Arborism for Posterity, or “What Is That Boxie In the Window?”

My friend DrDan is a man consumed with interests as broad and idiosyncratic as my own, which I guess is one reason we have become friends in recent years.  He’s also a pretty amazing furniture maker with a passion for preserving the knowledge and materials of the past.

One of the hurdles he recognizes about replicating historically important furniture making is the scarcity of many of the woods consumed in generations and centuries past.  To address this matter, and frankly in great part to assuage his own curiosity, he has begun to sprout and nurture seedlings for trees long passed from our marketplace.

Last summer some of these seedlings arrived on my porch.  So, I now have a makeshift greenhouse sitting adjacent to the south-facing dining room windows.  It contains four seedlings DrDan sprouted, including Santo Doming mahogany, Brazilian rosewood, and Red Sandalwood.  We’ll see how long I can keep them alive, as I’m not the gardener in the family.  I’m probably closer to Chauncy Gardner than tree gardener, but I will give it a yeoman’s effort.

DrDan is even trying to sprout and nurture some diospyros, so we await those developments anxiously.  That’s Gabon ebony to youse.