I am a winner ….but I feel sad!

We have a plant nursery in Fairview, about 15 minutes from my home, that is under new management. Eric and I went to visit it last weekend during their grand opening. They were offering different prize drawings in celebration, and we entered. Monday I got a phone call that I had won my choice of apple trees! Where oh where was I going to plant an apple tree in my yard! We have 5 mature maples already, and our white pine….

Later that same day Eric called and asked me if I had seen his back yard . I babysit Dylan at his home right across the street from Eric. I said no, why? Well the big winds we had on Sunday night had caused a huge limb in Eric’s Tree of Heaven to fall, hitting his porch awning and the fence! Gerald and I went over to survey the damage and Eric called his insurance agent and got the name of a tree removal company. The removal company quoted Eric a very good price and it got Gerald and I thinking that we had put off doing something about our pine too long, and we called them also. They quoted us an excellent price to come and remove half of our pine tree. You see, about 20 years ago Gerald’s daughter had brought the pine tree home from school on Arbor Day. It used to be that on Arbor Day the schools always sent the children home white pines. A silly tree to plant in most yards in town as they just get huge! Well, our tree had been planted waaaaay too close to the house and it’s roots have started to damage our basement wall and its limbs have caused us to do roof repair before. We had just been putting it off and putting it off as it is so expensive to do tree removal work, plus the sentimental value. I had become so close to this tree and have wrote about her many times in previous posts. But here we had a free tree that would suit the spot size wise, a reasonably priced tree remover, and so the time seemed right.

Our pine before. The tree guy said it could have easily grown another 50 feet before full growth!

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We decided to just take it half way down so it could still shade the house, while the apple tree grew a bit. In a year or two we will take it the rest of the way down, if it lives from this butchery :( 

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I gathered the green pinecones to tincture and the dried last year ones to make fire starters

 I chose a Golden Delicious apple tree as my prize, as with research, it seems to be the best one for self pollinating, and its apples are wonderful just to eat, and they hold up well for canning and cooking:)  So you understand the title of this blog post now. I might have won… but, I am sad that it is the beginning of the end for my special white pine :(

Honey and Herbal hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx

Pinus Strobus – White Pine Pictures

 

The history of pine trees just leaves me awe struck. This tree is a member of the Pinaceae, or Pine Family.  Pinaceae fossil record are found from the Cretaceous period, 144 millions to 65 millions years ago. This time is known as the last portion of the age of dinosaurs. The first fossils of many modern mammals, birds,  insects and the first flowering plants, are also found from that time.

I love the way herbalist Robyn Klein describes the two part Latin names of plants. She suggests, they are like our first and last name, so Pinus strobus,  Pinus, (the genus name), being like our last names, and strobus, (the species name), like our first. The genus Pinus has about 250  species, of mostly evergreen trees, so our pine has a relationship to 250 different trees. In other words, there are 250 other trees, ( occasionally shrubs), with the last name Pinus, but different first names:)  I like to address our pine as Miss Pinus strobus, as she is a bit of a wallflower, as you can see in the next picture.

White pines bark tends to be thin, scaly and dark. Our pine, is an tree about 20 years old, and its bark is dark gray, (tinged rather purplish), and furrowed.

The needles persist for between two and thirty years, or more, then they turn brown and fall to the ground in late summer. My husband raked last fall, and still we have a carpet of brown needles. Pines have long needle bundles in clusters or bundles. Pinus strobus has needles in bundles of five, joined at the base with a thin membrane, they are 4 inches long, and slender. These needles form a cluster which is triangular, and angles toward the tips of the branches.

All pines have whorled branches. Looking up, you can see the single layer of branches around the trunk, all on the same level from each year.

It is beautiful to see this same whorl type pattern, in the way the twigs and then the needles, come off the branches

I am quite drawn to this spiraling, whorling pattern, not unlike the pattern of the circle of life.

Kingdom                     Plantae                     Plants

Subkingdom               Tracheobionta        vascular plants

Superdivision             Spermatophyta       seed plants

Division                       Coniferophyta         conifers

Class                            Pinopsida                

Order                           Pinales

Family                          Pinaceae                  Pine family

Genus                           Pinus L.                   pine

Species                         Pinus strobus L.     Eastern white

                                                                                                   pine

resources:

The Sibley Guide to Trees by David Allen Sibley

Botany in a Day  by Thomas Elpel

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service website

                   

White Pine-Herbal Ally Challenge and Tree Year Project started

Since accepting Kristine’s Herbal Ally Challenge, and joining in the Tree Year Project , I have pulled out some of my books and been delighted at all the information I have discovered about Pine. Was a very full weekend, so I just took the time to bookmark  pages, so I could start documenting my findings in my journal and with you all. I have my first pine needle infusion on the counter also, in order to begin my week of journaling about it, per the Herbal Ally Challenge #2. Will let you know at the end of a week my thoughts and more about my research per Challenge #3 suggestions, which are two fold.  I still need to get my journal cover done also! I better get a move on as I got a late start and I believe Kristine is on Challenge #4 already! lol

And our little white tailed squirrel, that was about as big as a tin can in the fall, is till with us and looks very healthy:)

And Rose Marie is enjoying Lily’s snowflakes

While Dylan enjoyed having his sister, Taylor, home from school during the snow days this week!

Herbal and Honey hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx