. And when the realization came that it was outgrowing it’s pot, not doing something about it. After all, I’m a gardener, I should have known better!
So now I must search out at least three strong men, sweet talk them into a forming a impromptu moving crew, all the while begging them not to damage the branches. Because my baby needs a new home, and I need to get out there house hunting. Jane.
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