Re: 'Nuptial Trees'

This reminds me of a Greek village custom which is also disappearing.
Every time a girl was born the father would plant cypress trees.  By the
time she was of marriageable age they could be cut down and sold for masts
or telephone-poles and provide a good dowry.  Less symbolic and poetic,
I'm afraid.
By the way, Tim, loquats are early summer fruit, and not late.  Do any of
the Italians have information about that loquat-seed liqueur?
Cali

Tim Longville wrote:

> A friend's just sent me a fascinating cutting from a 20-year-old issue
> of the RHS journal, in which a man named Henry Cocker talks about the
> ancient custom in Northern Italy, where he then lived (at Noventa di
> Piave), of newly weds planting a hardy tree at each corner of their
> new home, as 'signs of permanency, ownership, love of the land - and
> sensible investments for future profit.'
>
> The trees involved were traditionally mulberry (for fruit in summer
> and for foliage as silkworm-food), persimmon (for fruit in late
> autumn/early winter), walnut (for, yep, you guessed), and loquot, from
> the fragrant winter flowers, the fruit in late summer (and the fruit
> kernels, which formed the basis of a ferocious home-made liquor).
>
> Even when Mr Cocker wrote, the custom was dying. Can any of our
> Italian members tell us, Has it now died? Or, like many old customs in
> many places, has it since been revived?
>
> Apart from its interest in itself, the story made me wonder what *I*'d
> choose as my 'quartet of hardy trees' if I found myself in a new
> house. Suggestions, anyone? Remember, ideally they need to be both
> beautiful and useful.
>
> (Mr Cocker also talked interestingly about traditional N. Italian
> hedging shrubs- including Poncirus, Maclura and Edgeworthia, the last
> one grown, unlike the other two, as much for its scented winter
> flowers as for any sheltering or defensive qualities. Are those still
> favourites there, I wonder? Mr C seemed to suggest that planting them
> was another dying tradition, as plastic netting and breezeblock walls
> took over.)
> Tim Longville
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