"MUDD-GOOD"

Spring time is in full session in Arkansas. The grass is getting green & most of the blooming trees -- i.e., Redbuds, Dogwoods -- are even starting to slip past their most brilliant colors as their new leaves come forth. It's also the time of the year when the bamboo starts sending new stalks skyward. After a wet, cold, flooding Winter, I am glad for the change in seasons.

Possibly because of the weather conditions we experienced the past few months -- specifically the rain/flooding -- I think it affected the flowering of my Dogwood trees. The picture above is of the largest of the six trees on my property. And ... it's the only one that flowered this year. The other Dogwood trees are throwing leaves, but did not produce any color this year. I don't know why.

Note: I wrote "flowering", but in reality, the color of the Dogwoods -- in this case white; I have reds & pinks ... if they ever do show any color again -- is from the "bract" which holds the small, non-spectacular flower inside. The bract is what gives the tree color, but it is not the flower.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I have added six new Japanese Maple trees to my homestead this year. Prior to adding those new trees, I had five Japanese Maples in the ground -- one with green leaves & four with red leaves. The six new trees are mostly of the green variety, but with different leaf shapes & bark color. As they grow it will add to the mixture of colors & shapes in the North yard landscape.

The Japanese Maple above is a variety known as "Bloodgood", for the intense red color it displays in both the Spring & Fall. All four of my "Bloodgoods" have a pleasing shape to the trunk & branches. This particular tree is the one I see when watching TV --usually with an 85 pound cat on my lap -- as I look out the living room window to the back yard.

Through the years I have owned this property, I have added varieties of plants/trees which I have seen & admired elsewhere. An example would be the bamboo. I first became engaged to it on a trip to Colombia, South America. That really was some BIG bamboo. I loved it & had to have some of my own.

I was attracted to the red Japanese Maples by a tree in the front yard of the home of Mrs. Lavona "Mudd" Key in Paris, Tennessee. It was a tree of good color & shape, about 20 foot tall. It would easily be described as a "specimen plant". It really was that nice.

Through the years, I saw the tree many times. My desire for one of my own never faltered, but the desire was on "hold" due to the fact I owned a condominium in Memphis at the time. No private plantings.

"Mudd" -- everyone called her that ... I'm not sure how she acquired the nick name -- is the Grandmother of my friend Kathy -- AKA, "Wemus". Any visit to her & her husband's home on the Tennessee River would include a visit with "Mudd" in Paris. And, if I was lucky, a dinner cooked by Mudd. [Just EXCELLENT Southern cooking !!!]

Any time I was at Mudd's, I would admire the large red Maple tree in her front year, either looking through the front room window of the house, or going out into the yard & walking around the tree. I always wanted one of my own.

When I moved to Arkansas & had my own land -- & no restrictions on what to do with the land based on "Homeowner Association Rules" -- I acquired & planted my own Japanese Maple "Bloodgood".

But ... I don't call it that.

I have a Japanese Maple "Mudd-Good". It's a more fitting name, in memory of a fine lady, who was a teacher & a nurse, & touched many lives through her century of living, especially my friend/her granddaughter, "Wemus". [That apple dropped straight down off the tree.]

Mudd died a few years ago. I think it was just her time. She did so much in her 100+ years, I guess she just got worn down & worn out. We should all be so lucky to go that way.

He memory lives on; with her family, friends & the numerous people who knew her & were touched by her. I think of her with fondness when ever I look at my red Japanese Maple "Mudd-Good" trees. They will always be a living memory to her.