A few years ago, I became aware of Hiroshi Sunairi’s Tree Project (see http://treeproject.blogspot.com/), a documentary film and accompanying effort to distribute seeds from trees that survived the bombing of Hiroshima.  There weren’t any seeds available at that time, but today I received a package in the mail containing a few of these precious seeds.

Specifically, Hiroshi sent four Enoki/Hackberry (Celtis sinensis or perhaps jessoensis), three Ginkgo (Gingko biloba), and one Tsubaki/Camellia (probably Camellia japonica).  As you can see from the photo above, the hackberry seeds arrived ready to roll, so I potted those up this afternoon, and put the ginkgo and camellia seeds in water to soak overnight.  I’m so excited to have these trees join the Felix Gillet quince (my other “history” tree) in the food forest.  Should they germinate and thrive, I’ve been thinking about trying to find a public home – Folsom Lake College, the new El Dorado County Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden, or perhaps at the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm – for one of these historic trees, with some sort of accompanying plaque.  History!