The Rain Tree

The Rain Tree

Many of the trees that Nancy and I have planted in the eighteen years we’ve been on our small farm have a connection, a history. Some came from the back lot of Cooke’s Greenhouse and Garden Center in Williamsburg. Jeff Schell, the owner of Cooke’s is a cousin and his back lot was where he stored not dead yet not saleable trees and shrubs. The stately aspen that is a symbol of our entrance came from Jeff.

Five graceful white dogwoods are transplants from the five-acre woods on the back of our property. They started out as twigs but have now filled in.

We have a magnolia that was planted on Nancy’s birthday. She loves magnolias. I’m not sure why, but she does. It’s setting is a little odd, for I planted it next to a Colorado Blue Spruce that son Steve gave us one Christmas. Magnolias and Blue Spruces are not normally found growing side-by-side but they both seem happy and have become accustomed to one another.

Three Japanese cherry trees came from a nurseryman that owed me a sum of money. They were payment for a month’s loan payment. The apple trees were purchased to provide treats for the horses. Four evergreens were formally live Christmas trees. One of those was my mother’s little tree for her last Christmas. That one is now growing faster and more uniform than any of the other plantings. I have no idea exactly what breed or species it is, for it is very unusual with soft, pale needles.

We’ve two burr oaks that came from acorns dropped by Virginia’s largest burr oak specimen that stands in front of the Elkton Town Hall. I gathered, stored, germinated and sold the seedlings one year as a community fundraiser. There’s a ginkgo that came from a seed from the tree that was in the yard where I grew up in Virginia Beach.

One of my favorites, though, is the rain tree. It too came from a seed of a tree that my mother had planted back in 1960. Rain trees are not large trees, and they have a spreading, well-rounded form. There’s a birdbath beneath the one that sits in our front yard. It’s eighteen years old now and the trunk is sturdy. Unlike most trees that bloom in the spring and then simply turn green, the rain tree creates interest spring, summer and fall.

In late spring, bourn above the foliage, yellow flowers nearly obscure the green leaves. After several weeks of yellow, the flowers turn to pale green pods. These pale lanterns are in contrast to the much darker green of the leaves. Finally, as summer heads into August and September the pods turn from green to brown.

The rain tree does have one fault. It is a fault of fertility. The flowers turn to pods. The pods shield the seeds waiting until the proper time to burst. Every seed that finds the ground sprouts the next spring. Along with all our other weeds, we are constantly pulling rain tree starts from the flowerbeds. We’ve planted two more rain trees along the lane, grandchildren of the tree my mother first planted. If you’re interested in one for yourself, come and pull weeds with us. I’m sure that we can get you one.