Splendid Mystery Trees and the Need to Appreciate Good Things When They Come Your Way

For the last week or so we've been enjoying the plumes of white flowers on handsome trees around Montreal. They weren't catalpas or chestnuts, I knew, and even after consulting my tree books--all rather old, I must admit--I couldn't figure out what they were. Then I had a brain storm and decided to consult Montreal tree guru Bronwyn Chester's blog. Sure enough, she had an interesting entry about the trees. They are good street- and park trees, she says, with their slow growth perhaps their only disadvantage.

She mentions that they are related to the earlier-blooming lilacs that usually grow as bushes, but instead of coming from the Middle East, they have their origins in Japan. They also grow more upright and tree-like. The ones I've seen along Côte Ste-Catherine Road and in Mount Royal Cemetery are tree-like indeed. Some specimens are almost as big a couple of chestnuts I pass on my usual walk.

Why haven't I noticed them before? I have no idea. Perhaps this is a particularly good year for them, the way it was for forget-me-nots. That is one of the pleasures of gardening of course: you never know exactly what is going to be splendid and what will not quite make the cut this year. Keeps you on your toes, makes life interestingly unpredictable, and maybe teaches you that you should appreciate what good thing comes your way without fretting too much when something else passes you by.


Photo: University of Southern Maine