Thanks for this. My elderly mum is about to move from her home of nearly 60 years to an apartment by the sea and seems to mostly be concerned about whether her potted Gingko will take to its new living quarters. I'm encouraged by you reports about their hardiness and will report back to her!
Personally, I think I'm more of a larch person myself, mostly because I absolutely love their new growth in spring, all soft and green.
Lewis accuses me of paying too much attention to plot. I'm distracted by the improbable setup that Mrs Gamart was not able to intervene in the initial sale and setup of shop enough to stop it before it was a done deal. As Florence says, it took six months to do and there's no way she couldn't have known. This makes me feel like Mrs Gamart willfully allowed the shop to get set up, just so that she could destroy it. Florence doesn't stand a chance, and for me this moves the tone from "sad and pathetic" to downright cruel.
This is a very convincing interpretation. I had been assuming that Mrs Gamart had had a vague plan in the back of her head for the Old House, and then when Florence bought it, Mrs Gamart thought, Wait! That was supposed to be MINE!
But your suggestion, that the very fact that Florence bought the Old House caused Mrs Gamart to embark on a path of destruction, makes a lot of sense given her character.
I think your interpretation was the author's intent. Perhaps a simple plot point of Mrs Gamart just returns from an extended trip in Italy only to find her beloved house is gone. Or maybe she's in league with the evil banker, who plot to get some sap to buy the house, then they steal it back without having to pay for it. Although if that were the case, they could have just stolen the house from the previous owner.
Ginkgo trees are actually the only living member of their genus, family, order, class, phylum! This means ginkgo trees have no close living relatives! Ginkgo trees can live up to 2,000 years old! Ginkgo trees have been around for roughly 270 million years and barely changed! Ginkgo trees were around during the dinosaurs! Ginkgo trees are actually endangered in the wild and are native to Asia but a few million years ago grew in most of the world in places like North America. Ginkgo trees while not native anymore to the USA and Canada can be grown here and are not invasive. Ginkgo trees need humans to grow them in order to survive since the wild populations will very likely be gone due to climate change and habitat loss. Ginkgo trees are best grown from seeds because it gives them more genetic diversity. An example of a time when a plant had low genetic diversity was the gros michel banana this banana was a cultivar which is a clone of one plant because these plants were all genetically the same when a disease could infect one it could infect them all equally. This led to the gros michel banana nearly going extinct. Unfortunately ginkgo trees are most of often grown as male cultivars which lack genetic diversity because they are all clones like the gros michel banana. High genetic diversity is important because while one tree may be weak to a disease one may have genes to be resistant. This is the case when growing things such as ginkgos from seeds. Seeds have a 50% chance to be male or female. Female trees are actually a good thing even though the seeds they make are stinky. They are important for growing genetically diverse ginkgos. Female ginkgo trees also have a sticky liquid on there female cones that absorbs male ginkgo pollen this means they actually reduce some of the pollen in the air and help with spring allergies. Ginkgo trees will grow in growing zones 3-9 and will grow in just about any soil but prefer sandier soil but will tolerate heavy clay. Ginkgo trees like growing in full sun but will tolerate shade. Ginkgo trees like moist or dry soil but do not like constantly wet or soggy soil they will however tolerate occasional flooding. Ginkgo seeds or baby ginkgo trees grown from seeds can brought on websites such as Etsy for a few dollars. As humans it’s important we grow these amazing trees and keep them alive for generations to enjoy!
Thank you so much for this informative comment! I agree that we ought to keep these trees around to enjoy—and also because it would be terrible to let them go extinct after they have survived for millions of years. It is especially short-sighted to only grow male trees just because the females produce the stinky fruit. Genetic diversity is more important than pristine sidewalks in spring!
Beautiful, beautiful trees! Here in Santiago it is spring and when we planned this trip I hadn't thought about missing fall and the changing of the leaves. So, thank you for sending me a visual piece of it.
Thanks for this. My elderly mum is about to move from her home of nearly 60 years to an apartment by the sea and seems to mostly be concerned about whether her potted Gingko will take to its new living quarters. I'm encouraged by you reports about their hardiness and will report back to her!
