Our Faithful Cherry Trees

Our spring season probably hasn’t been much different from the rest of the northeast’s season. It came early after a not-so-snowy winter. Both the lack of snow storms and the early arrival of warm, sunny days mixed with enough rain was a blessing after some of the long winters of shoveling the car out, scraping it off, and worrying about the drive up and down the mountain. Not that our mountain road and driveway aren’t plowed – they are. Except on a rare occasion or two after an unusually heavy snowfall, we’ve had no problems, but it is nice to see spring arrive and its early arrival this year was a gift.

The daffodils and forsythia all bloomed, but our most prized flowers are our cherry blossoms. They have, at times in the past, barely begun to blossom when another snow storm would hit. This year they were out in all their glory, complete with full blossoms and hosting the happy bumble bees. The bees stay overhead, not bothering us as we sit beneath one of the trees which grows up in the middle of our deck.

Our four Yoshino Flowering Cherry trees, the same type found blooming on the mall in Washington DC, were originally planted by Mark in half-kegs on our balcony in Arlington, VA in 1990. They were covered with blossoms each spring and they provided some shade on the balcony, and a good sun block inside from the southern-facing living room windows. At Christmas time we covered them with little white lights, which not only we loved, but our neighbors whose apartments were perpendicular to ours, also thoroughly enjoyed them.

About 5 years later all tenants were told our balconies would be blocked off permanently for several months for extensive work. With horror we watched the workmen pick up our trees and bring them inside to our dining area, placing them right on top of the carpet. The balcony door was locked from the outside – we had no choice but to accept this. Mark rigged up some plastic to make an inside greenhouse for them; and we DID have to water them, so who knew what the carpet would be like. They were in all winter. They bloomed inside in the spring. When all the work was over the workmen brought the trees back out and they remained not only alive but bloomed each spring for the next four years.

We moved to the mountain in 1999. We assumed we wouldn’t be able to take the trees, but when the moving company assessed our things they asked if we wanted them crated to go. “Of course!” we replied. They made special crates, and out the trees came with the furniture. We had Leonard, our excavator, prepare holes for them and in they went. How beautiful, we thought, to think of these little trees blooming each spring outside our bedroom sliding-glass door.

But very quickly they were no longer “little” trees. They grew and they grew and they grew. There were no pots confining their roots. We built our deck around one of them. Eventually they got so big that we had to have one removed because it encroached out into (and over) the driveway. We gave it to Leonard, where it blooms for him and his family each spring.

We’re still in awe of these trees–– their beauty, their blossoms, their place in our hearts after their long history with us. And we know our story with them is not over, but that will be another post.

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Comments

Beautiful! And the photos, breathtaking!

[…] had the deck put back in place outside the new location of the sliding glass door, now facing the dwarf cherry trees we had brought with us from […]

Aloha…looks like your Spring has arrived and so wonderful to see those cherry trees again. I remember them when we visited you in Arlington in 1990 during our Aloha March. Great to see photos of your family folks. Your reunions must be very special. Our family spreads from Boston and New York to Hawaii with California, Oregon and Washington in between…so very few reunions, but we have one scheduled for July this year.

On my way to England with my sister, I will be in New York in late June, staying with Manny.

Thanks for all your updates and photos. I love your interior dome shot and that carpet.

Good to hear from you, Marj. Yes, I certainly do remember you and Fred visiting us in Arlington – what a good time we had! Wish you could get out to the mountain sometime. Am glad you’re enjoying the blog posts – it’s a fun way to share our stories. Have a great trip to England and give my best to your sister and to Manny.

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