‘Remarkable Trees’

Old Dominion’s Trees Are Showcased In New Book

“Remarkable Trees of Virginia,” Nancy Ross Hugo, Jeffrey Kirwan, photography by Robert Llewellyn (Albemarle Books, $39.95, 2008)

Longtime garden writer Nancy Ross Hugo teams up with Jeffrey Kirwan, an extension specialist and professor in the department of forestry at Virginia Tech, to create a stunning yet subtle coffee-table book, terrifically titled “Remarkable Trees of Virginia.”
This pair’s knowledge of sassafras and serviceberries flourishes alongside the captivating photography of Robert Llewellyn, who began efforts to research, locate and photograph Virginia’s most remarkable trees in 2004.
In Giles County, red cedars grow along the Pembroke Cliffs, just above the New River.
The authors find red spruce lining the War Spur Trail in the Jefferson National Forest and, along the shores of Mountain Lake, take a look at the eastern hemlocks of Giles County.
Species vary from the baldcypress, estimated at more than 800 years old in the swamps of the Blackwater River at Southampton County, to the silver maple of Bland County and the nation’s largest weeping willow, growing on a farm at Burke’s Garden.
In Marion, Lllewellyn captures “Sallie’s Crying Tree” with a photograph of retired teacher Evelyn Lawrence, shielded by an umbrella.
This tree takes it name from one of Lawrence’s grandmothers, Sallie Adams, a slave girl who hugged this white oak daily, crying for her family to come home after they had been sold as slaves.
“The Willoughby Oak” of Norfolk stands behind a protective fence, while a white oak in Blacksburg, between Draper Street and Preston Avenue, measures 17 feet in circumference and is estimated to be 400 years old.
At Lodi, in Washington County, the hardcover “Remarkable Trees of Virginia” features a photograph of 9-year-old Jacob Heath, posing beside a northern red oak that measures nearly 8 feet in diameter.

“Backroads and Byways of Missouri,” Archie Satterfield (The Countryman Press, $16.95, 2008)

“Backroads and Byways of Texas,” Amy K. Brown (The Countryman Press, $16.95, 2008)

From the Mexican border to the Star Drug Store in the Strand, author Amy K. Brown tours Texas with an eye for the unusual.
Brown cruises through the Panhandle Plains and Canyons.
She discovers cattle grazing in Big Bend country. She explains the popularity of “Blue Bell” ice cream.
The author also traverses “Lyndon and Lady Bird’s Hill Country” and explores the rich life of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose roots were planted deep in the Lone Star State.
With original photographs, several sidebars and a useful list of contacts, including phone numbers, addresses and Web sites, a traveler could tour for weeks with Brown’s book, “Backroads & Byways of Texas: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions.”
Likewise, you could also make do for about a month using Archie Satterfield’s similar “Backroads & Byways of Missouri: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions.”
Though part of the same series, Satterfield focuses more on historical pursuits, while Brown often likes to drop mentions of where to get a good batch of seafood or tell what bed-and-breakfast might suit you best.
Just west of Tennessee, Satterfield makes Missouri a fun place to be. He takes you to the home of Mark Twain at Hannibal. He also drifts down U.S. 160, as it connects Poplar Bluff to Branson over the course of 200 miles.
Satterfield’s 167-page book features 11 tours, while Brown, at 248 pages, offers 10 treks.