Tyler's Tree: January

It does not look like much right now! There were green leaves on the tree when we planted it on December 8th, but the cold seems to have gotten to the leaves. My mother assures me it will probably be all right in the spring! It is a transplant that came up at her house. We planted two or three other rain trees that day but this one is Tyler's memorial tree.

Here we have Mama's shadow with Tyler's tree.

I took liberties with my editing because there really isn't much to see with the dried up leaves and the puny little trunk of this tree as it is now. But I do have high hopes for it to take off and grow in the spring. Maybe next month I will tell the tree all about how I am documenting its growth over the coming year and it will be encouraged to grow well!

I can't accurately tell you how its growth progresses. The site I found when I googled "rain trees" says this:

The Golden Raintree Shade Tree is a medium-sized shade tree that produces a remarkable floral display in June and July, in a cascade of brilliant yellow flowers produced in enormous panicles. The Golden Raintree turns bright yellow in the fall. Inflated decorative seed pods turn from pale green to pink as Summer progresses are very ornamental. The spring yellow flowers of the Golden Raintree are followed by Chinese lantern shaped oriental seedpods.

The Golden Rain Tree is a fast growing flowering tree that reaches twenty-five feet at maturity. The bright yellow flowers form huge clusters usually over one foot in diameter. After flowering the Golden Rain Tree flower clusters change into very attractive lantern clusters with that exotic oriental look. Each lantern contains seeds that birds and squirrels feed upon during the winter. In July when the lanterns first form they show color transition from pink to yellow, and then in late fall become a chocolate brown in color.

But for now, it is a tangle of stick branches and a few dead leaves. I believe it is about five feet tall. I will measure it in February. I don't expect it will look much different then from how it looks now. Well, yeah, it might have fewer leaves by then.

This last photo was taken with my phone and I added a texture layer to it. My shadows says "I am here, holding Tyler's memory in my heart."