Live Oaks, Growing

 

Live oaks don't lose their luster in the fall. Southern Live Oaks, or Quercus virginia hold onto their leaves until spring and shed them just before their new crop arrives. They're very sturdy trees - they may drop their branches in a hurricane but rarely get uprooted and seem to thrive in lots of different soils. Left to themselves, they can live a long time. One of the oaks on my family's farm has a trunk equal to its cousin in size, the famous Angel Oak. The City of Charleston estimates that the Angel is over 1400 years old. We suspect the family oak has seen a lot of summers pass by too.

Live oaks remind me of some of the best parts of my childhood and driving down a road covered by an oak tunnel of branches and Spanish Moss sends me back to summer and that carefree feeling I used to get when I knew that ahead of us waited a dozen cousins, late night card games, all the tomatos, shrimp, and m&ms we could eat and a bookcase full of Readers Digest Condensed Books to catch up on.

I used to try to draw the oaks too, and my grandmother still has one rendition hanging up in her dining room. Every time I visit her, I see it and think that I need to try again. So each trip to the Island finds me taking dozens of pictures to use as models. This year, this was one of my favorites and I think I'm going to use it as the basis for my next try. Details to come.