I was more impressed, however, by the beautiful white birch forests between Bangor and South Portland. I have been back to Maine since then, but it was following one of my trips in the late 80s or early 90s that I went to Gatlinburg landscaper David McKenzie and asked if he had any white birches. He did not, but he did have a river birch he ordered for someone who never came to get it. He said this tree with a light reddish brown cinnamon bark was more suitable for the Gatlinburg climate than the white birch and he would sell it to me at a good price. So I bought the four-foot tree.
My wife Jean and I planted the river birch on a bank that is in the center of a circle drive in front of our home. This morning as I looked at the bank after an early June rain, I thought about how pretty the ivy, honeysuckle, Japanese maple, dogwoods, forsythia, and several other shrubs and flowers looked. All of these items were topped by the river birch, which is now about 50 feet high and has a spread of about 35 feet.
It is interesting to stand back and look at how the river birch has grown and matured through the years, especially when it began as something comparatively small. And it is interesting to consider how it came to be planted in the first place. Without my trips through the Maine forests, I probably never would have considered getting a birch tree. But that’s how things come into our lives, are planted, take root, and grow – whether they are trees, careers, marriages, ideas, or anything else.
One of my recent columns was titled “Never be surprised at where a great idea might come from.” I wrote about how I have facilitated discussion groups and have seen how good communication among group members can generate some positive things. Small ideas can produce big results.
An idea that comes from good communication and experiences is more resilient than you might imagine. In thinking about this, I recently found some information that said the river birch adapts best to moist, acid soils, but will survive dry soils. It is resistant to most insects, including the bronze birch borer that affects other trees. It is heat tolerant and can withstand extended periods of flooding. I, of course, didn’t know any of this when we planted the little tree. But it appears we planted the right thing in the right place at the right time.