New Growth Evident

Last December, I put evergreen "tops" and red dogwood branches in the planter by the mailbox. Early in the year, I pulled the greens and decorated the red branches with red hearts in February, green lights and little green ribbons in March, and quickly changed it to Easter eggs in time for April 4th. Last week, Monday, I was going to plant pansies, removing the well used twigs.

Lo and behold, the dogwood branches had green leaves and more buds! I have never seen this before in a cutting from a tree. I was at a loss for words. In nature, many things can regrow appendages. If a salamander loses a tail, it grows one back. Crabs can regrow limbs. I imagine that somewhere, the dogwood bush has regrown branches and replaced what was in my planter.

I have never heard of the chopped off tail regrowing a salamander, however. In this case, it seemed that the dogwood branches were rooting and growing. Now what should I do? I have such a love of nature that I couldn't pull these branches and toss them in the yard waste bin. This weekend, I used a trowel and carefully have transplanted them into a bucket. Maybe I will have a new bush by fall?

I also gave a bundle wrapped in a wet towel to my Dad, who is going to try to transplant them at his house. He said that as a boy, on the farm near the creek, they could grow new willow trees this way.

I have done water transplanting from a piece of ivy and African violets. I just didn't expect it on a bigger scale. One of my favorite shows as a kid was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The new show, "Life" on the Discovery Channel has captivated my Sunday evenings. Here's a link to some amazing clips of it, if you haven't seen it. The music they have chosen to accompany these outstanding natural scenes is so good too. It never detracts from the visual effect, yet heightens the imagery at every turn. Listen to the music from this clip. Instrumentation native to cheetah country, appealing melodically, I'm entranced by the care of this whole series. I wonder how you come to write music for a series like this. Wow, the brainstorming and recording studio for a grand project like this would be a behind-the-scenes place I would love to be someday.


http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/life-the-series-videos/