Moved to tears by... a naked tree

[oloriel]

(Naked because it isn't bearing any leaves. Not naked in any other sense.)

I ordered a couple of plants last week. I've been wanting to plant a new hedge (or possibly several) for months, and last week Jörg wanted to buy a new toy for practicing his marksmanship, so it was a good time to mention that I'd like to splash some money on PLAAANTS. They were delivered today. I unwrapped them, and the first thing I noticed was something that didn't look like it was one of the plants I ordered. (I ordered young thorny bushes. Well, and five hellebores. This looked like a baby tree.) I checked the bill - nope, nothing on there that I hadn't ordered. Huh.
So I took the protective paper from around the pot, and looked at the little banderole at the base of the baby tree to see what kind of tree it was in the first place. (Hard to tell with deciduous saplings at this time of the year!)
The banderole stated: "I AM YOUR VALENTINE'S DAY SURPRISE! GINKGO BILOBA 4 YEARS OLD"

As we don't do Valentine's Day, Mid-February always sneaks up on me. I don't particularly like Valentine's Day - that is, I like the historical variations, but I'm not a fan of the commercial holiday it's become. Kinda like Hallowe'en, really. So I roll my eyes at Valentine's Day gifts. Except this time, I didn't. I actually got teary-eyed.

Time for a trip to the department of personal backstory!
One of my great-grandfathers was a huge Goethe fanboy. Seriously. By fanboy I mean that he not only read all the books and owned several different copies of the same book, he also collected other memorabilia, and he even had a cabinet maker make chairs for his dining room according to Goethe's dining room chairs (I think the design itself was by Goethe). He moved to Leipzig because of Goethe, although he relocated in the early years of the GDR. Once he had his own garden, he naturally planted a ginkgo tree. After his death, my grandparents kept the house and garden, and when my grandmother retired, she moved in. She was rather proud of the ginkgo tree, which had grown high and beautiful, and introduced me to Goethe's love poem about it, which I know by heart. (It's a very short poem, so it stuck at once anyway.) When we dissolved grandma's household last summer, I took some cuttings of the ginkgo tree, but they didn't take root.

I didn't desperately need a ginkgo for my own garden, so I didn't do anything about that. I mean, I love ginkgo, they're absolutely beautiful trees with their straight silvery stems and exotic foliage, especially in fall when all the leaves turn golden, and I appreciate their age ("survived the dinosaurs") and hardiness ("survived the H-bomb"), but I didn't consider buying one. But after ordering the bushes, I later thought "Damn, why didn't I think of looking for a little ginkgo ?!"

And they sent me one, anyway! PROVIDENCE EXISTS. And it made me a bit teary-eyed...

- - -

The biloba in the gingko's species name also tipped me off that the "leaf" argument in favour of pointy Elvish ears is probably void, since "lobe" (as in earlobe) and "leaf" (or German Laub) are very likely related, too. So it's probably a linguistic injoke rather than proof of anything. (And I have just proven that my great-grandfather had no monopoly on fannishness... his other passion was Japan, btw, so we can safely assume that I'm genetically biased!)

Comments

[elfy.livejournal.com]

At what age can you tell if it's male or female? I hope they only send out male ones :)

But ahh, nice little story :) I certainly hope it grows well.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

After 15 years at the earliest, they say! Actually, the ginkgo trees sold in Germany tend to be all male (they're reproduced via cuttings rather than seeds, so they're basically clones). However, in the pot of this one I found a single ginkgo nut, so it might actually be a seedling (i.e. genetic roulette, might be male, might be female)?
EDIT: I checked on the page of the plant nursery and they do sell seedlings!

I wouldn't mind if it should prove to be a rare female. As there's no male ginkgo in the neighbourhood, it's unlikely that a female would bear fruit, anyway. No sex, no baby ;) Should it somehow manage to get fertilised after all, I'm just gonna do what the Japanese do. If you don't leave the fruit to rot, no butanoic acid will be generated -> no danger of stench. You can even fry the seeds and eat them - they're only dangerous to your health if you eat them en masse. They're quite tasty, actually!

[independence1776]

Awww… I hope it thrives!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I hope so too!

[hhimring]

What a lovely story!

(I found an English translation of the Goethe poem online--not that you need one, obviously, but I thought some English follower of yours might appreciate it, perhaps, when they read your entry? And also because I was curious whether there was one and there is.)

In my garden’s care and favour
From the East this tree’s leaf shows
Secret sense for us to savour
And uplifts the one who knows.

Is it but one being single
Which as same itself divides?
Are there two which choose to mingle
So that each as one now hides?

As the answer to such question
I have found a sense that’s true:
Is it not my songs’ suggestion
That I’m one and also two?

Translated by John Whaley

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Now I don't have to try and translate it. :)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Yay ginkgo; of course you needed one! Such a classically Elvish tree, even with the stinky pink berries.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

How true! (http://qitian.deviantart.com/art/Leaves-of-Gold-71867213)

I'm not actually worried about stinky berries. For one, even if this turns out to be a female tree, it would need a male tree sufficiently nearby in order to have its flowers fertilised. (There are a couple of ginkgo trees downtown, but I have my doubts whether the pollen would make it down into our valley, although I suppose it's technically possible.) Even if, the Japanese seem to survive having alleys full of female ginkgos just fine, so I'm confident that I will, too! ;)
I've heard that the stink comes from the fruit rotting, which generates butanoic acid, so presumably, not letting the fruit rot would help prevent the smell? Maybe I'll find out. In two decades or so... ;)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

If your tree ever does make berries, you could gather them up when they fall, and drop them in places where they'd have a fair chance of growing. Or plant each one in a flower-pot; in a couple of years you'd have baby trees to give as Yulegifts or whatever. The world needs more ginkgo trees; the leaves in Autumn even more gold and more fluttery in the wind than aspen.

In October 1982 I fell in love at Woodland Cemetery (https://www.google.com/search?q=woodland+cemetery+dayton&rlz=1C1EODB_enUS546US546&biw=1024&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPqfiOrfjKAhVS6WMKHfG7B1YQ_AUICCgD#tbm=isch&q=woodland+cemetery+ginkgo), and will never forget the gingko leaves blowing down against the brightest of blue skies to make a pale-gold carpet on the grass.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

The world definitely needs more ginkgo trees, especially in these parts! Unfortunately, female ginkgos have a really bad reputation in German, so most gardeners only sell trees from cuttings (essentially clones!) taken from male trees. It's a sausage-fest even among trees! But the nursery that gifted me mine actually uses seedlings (in the interest of genetic variation).

Thanks to my grandmother, ginkgo trees always fascinated me; but I was blown away when I visited Tôkyô, where ginkgos are naturally a lot more common, lining streets and growing in parks. December is an autumn month in Tôkyô, and all the ginkgo trees were gorgeously golden!

As it happens, the Japanese actually prefer female trees because fried ginkgo nuts are considered a rare and auspicious delicacy. (They're poisonous if consumed in great amounts, but it's apparently not a problem if you eat them sparingly, and they're too expensive for binging, anyway.) They're also used in medicine. Apparently worth the increased effort of dealing with the "stinky berries"!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

That is so lovely.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly, it is fated that you have the White Tree in your garden.

Thank you for sharing.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Or the Golden Tree (in autumn)! Now I just need to find a good place for it!