This is my post for #freewriters 2622 prompt plant a tree hosted by
My husband has a rule, he says if I want to plant a tree it has to give fruit that we will eat. It is not a bad rule but I like trees that flower. I planted an orchid tree and loved the purple flowers but it grew too big and was too close to our home, so we had it taken down. I was so sad over this.
I do have two floss silk trees. They are the only two trees left that I planted here. They go dormant in the winter and look like this until spring.
But when they get their foilage back and bloom, they are the most beautiful trees I have ever seen, with a thorny trunk, green leaves, and beautiful pink flowers that look like they came from an orchid.
Like all rules, there was an exception. He brought home a sea bean from the beach, and having no idea if it would give us food HE planted it in the corner of our yard. Every winter, it turns red. We had never seen any sign of fruit.
This past year it started to flower and I took a picture and had Google Lens show me what kind of tree it was. Google says it is an Indian Almond tree. I was excited because it was full of blooms. Then Hurricane Milton hit and all of the blooms were blown off. Now we know it will give fruit/nuts and hopefully, we will see it bloom again next year.
The problem with the fruit trees we planted is that they produce more fruit than we can eat. We give away a lot of it but still have too much. Wouldn't it be nice if every house in a neighborhood planted a different kind of fruiting tree in their front yard and everyone shared their fruit?
We own 2 acres but over an acre of it is woods and my husband does not want any of it cleared of trees. I have 4 avocado trees that need to be planted but have no place for them.
The trees we now have planted in the ground are bananas, mulberries, mangos, pecan, avocado, and Indian almond.
photos are mine