Good story. My guess is trees sneak up on ppl that way. Much the way trees sneak up and encapsulate bikes left leaning on them.

For me when visiting my Grandmother's house there were some landscaping books. So when we were there with no Atari I would read them.

When I first moved out I was in an apartment and things lied dormant for awhile.

Then I got my house with an acre of ground and some big trees. For practicle and curiousity purposes I had to identify them. In the course of doing so I saw a Metasequoia trunk.

It was the neatest thing ever! And I could order one from the Arbor Day Foundation for eight bucks.

The rest is history.

Interesting topic.

For me it started when I was very young, kindergarten and early grade school. During my most formative years I lived in the inner city. Right before kindergarten my parents moved to a suburban area, with an older house (35yo at the time, 60yo now) and a wooded lot, which backed onto what was (to a 5yo) a big patch of woods. Add in my grandfather who also had a wooded lot and was into landscaping (always took us grandkids with him to the local nursery), and the rest is history...

As it happens, it never became more than an interest to me... I ended up following another early passion and became a meteorologist.

If I think back on it, my father and brother helped feed my interest in trees. The interest became an ever-growing fire, soon knowing way more than both of them combined.
I would read over and over the many tree books that my father had, that were collecting dust in his collection.

This fire in me continued into the present day, pushing me to eat tree leaves, and questioning to myself, am I a goat or human?

I would say as a 7-8-9 y.o. we had a nearby woods with a seasonal pond that I spent considerable time in/near. And one day I picked some shreddy bark and smelled it and it was wonderful - sassafras. The woods were a little sanctuary and exploratorium. And as a maybe 7 y.o., I recorded the frogs and used to go to sleep to the recording.

Social scientists see the emotional/cognitive connection when discussing benefits of greenery, and the smell and frogs and sound are what I bring up when I discuss the cognitive benefits of urban trees.

Dan

My family, basically.
My great grandparents farmed in Fresno.
My grandpa is a Hoya collector, an Orchid breeder, and a landscape architect in Hawaii.
I was born in the ferny redwoods, up in Humboldt county, which had a massive impact.
My father is a life-long gardener, and my mother has always raised houseplants.
I must also mention J.R.R. Tolkien, who was a great lover of trees and green things.

Josh

The orange oriental poppies in the front yard caught my interest, and it went from there.

I was 19 years old at the time, and wanted to find out what kind of native trees were in my own yard. Shortly after, I received a book on identifying trees and it kind of snowballed from there.... and now 6 years later the interest (addiction, ha) is stronger than ever..

J

A trip to Wisconsin's Northwoods as a kid with my family into an old growth Hemlock forest. That combined with playing in "The Woods" behind our house- climbing trees, tree forts, hide-and seek, playing army.

tj

When my husband and I got our second house the first was on a small lot with houses so close together you could open a window and spit on the neighbors house. This house was on 2 acres and no had absolutely nothing planted on it. I bought books on trees and perennials and it grew from there. I payed more attention to plants and it's been an obbsession since then.That was in the 90's. poaky

Those pesky neighbors on their decks..they where nice, but boy there where some days I just didn't want to see their mugs. First house, 3 trees. Next house, 23 trees. Current house, the sky is the limit. I just cracked my 30s so I hope this obessession doesn't escalate with age!

From as far back as I can remember I have always loved the wild places. The most beautiful of them always had lots of trees. Beautiful shady trees that whispered in the wind and dappled the sun into dancing circles beneath them.

When I was little it always upset me when I saw a tree being cut down and I pitied the poor tree my parents brought home at Christmas.

Like Josh I have a love for J. R. R. Tolkien and I relish his descriptions of forests and trees.

Today my most prized garden plants are my trees. One of the main reasons I wanted to own my own home was so I could plant my favorite trees. I have been cultivating my own little patch of green for some years. It's mostly trees.

Landscaping my yard as a newbie, I started with perennials....the next year it progressed to a clematis fettish. Then, I decided to add shrubs and then later trees. Yeah, I know, I had it all backwards.

My first tree was a popple. I didn't know any better. I remember my FIL said to me, "You bought a POPPLE?" and I'm thinking, yeah isn't it great. DUH. Suffice to say, I've come a long way... I learned to research first, buy later.

I think I was on the clematis forum, and I was referred by another member over here with a tree question..she told me there's lots of activity over here..and plenty of character. I have to say I've had some really good laughs on this forum (the 100 foot tree someone tried to "transplant"...ROFLMAO). Anyway, everyone's tree knowledge here picqued my interest and it grew from there, so in part I can credit this forum.

I live on 1/8 acre and I have accumulated about 10-11 trees so far.

Mine started when I was curious about the shrub that seemed to take over the woods behind my house and just about everywhere else. After much studying I learned that it was Chinese Privet, then I took an interest in studying invasive plants, which then led to my interest in native plants.

Hmmm I think I was born up a tree!

