A Rose of Sharon "Tree"

Here is a photo of the Rose of Sharon "Tree" that was growing in the yard when I purchased my home on Freewill Baptist Church Road.  Since that was in October there were no flowers on the tree and I not being well versed in botany had no idea what it was.  My friend, Teresa, did know what it was.  Additionally it had the special characteristic of being fairly old.  Teresa's estimate, as well as others, put it at 70 to 100 years old.  Normally the Rose of Sharon is not in the form of a tree but of a shrub or bush. Recently I put my house up for sale.  We decided that we would move the tree.   The responses we got were, uniformly, that it should have been moved in the winter - it was now the end of April - and that it probably wouldn't live.  Never the less, it was now or never. While trying to find a person with the right equipment I began watering the base of the tree to dampen the soil both to make it easier for digging and to allow the tree and root ball to be hydrated. Our hero, a deft and patient man, Scott Mayhew, owner of All Quality Landscaping, from Golden Valley was able, as you see below, to extract and transplant our 'Rose'.

If you have an interest in visiting the tree or the Golden Valley School house please give us a call.  See our contact information on our home page.

The following pictures illustrate the procedure.

Here I am standing next to the tree which we have wrapped with a blanket to protect the trunk.  Pieces of styrofoam protect the lower branches from abrasion.	Here we have a second view of the tree.  It's proximity to the shed will make this a difficult task.	Here is Scott positioning his backhoe to begin digging.
The beginning of the trenching.	Scott works carefully trenching around all sides to create a root ball.	Now the tree has been fully trenched around and we see what soil remains to form the root ball.  We had previously explored to determine the extent of the root system.  We are losing some of the root system but have gotten most of it.
We begin the lift.	The tree is now fully in the bucket and almost ready to put onto the truck for hauling.	We have wrapped the root ball in plastic for its trip to a new home.
The tree is now being loaded onto the truck.  It will stay in the bucket for the trip.	The tree arrives at its new home in Golden Valley.	After a hole is dug the tree is positioned so we may remove the plastic from the root ball.
The tree is in place and is being positioned.	The tree is now in place and the hole filled.  Perforated pipes were place around the root ball to allow us to get water to the base of the root ball.	(Click here for a full screen image in a new window) As of June 15 the tree is doing well.  It is putting out new leaves and I expect it will blossom this summer. During this initial period the well had gone dry so we were bringing water in a 50 gallon container on our trailer and hand watering from that with an electric pump.
Here are the blossom buds	You may wonder whether the tree is really doing well.  It does look sparsely leafed.  In its original location it had the same appearance.  The leaves are small and it never fills out as some trees do.  Its maximum tip growth is about 1/4 of an inch each year.   As a young plant it would be adding tip shoots more than 1/4 inch per year.  The surprise and consequent delight we had when I bought my house was that it had survived a number of owners.  The photos of its original location show that it was not well placed with relation to the two sheds.  It is fortunate for the tree that the owners who built the sheds determined to leave the tree undisturbed.	The new location places the tree next to a 76 year old four room school house.  The school house was built in 1932 in what was then and even now a rural section of the county.  At the time and for its location, it is amazing that such a structure would have been constructed.   The building consists of four school rooms and an auditorium on one floor.   Below the main floor are two additional rooms, one being used as a lunch room and the other a work room.  The two lower rooms are not below ground as the land slopes sufficiently to place them also at ground level.