My fondest memories of the dogwood trees were searching for the flowers every spring.
They came out in bloom in April and May around the same time as the bleeding hearts, trilliums and viola could be found in the forest.
These trees aren’t the ones you see today in people’s yards and along boulevards.
They were the wild trees.
The native trees to BC.
And they are called the Pacific Dogwood.
They became B.C.’s floral emblem in 1956.
As a child, I remember hunting through one section of the woods where I’d seen them the year before.
And getting distracted by the other flowers that were on the forest floor kept forgetting to look up.
Once found, never forgotten.
The dogwood trees would be ablaze with white flowers and the centres were yellow and all nubbly.
To a child, it was like seeing a tree full of lights in the dark of the woods.
I was so lucky in my youth having the woods to call my playground.
Now, I too have a dogwood tree in my backyard.
It sits on a slight knoll with a dark purple lilac right behind it.
The dark hues of the lilac stand out next to the creamy white of the dogwood and make it a perfect combination in the garden.
My tree alas is a hybrid.
One bred to have big flowers and be resistant to disease.
And I’m not complaining as it is beautiful.
But nothing compares to a walk in the forest hunting for the Pacific Dogwood of my youth.
Jigsaw Puzzle
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