Seeing the Forest

I’m not a large-scale collector of anything (except maybe pairs of reading glasses) so I’m gobsmacked by the idea that there are people who set out to sow their own Arboretum.  An Arboretum is a collection of trees that folks plant, often unique tree by unique tree, in the same way that others intentionally design a flower garden.  This is not to be confused with picking out a Dogwood for the front yard to fill in the spot where the old maple tree got blown over a couple of years ago during that bad windstorm.  No, an Arboretum is tree collecting in the way that your Nana used to collect commemorative spoons to display on the rack she had hanging on the wall of the kitchen. 

Except that it’s outside.  And ends up being much larger than a spoon rack.

Although original Arboreta/Arboretums used to be filled with exclusively non-native trees (producing that wow-factor we all hope to inspire when we invite people over to see our backyards), these days there is often a mix of species both native and not. 

The first recorded Arboreta were owned by Egyptian pharaohs who brought home ebony hardwood tree seeds from the Sudan and pine and cedar seeds from Syria, to cultivate and then brag about.  The first female ruler of Egypt, Hatshepsut, decided to haul home 31 living Frankincense trees in the mid to late 1400s BC, likely from the Arabian Peninsula.  She wanted to grow the trees specifically for their wood, which she would char and then use as eyeliner.  31 trees seem excessive.  The fashion industry of today appears to have come by their obsessive tendencies quite honestly.  

From Marco Polo’s accounts of his travels throughout Asia, we read that Kublai Khan collected as many different types of evergreen trees as he could find across the Mongolian Empire during the early 1200s BC and was always keen on adding to his collection.

Kublai Khan also liked to collect concubines and the country of China. 

Now, I LOVE trees, don’t get me wrong, but in my world there is very little difference between trees.  Most of them are brown on the bottom and green on the top.  You’ve got your deciduous and you’ve got your coniferous.  There are some differences noticed in the Autumn when certain types of trees decide to show off their colour-changing abilities in a more obvious way than some of the others, but that’s close to where my observations tend to end.  I suppose that since I don’t see the plant world as direct predators of humans, I simply do not pay much attention. 

But those who are fascinated by trees pay a LOT of attention!  And the rest of us are indebted to those people, and those collectors.

The oldest Arboretum in Canada, called the Dominion Arboretum, takes up 64 acres of the 1.5 square miles of the Central Experimental Farm, smack dab in the middle of Ottawa.  In fact, it sits right across the Rideau Canal from Carleton University.  Those folks (the arborists not the university students) know their trees!  The Central Experimental Farm (known to its friends as the CEF or the Experimental Farm) was designated a National Historic Site in 1998 and is open to the public from sunup until sundown, free of charge. 

The Dominion Arboretum was started way back in 1889 when 200 trees and shrubs were strategically planted and were studied for their hardiness and ability to survive in our Canadian climate.  I can see how important it would be for a young country like Canada in the late 1800s, to be able to figure out what could be grown in this environment, but at the time, you’d think that we were almost nothing BUT trees—and the Canadian Shield.  Those people who were able to cast their gaze away from what was staring at them from all sides, and look towards a future where information of this sort might be needed, must have been a cut above everyone else.  Or nuts.  Which I’m sure they also planted in order to study. 

Imagine the patience you’d need as an Arboretum arborist.  Your project would not be one of say, an afternoon’s work.  Or a week’s work.  Or a year’s work.  You would not be able to flop down on the couch at 5pm and say, “well, THAT’S done!”  An Arboretum takes decades to become the fulfillment of the original idea.  I admire trees and respect the life we share with them, but to work on something that won’t be done for 50 years, certainly sees me tapping out. 

(Also off the table for me would be the sculpting a maze out of hedges in my backyard.  And I would be miserable as a workman on a project like Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona where the building of the church has been going on for over 140 years.  Or becoming a bonsai artist.  I.  Would.  Suck.)

These days, the Dominion Arboretum is said to encompass 1700 species and varieties of trees, and shares space at the CEF with ornamental gardens (which boast 100 types of Irises, if you can believe it, as well as 125 varieties of Lilacs!), experimental farming plots, an Observatory built in 1904, a demonstration farm, several research buildings, an agricultural museum, AND is the headquarters of the Canadian 4-H Foundation.  Yikes.     

However, any walk through a designed Arboretum of whatever size (and there are several across this country of ours), will likely produce a sense of wonder and amazement at the variety of trees that have been thoughtfully brought together in one magical place.  And if you are a tree Luddite like me, you can simply savour the opportunity to wander through a grove of saplings with a sheer appreciation for the trees, rather than with a mind cluttered with the botanical hows, wheres, and whys. That’s my go-to attitude whenever I’m faced with any sort of mind-boggling collection of art or beauty. Other than commemorative spoons, which are self explanatory.