My interest in trees 'grew' with my interest in gardening in general and accumulated knowledge over the years. kimcoco's process is pretty much SOP for most new gardeners and certainly similar to my experience - I started with perennials and annuals on my first apartment balcony, later with an early house rental and progressed from there. As my interest in gardening grew, so did my interest in various plant types. Once I decided on gardening and horticulture as a career path and started working in a nursery, all bets were off and I began a serious plant collection. My former garden of almost 25 years had only a single tree in it when I moved in - there were nearly 20 planted in ground when I left and many more grown in containers.

whaas, you are never too old to plant a tree!! As to the number?.......only limited by the size of property you garden :-)

Ditto tsugajunkie - my love of trees started as a kid, playing in the woods in back and climbing trees (didn't play army though). Since a small child I've had a great love of nature and that intensified when I started to garden about 25 years ago (starting with a large veggie/herb garden, that progressed later to all kinds of flora.)

Forests and woodlands are so peaceful and beautiful, just walking into one is a stress-relieving experience. Trees have a staid strength, and it awes me that some of them have been alive for hundreds of years, proudly standing in place, a witness to the caprice of the human activity that comes and goes around them.

Some of my most memorable travel experiences have been visiting places like the El Yunque rainforest in Peurto Rico or the Rockefeller Redwood Forest in Humboldt Redwoods state park.

I would spend my summers at my grandparents place in the country with lots of woods,ponds,fruit trees,and big gardens.This is how I became to love evrerything outdoors.Now 25 years later this is my place.I always plant fruit trees.I planted some fruit trees as a teenager and they have been bearing fruit for a good time now.I am in my 30s now and I bought another 20acers joining the 65acers home place.Now I am planting bareroot trees on this 20 acres (mostly oak trees)The more I study about trees the more adictive it gets I orderd almost a thousand bareroot trees that will be here in January. Now I am shareing this knowledge with my 3 kids.I think it will only get more adictive!

How Did You Become Interested In Trees?

I don't recall ever being disinterested in trees, therefore I cannot answer how I became interested in trees. I was born interested. And I don't know that I'd call it interest at this point. I sort of depend on trees. You might as well ask me "when did you become interested in air?"

When I was little I liked playing outside. Our backyard was small, but had many established oak-hickory forest hardwood species from my region. I always had very good eyesight and it was easy for me to tell the difference and identify the trees. My parents are also avid vegetable gardeners which gave me the opportunity to learn from them and get excited about seeing something new and different while outside.

When I was a little boy, just few years ago, I always went to my countryside at the weekends. There were some much different trees, and they were huge!! We have here, in Estonia, not very much different trees: Norway spruce, Scots pine, Silver birch, Common ash etc. All those names are in Estonian called "common", like common spruce, common pine..
But just two years ago I started looking for different hardy trees. In that time I fell in love...

My Uncle owned a tree company and I worked summers for him during high school and college. Learned a lot and it has served me well over the years.

I used to walk/hike a lot.

During my hikes, I began to notice the immense specimens of trees that dotted my paths, and began to marvel at their stature and long life.

Then I began to notice what made them different.

I discovered trees weren't nearly as invunerable as I previously thought. I ran my car into a tree, avoiding another car, ... and that tree died a year or so later.

I saw trees decimated by a windstorm that snapped some in two like their trunks were matchsticks (our lights were out for a week). And I saw many of the the trees that seemingly survived, die in the subsequent years.

Of course, I noticed the fall colors as a child, particularly the butter yellow of the Tulip Tree, as well as the reds, oranges and yellows of the maples.

I noticed the absolutely huge leaves of the American Sycamore, and how that tree's upper half is barked in white.

I noticed the smooth bark of the Beech trees.

I noted that conifers aren't really all cylindrical, and began to wonder what was the difference between a pine, and a fir, and a spruce or hemlock.

At some point, I was simply fascinated.

I grew up in an older neighborhood with lots of large, established trees. The neighborhood had been built in an old forest as well and towering oaks and a thick forest isolated it from the rest of the world. I always have fond memories climbing the magnolias and the explosion of color during spring when the dogwoods and azaleas bloomed. I suppose that trees are way of recapturing my youth!

I read "Bringing Nature Home" by D. Tallamy about a year ago and had an environmental audit done by some folks at the Audubon Society. For the first time in a long time, I felt there was actually something I could do that would have a lasting, positive impact on nature. Living a few miles from Morris Arboretum and looking out the window to see this everyday also helps:

{{gwi:500649}}

I grew up in Aiken, SC, under the canopy of live oaks. In the summer, when I would leave home at 9 am on my bike, and the temperatures would regularly reach 100 degrees, shade became very important. I loved those live oak trees for their cooling shade.

It was the conifers of Oregon and the enormous quantity of gardens in residential landscapes/businesses' be it trees or a single tree or rhododendron(s)/camellia(s), or expansive gardens that are seen everywhere; and to see a 30'/ 10m tall rhododendron in full bloom & just as wide is a spectacle itself that will draw a person to pull their car over to look at such a thing... there was a 70+ year old climbing rose at one home I rented that was planted by my landlords mother; and a purple lilac that was 10m tall trained as a single trunk at the same home. And this is all common which is the remarkable part of it all. These types of things you just won't find in IL or the mid-west - that was Portland.

Dax

deer hunting

My dad had a thing for pecan trees and fruit trees. Taught me how to air layer the branches, etc. Interests in trees were greatly enhanced when I bought a house with only one tree and it was very hot in the summer so I needed shade but wanted nice fall color. Ended up planting a mixture of red/yellow Shantung maples in front/side yard that would eventually be mini-forest...