Dogwood Days

Beautiful, fragile, ethereal Dogwood.

We love them. We've protected them on the farm for longer than I have breathed this clean Mississippi air.

Along roughly half a mile of public gravel road, we have pushed back the lush Mississippi flora to allow space for native pear and apple and plum, mixed with dogwood peeping through the hardwood trunks.

Those luminous white blooms sparkling among the intense greens are like little white lights that turn trees and shrubbery into magical places at Christmas.

Back in 1995, when the farm turned 160 years old, we celebrated by planting 160 hardwood trees including chestnut, walnut, burr oak, live oak, cherry laurel, beech, elm and many other varieties native to Mississippi, but difficult to find in any quantity.

Then, two years later in 1997, when the family farmhouse celebrated its 125th birthday, we planted 125 flowering trees, including magnolia, redbud, native pear, native apple, plum, crab apple and dogwood.

All of these commemorative trees have matured beautifully in the past 12-plus years. A few have had to be replaced, and we continue each year to plant more trees.

Photo 1: The mailboxes at the beginning of our driveway off of the gravel county road.

Photo 2: The county road curves to the right, and the driveway you see to the left in the photo is our driveway. The sign was a brilliant Christmas gift from land neighbors and long-time family friends.

Photo 3: We'll talk rocks some time. This is just a few of the rocks my uncle has found on the farm and brought up to provide sculptural interest around the farmhouse and support buildings.

Photo 4: Of the dogwood trees that have grown up naturally among the woodland surrounding the house, we continue to edit the undergrowth each year to allow the dogwood to be the flashy stars of Spring.

Photo 5: A set out pear and an edited dogwood bordering the public county road on the farm.

Photo 6: Gordon and I spent a couple of hours last Sunday afternoon photographing and videotaping the dogwood season.

Gordon will edit the video he shot last Sunday afternoon, as he has a little time. You can be sure I will share it with you.

Need sleep. Nitey nite!