{"id":7684,"date":"2016-04-21T14:42:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T18:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7684"},"modified":"2017-04-20T12:46:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T16:46:46","slug":"the-red-buckeyes-cruel-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7684","title":{"rendered":"The red buckeyes: Cruel hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 8, 2009<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reading a book called \u201cGrowing Trees from Seed,\u201d by Henry Kock<\/a>, which is filled with practical advice for growing native species of trees in North America.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit scary, too, because the author makes you aware of the various hazards to the health of a seed: chipmunks, slugs, soil that isn\u2019t properly prepared, overwatering, too much sun, alkalinity\u2026.<\/p>\n

So I went back to the red buckeye seed<\/a> again to see if I could tell more about those bits coming up from the ground. I could see that the tiny leaf was just one of many in the area, so I cleared it away.<\/p>\n

I was concerned about the bare rootlike protrusion \u2013 had the seed somehow turned around and stuck its radicle into the sun, instead of putting out a nice green shoot?<\/p>\n

I dug around in the soil, and saw a thicker root \u2013 that was the original radicle, and the protrusion from the soil was a fork off of it.<\/p>\n

And then, as I tried to feel where the rest of the seed was \u2013 I broke it.<\/p>\n

The radicle came clean off the seed, leaving a naked unfed root to fend for itself, and a seed with probably not enough juice left to regenerate the radicle.<\/p>\n

I could not believe it.<\/p>\n

The shock was something akin to being in a car accident. It happens so fast, and you\u2019re left in a daze, reeling with anger at yourself for being so careless.<\/p>\n

Of all the dangers that the book warned about, the stupidity of trying to examine a growing seed was not one of them.<\/p>\n

My cruel hands had destroyed it.<\/p>\n

I put it back under the ground. Didn\u2019t know what else to do. Except cry.<\/p>\n

April 26, 2009<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Katie, a friend who is a gardner, felt sorry for me after she learned the fate of my red buckeye seed. She bought me a red buckeye from a nursery. I made Tom dig a hole\u00a0for it, and planted it near the seed corpse.<\/p>\n

Summer 2009<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I see a tiny sprout… is it the buckeye seedling? Maybe?<\/p>\n

April 3,\u00a02010<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wow! The buckeyes have leaves!!<\/p>\n

A week later<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I can’t believe it – the deer ate the buckeye leaves. I thought the leaves were toxic to them. But we have so many deer that they are constantly scrounging everywhere for food. They’ll eat anything. Cruel mouths.<\/p>\n

Spring 2011<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve put chicken wire around the buckeyes to protect them this year, before the leaves even come out.<\/p>\n

A month\u00a0later<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Those damn deer! They got the leaves AGAIN.<\/p>\n

Spring 2012<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I made the cage tighter around the buckeyes this year.<\/p>\n

A month later<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

They’re safe! They have leaves!<\/p>\n

But … they’re not doing so great. I don’t think they’re even\u00a0an inch taller this year than two years ago.<\/p>\n

Spring 2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Poor buckeyes. They’re just not growing much. And how could they? Hardly any nutrients in this cruel soil. How do those oaks do it??<\/p>\n

I love them so. I want to see hummingbirds feeding in their red flowers.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s just not to be.<\/p>\n

[To be continued in tomorrow’s post.]<\/p>\n

Today’s penny is a 2012, the year that the cage protected the buckeyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 8, 2009 I\u2019ve been reading a book called \u201cGrowing Trees from Seed,\u201d by Henry Kock, which is filled with practical advice for growing native species of trees in North America. It\u2019s a bit scary, too, because the author makes you aware of the various hazards to the health of a seed: chipmunks, slugs, soil … read more The red buckeyes: Cruel hands<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[52,908,564,911,612],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tress","tag-52","tag-buckeye","tag-red","tag-seed","tag-tree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7699,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions\/7699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}