GREEN SPRING GARDENS 10-1-23 CONTINUED...

This tree welcomes you as you walk up the path on the far-left side of the parking lot. It is a magnificent tree.

Thomas Jefferson, the United States' third president, loved the Willow Oak.  It was his favorite tree. It is a native of Eurasia but is also cultivated in North America and Australia.  On average they can grow to a height of 60 to 70 feet but have been known to grow as high as 120 feet. 

You will find them from New York south to Florida, west to Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. It can look like a pyramid when young and it becomes rounder as it matures. An individual tree produces both male flowers (catkins) and female flowers.  The catkins represent an important spring food source for gray squirrels and many other animals.  Fruit from the fertilized female flowers are the familiar acorns that on the white oak mature after a single season.  These acorns (which are produced in abundance only every four to ten years) are readily eaten by many species of birds and mammals.  The gray squirrel is particularly fond of white oak acorns and is very important in both their dispersal and their planting.  Deer, grey squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, turkeys, blue jays, red-headed woodpeckers and probably a few other critters I haven't read about, are very well taken care of by the White Oak. My information came from here and here.

You can read more about the tree at this link also.  The squirrel looks very comfortable on his perch.  I wonder if this is the same one our corgi friend was interested in from my previous post. We weren't very far away from our original sighting.

The White Oak is a hop, skip and a jump from the old house, which you can see on the left of my first picture.  I have shared this house many times during the lifetime of this blog.  If I had a dream house, this would be it.

There are several flowers planted in their front garden bed, and the geraniums in planters at each side of the steps.  

My favorites are the anemones.  

There are several types and colors.  The ones I share here are the pink and white, called the Grape leaf anemone, botanical name Eriocapitella vitifolia.  

It is also called the Grape-leafed windflower, because "Anemone" comes from the Greek word "Anemoi", which means "winds".  It originated in the Himalayas, is a perennial and belongs to the buttercup family.

We always enjoy checking out the produce garden, which is usually locked up behind a see-thru fence.  They grow their food and donate to the local food banks.  There is another garden we go to that does the same thing.

2,028 lbs. of food is amazing!  Here is a list of all that is grown and given away.  I applaud them greatly for doing this.

All for today!  I will have another post put together soon.

Thanks for looking and 

I hope your day is a great one.