Tricia, I hated the pines, too! I grew up in Ouachita Parish, and they felt claustrophobic to me. But after I moved to Texas, after a few years I missed them. When I went back to West Monroe after I had been here several years, I found myself loving the pines and that soft air you find in the Delta South. Driving along the new-to-me
I-20, I wasn't sure exactly where I was until I began to see the tall pines. I knew I was getting close to La. I had hated the look, the sticky stuff on the bark, the brown carpet of the fallen needles everywhere. Things change! I have brought seedlings here several times, but they just can't survive and thrive for long in this alkaline soil. Nor can the plants I mentioned, so I appreciate the acidity I once disliked. On the other hand, my sister comes here and loves the things she can't grow under her pines.
The nice thing about a good stand of pines is that you can sell it off for pulpwood every 10 or 15 years, and immediately start working on the next crop. Or you can cut it in strips and alternate so you have more frequent crops, if you can find haulers willing to do it as you tell them to. Even if you clearcut, in just a year or two the buried seeds will have sprouted and you will once again have a new stand of pines. In the old days, a grandfather often planted a stand of pines and bought a jersey calf when a new child was born. He bred the jersey, kept every other one if the calves were good, sold the bulls or butchered them, and built a small herd for the child. At a young age, the child knew which was his cow and her calves, and when he needed anything, he was likely to be told he must wait until he sold a cow. When he was 18, his pines were ready to cut, having been thinned and managed by gf through the years, and this would pay for his education or a wedding or whatever he decided it should. Many families maintained large pieces of land with the various offspring benefitting from the timber and herds under the guidance of gf.
So I have a very good feel for pines now. But I also love Texas, so I have a foot in each camp and you know you can't straddle fences and win.
I bet someone will buy you a camellia for a housewarming present. If not, may I have the honor? All I would ask is that you let me select it and then you care for it. It would be pink, of course.
Know what else I hated as a child? Crepe myrtles! We had them in Louisiana and Mississippi, wherever we lived, and I thought they were so messy. I hated Rose of Sharon, or Althea, because it attracted large bumblebees and I was afraid of them. I hated palmetto, it was too ragged. I didn't like mimosa, it was too flamboyant. What I thought I would want to grow forever was Azaleas, camelias, roses, iris, glads, monkey grass and liriope, juniper, oaks and fruit trees, grape vines, and some fussy things I don't recall. Now I look at things differently.
