Blaine Manor
They say (to paraphrase slightly) that "One's home is
one's
castle.", and ours is just that: Our beloved realm.
We refer to it
(perhaps somewhat grandly) as Blaine Manor. In
actuality, it is an
old family joke which was started by my now deceased
father-in-
law, Sam, and was originally a reference to the home
my husband
grew up in, but is now perpetuated by us and is a reference
to our
home.
We live in Orange, Essex County, (Northern) New Jersey,
USA.
Orange is a city with a population of approximately 30,000.
It is
rather urban, being adjacent to Newark (the county seat
and home
of Newark International Airport). Mid-town Manhattan
(usually
referred to as "The City") is easily visible, and only
a short distance
away: a 12 minute train ride during "rush hour",
or a 20 minute
drive in (through the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels) when
it is NOT
"rush hour".
The Oranges (East Orange, Orange, West Orange, and South
Orange) are still, even in the 21st century, an obviously
once
heavily forested area. Trees of all kinds (many
are very, very old
and huge) still stand tall over the residences and businesses
of the
area. Many of these are trees which blossom every
Spring and
Summer, and there is quite a variety. The time
from early Spring
through late Spring is truly beautiful here. There
are plenty of
flowering pear trees, apple trees, crabapple trees, quince
trees,
flowering plum trees, dogwoods, mulberry trees, weeping
cherry
trees, just to name a few, all over the Oranges.
There is also a
very special species of magnolia, known as the "Fig Magnolia",
which is seen everywhere.
There is a funny historic anecdote regarding these magnolias,
too.
A peddler went through this area in the second quarter
of the 19th
century selling what he claimed were a special species
of the fig
tree which was "guaranteed" to be hardy for this climate
and still
produce the fruit. (Of course, there is no fig
hardy enough for our
climate!) Anyway, "our" Victorian ancestors bought
all of his baby
"fig" trees -- practically every one had
planted at least one or two
of these trees in their yards. Imagine what a surprise
everybody
had when these trees turned out to be large, beautiful,
hardy
magnolias, instead !! Of course, the peddler was
long gone, and
nowhere to be found, after his duplicity was discovered
!!
As it turns out, these magnolias come in two distinct
varieties, and
neither of them has ever been found anywhere else in
the world
except this area. (Love to know where the wily
peddler found
them...)
One variety is a tree that grows with only one main trunk
and it
branches out wide and bushy (much like an apple tree,
only much
larger) and approximate average height is 30 feet to
50 feet.
The other variety is a tree that grows with several trunks
-- no
single main trunk -- (more like a bush, only it is a
large tree) and
tends to appear to be a small clump of trees squished
close
together until you inspect it closer and realize that
it is actually one
tree. This kind is slightly smaller than the other
magnolia, growing
to approximately 25 feet to 35 feet in height, although
some of
these are taller.
Both varieties have large traditionally shaped magnolia
blossoms
that look and smell like their southern cousins.
The flowers vary
slightly in their pale pink color from tree to tree,
but all of them are
easily recognizable as magnolias. In fact, on the
few occasions
when we've had house guests from North Carolina, South
Carolina,
Tennessee, and Georgia, all have expressed astonishment
to see
magnolias growing this far North.
We have one of these magnolias, which pretty much dominates
our
front yard (the kind with a single main trunk).
Just a few years ago,
I planted a new hardy species of dwarf magnolia (a
"baby" tree of
only 5 years old) in our back yard, which has small white
blossoms
and is supposed to grow only to about 8 feet to 10 feet
high, but
that is not at all like these wonderful old magnolias.
Branchbrook Park in Newark is well known for it's flowering
cherry
trees (cherry blossoms). It has the largest number
of cherry
blossoms in the country. Even more than are found
in Washington DC!
In the springtime, people come from all over the world
in record numbers
to see these beautiful blossoms!
Every spring, Main Street in West Orange is lined with
flowering
pear trees. All up and down Main Street, both sides
of the street
are lined with those beautiful fluffy white blossoms...
It is incredibly
beautiful.!
Check out the
Washington Tree
Article from the Star-Ledger
