This Bud's for You

Rebecca, from Bark Nursery, dropped by today.  We are still working at saving our heritage apple tree, well over a hundred years old and still bearing the most amazing apples.  Carol has been diligent in her efforts to propogate seeds, and root cuttings.  We even tried to revive a broken limb that was too heavy for the rotting trunk to support any more.

We tried air-layering, but with limited success.  Rebecca brought with her the tools to do some bud grafts. We are optimistic that we will be able to keep these apples around for some time to come!

Bud grafts are fascinating, and fascinatingly simple.  A tiny leaf bud (and yes, I had to learn the difference between a flower bud and a leaf bud) is sliced away with a razor blade.  It is taken to another apple tree, where a small slit is cut into the cambian layer. The little slice with the bud on it is slotted into that slit, bound in tightly with a grafting elastic (or wax -- we opted for the elastics, since we couldn't figure a way to keep the wax warm enough today, with the chilly wind). That seals out the air, and the bud can grow into the existing tree, eventually creating its own branch -- with its own special variety of apples.

Rebecca, who along with her husband Peter Buwalda, won a Natural Heritage Award in 2008 for their Nursery and Ecologic Garden enterprise near Baysville, is very interested in preserving heritage and native species. She's done some work for us at the resort, restoring some eroded shorelines, and she's done a lot of work around the Lake of Bays educating and restoring waterfront properties.

She is passionate about her work, about preserving our natural heritage, about our native plants and animals.  We're pretty sure, however, that Ed Lawrence, radio personality and author of Gardening Grief and Glory, never had to work under such trying conditions as Achmed the Cat provided...

Thanks Rebecca!  We know you'll be back to keep an eye on these tiny little buds, and join us in wishing them well as they grow to their potential.