Mary and Lazarus

One evening after my husband pitted an avocado and made some yummy guacamole, he took the pit and set it on our kitchen window sill to dry. I didn't know what he was up to, or what an amazing story would unfold. A few days passed and the pit split and he put it in a glass of water with some tooth pics stuck in it to keep half of it above the water line. Long white roots began to emerge so he placed it in a quart jar and the roots kept coming. I didn't think it was going to make it because each time the leaf stalk would come, it would wither. So, I thought one day, "Hey, why don't I put the jar in a bag and give the roots some darkness, so it will be kind of like it is in the soil. That did the trick. A beautiful stock of leaves emerged! We planted in a large pot and I read that avocado trees have a very powerful growth hormone and if you do not cut it back, it will just be a really tall spindle plant and won't look like a tree. The cut is very severe. You must cut it half way up from the soil. This makes a green stob with no leaves! I didn't have the heart to do it, so I put my husband up to it. I winced when I saw it, but in a short while shoots began to appear on the stem and a small tree formed. It then looked like an avocado tree. We lived in Southern California at the time, so it thrived outside in its pot. In a few years we made a move north to a much colder climate. The first winter we brought it inside to protect it from the frost and heavy rains. It kept on growing and produced these leaves:

They were gigantic! In a few months it developed a disease that made all the leaves die and I thought for sure it was a goner! But I hung on to the hope of it surviving and sure enough....

here it is the following summer. Right then and there we named the tree, Lazarus!



We tried to start several other trees from pits but were not successful until the month after our daughter was born and here she is with the little start. We named this tree, Mary!
Here it is in our green house flourishing for the winter along with....

Lazarus, the old man of the grove:) My husband wants to purchase a fruit bearing avocado tree and take shoots from this tree and graft them into our trees to see if we can get them to bear. That is my hubby's dream is to have small avocado trees in pots that will have fruit and he can make some yummy guacamole!

For more treasures and the stories behind them go to Kelli's blog.