All of the Dogwood shots are here! Lots of pics

No matter how many times or how many photos I see of that beautiful dogwood, I find each one a favorite! Lovely, every one of them!

 

In addition to having some really nice folks here, it appears that we've got our share of pretty good photographers. Very nice collection Wade. :smile:

My fav is still Joe's shot with the pavilion. :biggrin:

 

Wade, it's nice that you

put all of these together in one place. There certainly are a great deal of beautiful shots.

 

Great idea putting them all in one post! Isn't it just the most gorgeous tree!!!

 

That tree is just exquisite and awe-inspiring. Took my breath away when I saw it. You guys have all done it justice in your different ways! Great idea, Wade, to pull everything together in one thread! When I finally get to mine that I shot of the tree I'll add them here.....

 

Great captures everyone kudos to you all.

 

No matter how many times I see the dogwood or cherry trees, I never get tired or them. These dogwood trees are all excellent!. Absolutly gorgeous work.

 

The rest of the story -

One of the shots shows two people in a discussion with the shooters. Well, actually it turns out they were more significant. I struck up a conversation and found that this was orignally her dogwood. Pat Massengale explained that they come down each year to see the tree in full blossom. So, of course I asked them to pose. I got her email address and she sent me her mailing address. I'm going to send her a photo of the two of them in front of their tree. If you all (excuse me... y'all) can decide on which full blown image of the tree to use how about sending them a nice large one of it along with a thank you letter for treasuring it for all to see?

Here they are:



Here's part of her email to me explaining its history

"The original farm was about 400 acres, now zoned in Cummins Research Park West, and this particular 400 acres was carved out of that Park and is now named the Thornton Industrial Park. Our farm house (built early 1900s was located in the middle of the new Madison Pike 5-lane roadway. The tree sat in front of the house near our driveway and the house was destroyed for this widening project a year before the tree was moved. The 400-acre site was owned (leased by us) by Southern Railroad, who sold it to the University Of Alabama Foundation,and, in turn, has been taken over by the City of Huntsville who have developed it as a new industrial park.

The original farm house burned in the 1930s and rebuilt (the original was insulated with straw). The fire, from what I can gather from older family and employees from the farm, was that the dogwoods circled the driveway and were young when transplanted there. The fire destroyed all the trees (it was thought), the our dogwood sprouted 4 babies around her. This is very rare as I've been told, because mother and siblings usually do not compete for nutrients and water. Dogwoods are supposed to be very sensitive, but this one is tough. The dogwood roots grow on top of and spread out over the ground, therefore, sometimes walkinng on roots of other dogwoods may even kill the trees. This one has been driven over with tractors, trucks, cars, horses, etc. and is apparantly unharmed. The Garden manager originally told me that the tree would be fenced off to keep people from walking near the root system....so glad that didn't happen. I watched last Saturday as 2 little boys climed on the limbs for parents to take pictures of them.

This tree just gets bigger and prettier all the time. It has been thru tornadoes and all kinds of snow/ice storms and never slowed down. I can recall only 1 Easter that the tree was not in bloom on Easter Sunday. I've also seen it bloom through snow and even ice. We had a good year this year.

The dogwood had been a wild tree transplanted from the wooded area on the farm, along with probably 8-10 more and were plannted in an oval shape around our gravel driveway. It was a working farm and this was the main entrance to the farm. The dogwood is tough, all of these vehicles drove so near all the time that the limbs would swipe the sides of the vehicles. We raised commercial grade cattle, cotton, corn and hay - horses, goats, chickens too!! My two childres (now 31 and 29) were born while we lived on the farm and I have many photos of them in and around the dogwood, Easter egg hunts, bunny's showing up at Easter, strangers popping in at sunrise Easter morning to get photos with kids in their Easter outfits....they didn't stop to ask permission because they knew we shared the tree. My husband was a pharmacist in Madison (just around the corner from the house), and knew almost everybody, since he was born in the area. The dogwood tree was the cornerstone of the history of our family. EVERY event of significance was noted by photos infront of the tree in or out of bloom....new kids coming home for the first time (one in March and the tree in full bloom), the other in November, while it was brilliantly red, new cars, trucks, tractors, cotton pickers, horses, dogs, just family gatherings, etc. My father-in-law, W. R. Rodman, leased the farm before us and he worked for the original owners of the farm, later leasing it. During droughts, he would fill the water tanks from the creek on property and haul the water to the tree to keep it watered. Dogwoods put on next year's blooms in August and they require a lot of water.

Needless to say, as I always do, I've rambled on too long, but I believe you can tell that the tree is a member of our family and will be remembered as such. BTW, I'm the only person who calls the tree "The Rodman Dogwood" and the Garden was supposed to have named it something other than the 100 yr. old tree!! It's only been 12 years and that's like having a kid that you just didn't get around to naming....guess that's why so many southern kids are just called "Bubba". Don't tell the Gard folks I said that or they may just name the dogwood "The Bubba Tree"!!

My named changed in 1990, after having left the farm a year earlier (and when David Rodman left the farm too-because of the road project)and my name now is Pat Massengale.

I really appreciate the fact that you are attracted to this tree and appreciate it for its beauty. God really blessed us all with such a beautiful jewel.

I have copies of the newspaper articles that I wrote and will be glad to send you those too. I did not keep any of the TV interviews - they just said the same thing.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend,"
Pat Massengale

 

wonderful post Wade, I am honored to have an image in it

 

Wow, Rich. I've known about the dogwood for quite some time, but I've never heard "the rest of the story". I'm so glad you stopped and chatted them up about it. Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

Neat story. I drive down that road (Madison Pike) everyday going to work.

 

They were the nicest couple! I was standing there getting ready to shoot and was idly listening as behind me, Rich chatted with them; suddenly I heard the woman say something about how the tree had been on their farm. I turned around in surprise. Wow! How neat that they should be there that day just when we all were....

 

WOW, Rich! What a touching wonderful story! I have a story about our dogwoods back home in Louisiana but not quite as nice as this one! They will really love that photo when you send it to them! Dogwood trees are soooo very special and so very beautiful!

 

Great idea to post all these wonderful shots here, Wade. And Rich, thanks for the info on the tree-quite a story.

 

Fantastic story, that is what is so much fun about this group. Great story Rich, thanks.

 

I printed two 8x10 shots of the couple in front of the tree and the entire tree and sent it to her on behalf of the Cafe.

Rich

 

Good on you Rich, nice gesture. It surely was nice to see these folks there.