Alamo Oak |
For a quick summary: About 25 and 1/2 years ago Tricia and I were engaged on the River Walk in San Antonio. On that evening, I picked up a handful of acorns from the big live oak tree right outside the Alamo and brought them home, planted them and one of them germinated. I figured that it would be a really neat thing to plant that tree and one day be able to point to the big live oak tree while we sat underneath the sprawling branches and tell our grandchildren and/or great-grandchildren that we picked up the acorn from which that tree grew on the day that Tricia and I were engaged.
That little oak seedling grew into a healthy live oak tree and was about 3 feet tall. Sometimes things don't work out as planned. At that time we lived in an apartment complex in Houston. We came home from work one day to find that someone had up-rooted our Anniversary Alamo Oak and it had dried out in the sun all day. I quickly re-potted it and watered it, but try as I might, I could not resurrect the oak.
Fast forward 25 years. For our anniversary, we re-traced our steps in San Antonio. At the end of the evening, we happened to walk past the big live oak outside the Alamo. Again, I picked up a handful of acorns and placed them in my pocket. I figured, "Let's try this again." I took them home and was able to get one to germinate. You can see the healthy, vigorous little live oak popping up out of the soil in the photo at the top of this post.
We talked about how big the tree might be today if the first one had survived. Well, it doesn't matter. We're going to try this again and hopefully this time, we'll meet with more success. Landmarks and old things that have a story or interesting history are very interesting to me. Because of the personal nature of this, it is even more special. I researched a little bit on the Alamo Oak from which our acorn dropped from and found this article: Article on the Alamo Oak - or Heritage Tree . The Heritage Tree - how fitting! Perhaps I'll write an update when one of our great-grandchildren are climbing in the branches of our Anniversary Oak.
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