Dad's Dogwood Trees

Dad decided he wanted to grow dogwood trees.

He wanted to grow them because the dogwood blossom is the State Flower of North Carolina.

So, he didn't just want to go buy some seedlings, but actually grow the trees from the red berries on trees from their farm. They took the berries off trees in the fall and whirred them in a blender to knock the hulls off. He called it 'doing the work the birds do'. Then he fermented the seeds in a casserole dish with some yeast and then stored them in the refrigerator. This is a really messy process. And Dad is not known for his neatness. You can imagine what Mom was dealing with. She sent Dad to the basement to do this and she said he was whirring and sloshing seeds all around and then her fridge was full of bowls of dogwood. We all had a good time calling him a mad scientist and 'jacky dogwoodseed'.

After sprouting the dogwoods, he planted them into rows in the garden. They had fixed 'perfect rows' in the crosstie bed and put each seed into the ground about 1/4 inch deep, then covered with good soil no more than 1/2 inch deep. As the seedlings grew, he transplanted into pots and then into bigger pots. After several years, the dogwoods were in 5 gallon pots and he had ALOT of them. He planted alot of dogwoods along the wooden fence around his farm. He started offering them to churches to plant on their property. He gave some away. He sold some. And he still has some left. He started calling it Jack's Folly.

But in April, when the white dogwood flower is in bloom, it is such fun to ride around the farm and around the county and see all the dogwoods that Dad grew in the basement.