June, 1999 This month flower: Kousa
by Mieko Nagano: Oita City, Japan
Flowering dogwood - one of my most favorite flowers. I first bought and planted one-meter high seedling of the tree when we built our house more than twenty years ago. It grew up to a large tree while we were absent from Oita for a decade. We returned to Oita and started to live again in our dear old house. The tree gave us a thick cooling shade, but unfortunately it was damaged by a typhoon and finally died.
We planted another flowering dogwood, but it didn't take root despite of our intensive efforts. I was very disappointed and asked a gardener to plant a Kousa, a close kin to flowering dogwood. I expected it would grow healthy on my land which had originally been a natural hill. The tree looked like thin and delicate, but it held the first white flower next year. The white flower is actually a kind of spore, however.
|
The white flower of Kousa reminds me of a
dear old memory: Our only son left home young
and entered a junior high school of Jiyu Gakuen in Tokyo.
Both parents and son were very uneasy then.
We trusted the education policy of the school
and teaching staff, and we were always praying
for his sound grow-up. Mr. Kira, who was
in charge of our son's class, kindly supported
him and helped us. When we visited the school
to attend a parents' association meeting,
we made it a rule to have a small dinner
with our son after the meeting. We three
walked through the street covered with thick
forest from the school to the nearest railroad
station.
Two big Kousa trees attracted our attention
at that time. They held white flowers at
their best, beautiful enough to make our
feet stop and look up them. It was very Mr.
Kira who came out of the house, yes, the
trees were growing in his garden. He was
a teacher of biology and told us that he
also loved the tree. Mr. Kira was already
passed away. Whenever I look at a Kousa tree,
I recall his gentle smile and my small son
wearing a knee-length pants in his junior high school days. In my garden, the tree have held many white flowers in
the refreshing green leaves as usual . I
hope it will take and grow healthy on our
land.
My flower archives
Flowers and trees in my garden |
||
