The mother oak and palm trees

Last week I wrote about our quest for a big, beautiful oak tree. Wouldn't it be great to have one growing in your own backyard here in Fish Springs? My husband grew up on a 60-acre working farm in Indiana. There was a large wooded section of oak trees that the four mischievous Monohan boys loved to play in. One of them, Norbert, still has dreams of climbing in an old oak tree.

Recently we found some acorns under a big tree in Quincy, Calif., and we tried to get them to sprout. They're still wrapped in wet paper towels in our refrigerator. But, "out of the blue," I got a call from Paige Turnipseed. She and her husband Mike not only had lots of acorns on their front lawn, but they also had the whole "mother tree" - right there in the middle of their yard. Even better than the acorns, Paige gave us some foot-long little volunteer oak trees to plant here in Fish Springs. We're going to work real hard for these baby oaks to thrive and grow to their full potential. Our giant thanks to the Turnipseeds.

Back in 1992, Marie Buschiazzo and her husband John left California to move to the beautiful Carson Valley. They brought lots of trees along with them as they knew they were moving to a desert community and they wanted to get a head start by planting trees. Palm Springs, Palm Desert and 29 Palms are all California desert cities and Marie figured if palm trees could grow easily there, they would also grow here - as long as they had plenty of water. That, they had, as they drilled a good, deep well here on their five-acre lot.

Marie and John planted 50 little palm trees in the sandy soil of their long driveway. Lots of work but the tiny trees looked great - for two weeks that is. That's when the first freeze hit. The fronds on the little palm trees just withered and dried up. "Dead as a door knob," as my mother would say.

Most palms are tropical or subtropical, although some grow in Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash. Some years back, a restaurant in Reno tried to grow palm trees as decorations in their landscape. Pretty white lights were wrapped all around the tall trunks hoping that would keep them from freezing during the winter. No such luck in this sometimes difficult Northern Nevada climate.

If you're new to Carson Valley (or old), and need some help with your trees, call Steve Lewis, UNR Cooperative Extension Educator, at 782-9960. He'll have the right answer.

n Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.