It has been said that the parts of a tree teach us lessons of spiritual significance. Roots, although hidden, provide constant sustenance to a tree just as faith, which is invisible, continuously sustains the soul.
The vegetative parts of a tree — trunk, branches, and leaves — exist for the sole purpose of producing fruit whose seeds will grow into the next generation of trees. Similarly, a person leaves a legacy behind, passed down through children, students, or enduring, creative enterprises.
In the Bible, Deuteronomy 20:19 states, “For man is a tree of the field.” The fact that a tree is likened to a human being who does not stand alone but is “of the field” recognizes that we are not meant to live only for ourselves but to be fully engaged in the “field of life” that surrounds us.
Similarly, in the Bible, Psalm 92 instructs that there are two kinds of righteous individuals, represented by cedar trees and date palms. The cedar grows to a massive height, indicating staunch and glorious growth, but it produces no edible fruit. This corresponds to the individual who is entirely focused on personal refinement and spiritual advancement but has little influence on others. A date palm, on the other hand, does not reach the same elevated height (sacrificing its own spiritual growth) as a cedar tree but instead produces sweet fruit — likened to students — that benefit the entire world. The ideal human being will possess both the integrity and solid values of the cedar tree as well as the date palm’s generous and nurturing presence.
If you regularly eat dates but still worry about things, you are probably eating the wrong kind of dates. There is a discussion in the Talmud, recorded 1,500 years ago, about the salutary properties of dates. Aside from curing intestinal disorders and shrinking hemorrhoids, dates are praised for their ability to eliminate worry. The anxiolytic, if not tranquilizing, power of dates may be attributed to their high sugar content. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who translated the entire Talmud into English, commented that “eating a large quantity of concentrated date sugar raises the level of sugar in the blood, causing a feeling of drowsiness and a desire to sleep, similar to the feeling after drinking alcohol. For this reason the Sages said that a person who has eaten dates should not issue legal decisions.”
The dates we eat today are not the same type grown when the Talmud’s discussion took place. It had long been thought that the famed Judean date, together with its vaunted therapeutic properties, had disappeared forever. At one time, a 120-mile-long, seven-mile-wide date palm forest filled the Jordan Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. But between the land of Israel’s occupation by the Romans, beginning in 63 BC, and the exit of the Crusaders, in 1291, all the Judean date palms disappeared, whether through abandonment or outright destruction.
Since ancient times, one of the strategies for subjugating people in the Middle East has been the destruction of date palms, upon which both diet and economy depend. Twenty-five years ago, to punish date farmers who did not support his regime, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein systematically drained marshes whose water had been used to irrigate enormous date orchards, leading to the death of tens of thousands of trees.
For centuries, there was no reason to believe that Judean date palms, or their fruit, would ever be seen again. In 2005, however, a 2,000-year-old date palm seed, discovered in the Masada fortress opposite the Dead Sea, was germinated in a kibbutz not far from where it was found. However, date trees are dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female trees and one of each is needed for pollination and fruit production to occur. The Masada seed grew into a male tree dubbed Methuselah and, soon after, a similarly ancient seed was discovered close by in a Judean Desert cave that developed into a female tree. It was named Hannah, and Methuselah was its pollinator.
The fruit and seed that resulted from this pollinating event contained a genetic surprise. Upon DNA analysis, the seed was found to contain genes from dates that flourished in Mesopotamia to the east and North Africa to the west. This combination of identities indicated that growers from two millennia ago were engaged in date palm hybridization. As for the fruit, it has been described as having a high-profile, honey-like flavor with a pleasantly chewy consistency, in addition to being of enormous size. This description aligns with that of Herodotus and Pliny the Elder in their characterizations of the Judean date.
Date palm seeds generally do not require special attention in order to germinate. Seeds from fresh dates are easier to sprout than those from dried ones, but both types are likely to germinate. Soak the seeds in water for 72 hours, changing the water once a day. Then dunk some peat moss in water to the point of saturation, mingle your date seeds within its fibers, and place moss and seeds inside a sealed plastic bag. Within two to four weeks, most of the seeds will have sprouted, at which point they can be removed from the bag and planted in regular potting soil.
Moving to marigolds
Carrie de Haaff, who gardens in Laguna Niguel, sent a photo of some glorious African marigolds (Tagetes erecta) that had grown to a height of four feet. Native to Mexico, they do not require much attention to thrive. As de Haaff reported: “I found a packet of marigold seeds in my kitchen drawer and decided to sprinkle them where there were open spaces in some flowerpots in early June. I covered them with a little soil from the pot. The marigolds sprouted and just kept getting taller and bigger. I have been watering them with a hose when I water the rest of the pots in our yard. My husband and I replant most of the pots twice a year. In the spring, we plant cosmos and vincas. In the winter we do snapdragons and stock. Over the 25 years we have lived here, we have experimented with many flowers, finding that vincas are the easiest to grow and last the longest. We also have changed where we shop, finding that Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano has the best quality flowers and other plants.”
Do you have a gardening experience to share? If so, send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments, as well as gardening conundrums and successes, are always welcome.
California native of the week: Redshank or ribbon wood (Adenostoma sparsifolium) gets its name from peeling shanks or ribbons of red bark, complemented perfectly by bright evergreen foliage. This is a large shrub or small tree growing 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide. It is excellent for slope planting and erosion control. We are in the middle of its bloom period, which extends from July through September. Flowers are white and borne in large clusters that cover the plant. 15-gallon specimens are available at the Theodore Payne Foundation (theodorepayne.org) in Sun Valley and at its satellite Los Nogales Nursery in the Audubon Center at Debs Park in northeast Los Angeles.