For awhile now there has been a tree near the corner garden that hasn’t been doing well. It was planted by the city to replace trees that went down in the tornado that hit Rogers Park in 2020. It never really had a chance. Shortly after being planted, the building it was in front of did heavy renovations and the tree was constantly covered in dust and debris. I’ve never seen a single leaf on the poor thing. For a couple years now I’ve thought about replacing it with a native tree like an American Hazelnut (Corylus americana).
In the meantime, I had gone to a Rogers Park Seed Library event where Recalcitrant Seeds was handing out native saplings for free, including American Hazelnuts. Bless them, they only brought 100 saplings to the event and when I showed up one hour in, all that was left were dead looking twigs not even a foot long. The sweet gentleman handed one to me, said he wasn’t sure if it would grow and thought it was a persimmon. I dutifully planted it, expecting nothing from the free twig. And it grew. It did not resemble a persimmon, which was a little disappointing since I had been researching recipes but I pulled up their growing guide and recognized the American Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). Now I would finally know what the Monty Python taunt of smelling like elderberries meant.
It’s now late spring and every day I go out I swear that it’s grown several inches. I’ve had to move up a sign several times as it got lost in the branches. Very quickly it will take over my entire corner. And after a neighbor had asked out of confusion, “Oh so it’s not a weed?” I knew that it needed a more proper setting. So I started eyeing the dead tree again. This time when I went out to put in my newly redone plant labels, I thought I detected a bit of a lean. “I’ll just see how much it wiggles to see how difficult it will be to remove, if I decide to do so”. No sooner than I had put my hand on it, that it completely fell over. No pressure applied. And looking at it now, it’s no surprise. There is almost nothing left of its roots.
Now I had prime real estate for this thriving plant. How to get it there with my 27 inch long Martha Stewart shovel and clumsy body? Luckily one day I was in the garden when new friends Derek and DiDi were out of a walk. We talked about the garden and I told them the funny story. Derek asked if I needed help digging the plant out. Wonderful! But after hearing from the previous neighbor that she thought it was a weed, I knew that I needed an official sign. And this was an opportunity to finally put out a QR code so that people could find there way to the website that you are now reading. A plaque was purchased and a time was set up with Derek to move the tree.
Despite the mosquitos and biting flies attempts, Derek, DiDi, and I moved the tree to its new home today. Hopefully it will thrive in the spot and I now have a patch in my garden to fill. Perhaps a sunflower?
Birchwood Butterfly Corner 