Our Austrees – A Lesson In Growth

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 4:42 pm

In November of 2008, the end of the growing season, my Husband’s Mom and Step-Dad brought with them from Idaho, 2 little starts of some of their Austrees. Austrees are a very fast growing hardy tree, a hybrid of the Willow. I remember fondly the Weeping Willow tree we had in our backyard growing up. It was huge and originated from just three little twigs from the corner neighbor’s tree. It grew to epic proportions, and we eventually had to chop it down after being damaged several times over the years in storms, and after way too many times of taking out the power lines (and once falling on the roof of the neighbor’s garage). I’ve always loved the Willow tree, so I was excited to see what these would be like. They have the shape of the leaves of the Willow, just not drooping like the Weeping Willow, and incredible speed of growth, which is great for a new backyard that desperately needs trees.

	This is the Austree on the left in our backyard. As I said, it was planted as just a little start. While it didn’t get much of a chance to do anything the first year it was planted because the growing season was over, it heartily made it up in last year’s season. This lil runt grew to 7 feet in that one season. It’s slightly smaller and weaker than its counterpart, but more full.
	This is the Austree on the right in our backyard. This is the champion of champions. We had a little rabbit that ran through the yards, and it got hungry that first winter and chewed this start down to within an inch of the ground. We thought it was all over for that one. But, this little slugger proved us wrong. It started anew right behind that one inch lil stub and grew from nothing to 8 foot last growing season. Because we had put wire mesh screens and stakes around the trees to protect them from any little critters who would nibble on them in their fragile state while they were growing, this one got damaged in a wind storm by scraping against the top of the screen. So, it’s a little barren on it’s right side, but it’s coming back.

These two Austrees have been champions of growth, showing that from little to nothing, something great can come of it. I’m so proud of my trees and am so excited to see what they do this season. My Father-In-Law thinks they will double in size this year. Wow! I can’t wait! I know already, I’ve seen around a half foot of growth on each tree and the trunks have gotten thicker.

These trees are definitely and inspiration. If these trees can attain that much growth – from little to nothing, anyone can. It just takes the will to grow!