MULTIPLY Creative Challenge #27: A Long Process

Have you ever thought the length of the process for a tree to grow. One of my hobbies was growing them. The seeds lay all over the place, whether an acorn, horse chestnut or walnut, you just need the patience. Many of my trees have grown and disappeared over the years.

At Christmas we all like to eat oranges or dates. Plant an orange pip in a pot, or a Date stone. Cover the pot with transparent plastic wrapping making it air tight and just wait. Usually within a month the first leaves appear. What you do with it afterwards shows whether you achieve a result or not. I planted many over the last 50 years; some grew, and some eventually died.

At the moment I only have three examples of my trees. We have a small garden and about eight years ago I planted a horse chestnut. Remember chestnuts only grow if they are put in the ground in Autumn to ensure that they can develop during the Winter months. In the following spring the first two leaves appear. I decided to plant it in a pot as it would have been too big for my small garden. After the years it has grown to quite a stately tree.

You can see the chestnut tree in the background on the left of the picture. Up to now I have had no flowers or chestnuts, but who knows. I had to replant it in a bigger pot as the one it had got to small and broke. This Autumn I have cut it down and hope to have a nice bushy tree next year.

I am quite proud of my apple tree. I usually eat an apple after lunch at work and tossed the pips into a pot I had on my desk with another plant. some time later the seeds started growing. I took them home and when they got bigger planted them in the garden. I already have an apple tree, but now after six years my apple tree from the pips has grown quite tall and I hope to one day have some nice "Gala" apples from it.

The apple tree I planted from a seed is in the middle of the picture and now about six years old.

And now for my final pride and joy, my walnut tree. We have a few wild walnut trees growing here and I picked up one of the nuts that had fallen on the ground and planted it in the garden in Winter. When Spring came the first leaves had appeared so I planted it in a large pot. Usually you have to wait about ten years for the first fruits, but last year I actually had two walnuts.

They actually ripened on the tree and when they lost their green coats there were two quite edible walnuts which we ate and found to be quite good. This year there were no nuts, but the tree is quite young. Perhaps by the time I am retired from work, I may have a larger harvest. At the moment the tree is in a large pot as it would be too big for planting in our garden. So bear in mind, growing trees is a long process but also a rewarding one. And here is my walnut tree looking a bit leafless, but during the summer it gets quite leafy.

Creative Challenge