I’ve written about catalpa trees and cedar trees, but last month my attention was drawn to oak trees. I was blowing the leaves out of my hosta garden and there they were, two volunteer oak trees about 18” tall.

My guess is the two trees in the hosta garden are red oaks. I have a red oak in my yard and I also have squirrels. My oak produces acorns and I think the squirrels have buried a few of them in the garden.

Two days after my oldest boy, Reece, was born Jay Holmes showed up at our house with a small 12” blue spruce…”Here’s Reece’s Birth Tree” he said to me and we planted it.

When Alex was born we were faced with the need for another “birth tree”. Everything about Alex’s birth (and life since) was completely different from that of his older brother. Cindy was in labor for over 12 hours with Reece. Alex was alive and well under the “grow lights” 30 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. The spruce is 35 feet tall, a foot of growth for every year of Reece’s life. Alex’s oak tree, at 33 years of age, is pushing 20 feet. The spruce is healthy, full, and vigorous. The perfect tree for Reece. Oaks are stubborn things. That too fits Alex.

Oaks start producing acorns at about 25 years of age. At that time they produce acorns about every two to five years until they turn 50 when the tree is finally mature. The means of dispersal for the acorns are squirrels that cache them for later meals. Apparently, they lost track of these two.

Oak trees are slow growers. A cottonwood tree or a catalpa will grow two or three times as fast. But slow growers can live to be old, old trees with red oaks living from 300 to 500 years with the oldest known living red oak coming in at 342 years of age.

In his book “A Sand County Almanac”, Aldo Leopold has a chapter about an oak on his farm in Wisconsin. He wrote about how young oaks had such a difficult time surviving because the rabbits would eat them to the ground each winter.

As I’ve written earlier, I have rabbits so I will be protecting these two young trees this winter. Why? Because Alex and his wife Abby are expecting a baby next June. One of the oaks in my garden will be transplanted to their yard. The offspring of Alex’s oak tree for the offspring of Alex.

José Martí, the “Hero of Cuba” said that every man should plant a tree, have a child, and write a book. These things give us immortality. I’ve planted over 60 trees, I have two children, I’ve written four books and now I not only have a beautiful granddaughter and a soon-to-be “grand-something”, I have “grand oak trees”.