Wednesday, March 18, 2009

A bit of the true north strong and free in downtown Toronto

[Photo: white pine in College Park.]Monday was a beautiful sunny day, and it gladdened my heart to see young white pine trees (Pinus strobus) glowing in the spring sunshine. (At least, I think these are white pines.) If you stand in the right place, you can almost imagine you're in a forest.

[Photo: white pine in College Park.]You can never have too many photos of white pine, the provincial tree of Ontario. I have a special attachment to white pine because the house where I grew up in eastern Ontario had a massive white pine in front of it.

[Photo: trees at College Park.]Here you can see that in fact this pretty little grove is surrounded by highrises. This is in the courtyard behind College Park at College and Bay.

[Photo: more trees at College Park.]What a difference a few trees make, especially in an urban environment.

[Photo: even more trees at College Park.]

[Photo: Nicky with bear at College Park.] [Photo: Nicky with eagle at College Park.]That's my handsome son Nicky posing with the sculptures behind College Park.

[Photo: tree in planter that looks far too shallow.]I always wondered how trees could survive in these little planters, which look far too shallow to accomodate a tree's roots.

[Photo: the secret of the tree planter revealed!]Here's the secret—they're not a shallow as they look! Still, only a small tree could live in a planter like this. Maybe an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), a very pretty native tree that I think is woefully underused here in Toronto.

1 comment:

  1. Kinda cool to see the tree troughs. They are deeper than I would have suspected. But still, it's a pretty harsh environment for a tree, with all the heat bouncing up from all that pavement. At least here, it doesn't have to worry about dogs & salt.

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