My Meetings with Remarkable Trees

Some remarkable tree books!

2011-12-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

There are quite a few noteworthy books out there, some old, some new, and here is a list of those that I have come across.

Getting Acquainted with the Trees (1904) by J. Horace McFarland
This is a quaint exploration of some common American trees that I found online using my book reader.
Despite the fact that it was written over 100 years ago the writing is very clear and easy going-some books can be bogged down with technical details or purple prose, not so this book. It even has photos taken by the author in each chapter!
Here's a link to download it:
Getting Acquainted with the Trees

The Secret Life of Trees (2005) by Colin Tudge
This is a superb book on every aspect of trees and one which I am still dipping into! The first section deals with thr famlies of trees, later sections deal with the socio-cultural aspect of trees and other matters. Highly recommended!

Meetings With Remarkable Trees (1997) by Thomas Packenham
This is a fabulous book, full of colour photos of noteworthy trees but so much more than simply a coffee table book, and the inspiration for this bog's title! Superb book.

Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees (2008) by Roger Deakin
I had heard about this book and so bought a copy from Waterstones last year. I hsve yet to read it but from what I've heard about it I will surely enjoy it!

Trees of Britain and Northern Europe - Collins Field Guide (1978)
by Alan Mitchell
This is an ID guide to all the trees youre likely to come across in the UK, both wild trees and those found in parks or arboreta. Excellent!

A remarkable tree felled!

2011-09-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

This huge willow has been on that bit of green for many years, my partner tells me she used to sit under it as a little girl, but we've had some gale force winds of late and it has sufffered!

The council sent someone round to sort it out but ufortunately all thats left of it now is a stump :(

A Churchyard Redwood

2011-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Everytime I go to town I see this huge Redwood towering over Holy Trinity Church, Darlington, and today I got a chance to get a photo of it on the church's grounds, albeit with only my phone.

My 5 year old son provides a sense of scale!

Huge Horse Chestnut at North Lodge Park

2009-11-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

This simply stunning 'conker' tree stands next to the bandstand and, especially at this time of year, overshadows it!

It is enormous!!

Giant Redwoods at South Park

2009-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

In 1863 two Sequoiadendron giganteum were planted at South Park and now, over 140 years late, are quite magnificent!
Here's one of them, appearing to branch from the bottom so that from far off it appears as a clump.

Himalayan Cedar at South Park,Darlington

2009-04-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

This maginificent conifer overlooks the bowling greens at the park.

Field Maple

2008-11-08T17:04:00.001-08:00

This is a fine example of Acer campestre,just around the corner from my house. Its quite impressive, towering over the houses nearby yet no-one pays it any heed.

Large garden conifer

2008-10-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

I spotted this magnificent specimen in a front garden in St. Cuthbert's Place near the town. Its possibly Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa.)

Ancient Pear Tree

2008-08-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

This old pear tree was found on a trip to Preston Park in Stockton,North Yorkshire. Part of a museum,the grounds also house Butterfly World.

Redwood in the Town

2007-11-23T08:18:00.001-08:00

This was a surprise find, a redwood,specifically Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in a narrow strip of woodland right in the middle of the town!

Large Grey Poplar

2007-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is a big tree sitting in the middle of the field where I walk my dogs.

Its quite tall, must be 100 foot plus with quite a girth, and I hope to get it measured and aged properly one day.

Hunting for the big ones!

2007-09-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

In the 6 years I have lived in Darlington I have noticed some fine trees on my doorstep and I thought I would create this blog so that those with an interest can see whats on their doorstep. There are some really nice trees in the area including a big Ash on the village green, not necessarily old but it has quite a spread. There are two fine old Wellingtonias in the South Park which were planted in the 1800s and are quite large, with low sweeping branches. Also in the park is a stand of mature Elms that have remained dutch elm disease free it seems-quite rare these days! I'm not sure if they are English Elms or hybrids; I must take a closer look next time I'm there.

Just recently I took a walk along the Denes area which has a kind of woodland walk that eventually leads into the town-its kind of an oasis filled with trees, some native, many ornamental, all impressive!

At the entrance to the Denes, in the village, there is a large Lawson's Cypress. This is a common conifer often planted in gardens in the hope it will be a small green globe. But in time it becomes a tall spire, very tree like, and definitely not suited to that patch in the front garden!

Its only when allowed to grow like this that they reach their full potential.

Further on there was another, but it was so dark and crowded in there that all one could see was the trunk and a few bits of foliage, complete with cones. Note the nice root flair!

Of course its not just conifers that you find in there, and a little further on there is this tall narrow Beech. It seems that its foundations have been undermined at some point as a lot of its roots are exposed.

Close up of its roots:
Another impressive tree is this TurkeyOak (Quercus cerris), an introduced species related to our native Oak but with different shaped leaves. this one has more room to spread its wings than the Beech and looks fabulous. Also it is growing atop a bank so that a person seeing it while in the Denes has to look up, yet anyone outside near the road is nearly level with its lower trunk!

While I was taking these photographs I had the kids with me, and we soon stopped when we surrounded by Horse Chestnut trees-we were in the middle of a conker grove and my 3 year old daughter loves to collect them! Of course there are a lot more trees in this walkway, including ancient Silver Birch complete with Witche's Brooms, strange growths found on some trees where the branching is a lot finer than normal, and smaller leaves. You can see it here on the right most branch, a black fuzzy ball.I will post more pictures as I find noteworthy trees, as well as using this as a kind of 'Trees in the News' section.