The little tree that could.

In 1990, I bought Liz this Japanese maple as a birthday gift. We choose a sunny spot in the yard where it would be prominent. Three years later, I noticed it was not growing and looking for the worse. After some research, I discovered Japanese maples don't like sunny places. It was burning up and would probably die. In 1996, hurricane Fran blew over a 70 foot cedar tree on top of this Japanese maple. Fortunately, there was a hole between two branches and the tree was not harmed. Two weeks later, a cleanup crew came through.........and as they were clearing the cedar tree away, it rolled onto the Japanese maple. The crushed and mangled little tree finally met it's match. By the next spring, I noticed it had some new growth. I cleaned off the dead broken branches and gave it some food and mulch. Every year, this little tree shows lichen growth on it's branches..........which indicates dead branches ..........but it continues to fill out with red leaves. This little survivor is twenty years old and the same size as when we planted it. I realized today that if this little tree can make it............so can I.