Tulipfera

I think it was 1998, and Peter and I were driving in a U-Haul away from Waterloo Gardens in Exton, Pennsylvania, when we decided to stop at another, much smaller nursery on the way home. There we found a sad little tulip tree in a pot for $50 with an additional 20% off. At the time, I was experiencing an intense fondness for tulip trees so we decided to get it. What's the point of having a U-Haul if you can't buy big stuff that you don't need?

We took the tree home and put it in a pot on the front step. Outside the pot, it was probably five or six feet tall at the time, and its trunk was no more than an inch in diameter. It was cute, but to keep it in that pot wasn't what was meant for a tree like that: tulip trees grow to be the largest tree in the northeast, and so trying to grow it in a pot forever would be like trying to raise a lion in a shoebox.

A year or so later, we brought the little guy to my parents' house in Beacon, NY and planted it there, next to the garage. I can't say it's gotten the best care or the most attention, but in the seven or so years that its been there, it's grown to become significantly taller than the house.

I have my issues with visiting here, but I do love to see the tulip tree. Last week I finally pruned off the lowest limbs, probably removing every single limb it had when it arrived here, and so now I can actually go and stand under its canopy. I think this tree will possibly be here long after I'm gone, and it gives me a great amount of pleasure, like a sense of parenthood but also a comforting knowledge of my insignificance on this planet. The tulip tree reminds me.

I've planted or participated in the planting of probably about two dozen trees, maybe three, almost all in Phildelphia, and almost all of them are still standing. It may be the most important thing I've ever done. The tulip tree reminds me.