Dogwood berries seem to be covering the big tree shading the
front deck. They are as red as I've ever seen them.
Southeasterners know dogwood trees make red berries in the Fall,
so why is this a big deal? Most Southeasterners also know about
dogwood blight, one on the many many diseases killing signature
trees in the South. Killing off our Southern legacy is a time
honored tradition. Chestnuts were the first to go. Chestnut wood
is amazing stuff. Beautiful, hard, resistant to rot and
insects...not to fungus though. Chestnut wood was so good, that
some lumbermen were disappointed that it didn't grow back fast
enough after they cut it all down. They wanted "more"...someone
always does. As the American Chestnut was timbered into
scarcity, the Chinese Chestnut was brought into America to make
up for it. Riding along on the Chinese tree was a fungus that
spread to every American Chestnut tree...they mostly all died.
Rumor has it that there are a few blight resistant trees out
there, but so far, an American Chestnu