Rewilding My Lot

The Texas Mountain Laurel (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum) was the very first tree that I planted here. It had a bit of a bumpy start, with one half of the tree growing more slowly and showing signs of iron deficiency. Here’s a photograph from July 2023.

Here’s the same tree three years later in January 2026. It’s much taller, but still has one side on the left that seems stunted.

In all the time of owning this tree, I’ve had a suspicion that it might actually be two trees that happened to grow together in one pot.

Then one day in June 2026 when a strong visitor was here, we impulsively decided to investigate the roots of the part of the tree that was being pushed to the side. Somewhat to our surprise, it proved fairly easy to just yank that part of the tree right out of the ground. I suppose the process was a bit like separating conjoined twins, but more brutal.

Here’s the removed portion out of the ground and just for grins we potted it in case it would survive as an independent tree. Current indications are that it will not.

However, the remaining tree is thriving. It has grown another foot since the separation (now about 9 ft tall) and the shape is more balanced.