Personally, I think I'm more of a larch person myself, mostly because I absolutely love their new growth in spring, all soft and green.
Oh wow—I will have to look for larches in the spring! I didn’t realize that they have a special beauty then too.
Best of luck to your mom. I hope she will love being near the sea. And from what I have read, her ginkgo will be ok. 😊
Lewis accuses me of paying too much attention to plot. I'm distracted by the improbable setup that Mrs Gamart was not able to intervene in the initial sale and setup of shop enough to stop it before it was a done deal. As Florence says, it took six months to do and there's no way she couldn't have known. This makes me feel like Mrs Gamart willfully allowed the shop to get set up, just so that she could destroy it. Florence doesn't stand a chance, and for me this moves the tone from "sad and pathetic" to downright cruel.
This is a very convincing interpretation. I had been assuming that Mrs Gamart had had a vague plan in the back of her head for the Old House, and then when Florence bought it, Mrs Gamart thought, Wait! That was supposed to be MINE!
But your suggestion, that the very fact that Florence bought the Old House caused Mrs Gamart to embark on a path of destruction, makes a lot of sense given her character.
I think your interpretation was the author's intent. Perhaps a simple plot point of Mrs Gamart just returns from an extended trip in Italy only to find her beloved house is gone. Or maybe she's in league with the evil banker, who plot to get some sap to buy the house, then they steal it back without having to pay for it. Although if that were the case, they could have just stolen the house from the previous owner.
The irony is that no one ever wanted the house until Florence bought it. Mrs Gamart is such a dog in the manger!
In the subalpine PNW, people call this time of year “larch madness”
That’s brilliant!
Ginkgo trees are actually the only living member of their genus, family, order, class, phylum! This means ginkgo trees have no close living relatives! Ginkgo trees can live up to 2,000 years old! Ginkgo trees have been around for roughly 270 million years and barely changed! Ginkgo trees were around during the dinosaurs! Ginkgo trees are actually endangered in the wild and are native to Asia but a few million years ago grew in most of the world in places like North America. Ginkgo trees while not native anymore to the USA and Canada can be grown here and are not invasive. Ginkgo trees need humans to grow them in order to survive since the wild populations will very likely be gone due to climate change and habitat loss. Ginkgo trees are best grown from seeds because it gives them more genetic diversity. An example of a time when a plant had low genetic diversity was the gros michel banana this banana was a cultivar which is a clone of one plant because these plants were all genetically the same when a disease could infect one it could infect them all equally. This led to the gros michel banana nearly going extinct. Unfortunately ginkgo trees are most of often grown as male cultivars which lack genetic diversity because they are all clones like the gros michel banana. High genetic diversity is important because while one tree may be weak to a disease one may have genes to be resistant. This is the case when growing things such as ginkgos from seeds. Seeds have a 50% chance to be male or female. Female trees are actually a good thing even though the seeds they make are stinky. They are important for growing genetically diverse ginkgos. Female ginkgo trees also have a sticky liquid on there female cones that absorbs male ginkgo pollen this means they actually reduce some of the pollen in the air and help with spring allergies. Ginkgo trees will grow in growing zones 3-9 and will grow in just about any soil but prefer sandier soil but will tolerate heavy clay. Ginkgo trees like growing in full sun but will tolerate shade. Ginkgo trees like moist or dry soil but do not like constantly wet or soggy soil they will however tolerate occasional flooding. Ginkgo seeds or baby ginkgo trees grown from seeds can brought on websites such as Etsy for a few dollars. As humans it’s important we grow these amazing trees and keep them alive for generations to enjoy!
Thank you so much for this informative comment! I agree that we ought to keep these trees around to enjoy—and also because it would be terrible to let them go extinct after they have survived for millions of years. It is especially short-sighted to only grow male trees just because the females produce the stinky fruit. Genetic diversity is more important than pristine sidewalks in spring!
Beautiful, beautiful trees! Here in Santiago it is spring and when we planned this trip I hadn't thought about missing fall and the changing of the leaves. So, thank you for sending me a visual piece of it.
I hadn’t thought about how you would be missing out on fall! But do enjoy the spring blossoms!