Published: April 07, 2008 12:16 pm            

John Watson: Following the Dogwood Trail

Springtime in East Texas is dogwood blossom time, and what better place to view the blossoms than the Dogwood Festival in Palestine? The festival is held the last two weekends in March and the first weekend in April each year.

My wife and I made arrangements to spend a week at Lake O’ the Woods Resort on Lake Palestine about 15 miles south of Tyler.

When we got to the drive going to the resort I noticed a sign on the highway that said “Dogwood City.” This was at Lake Palestine. We arrived at the resort on a Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning we drove down to Palestine for the Dogwood Festival. What would a festival be without a parade and classic car show? The car show was sponsored by the Cars of Palestine car club.

Many antique and classic cars were displayed, but one in particular caught my attention. It was a 1935 blue Ford pickup. It had a V8 motor, tilt steering wheel and power windows, among other extras. I think the only thing original was the body. There was a “For Sale” sign on it, and the asking price was $35,000. Don’t you wish you had kept some of your granddad’s old cars?

After leaving the car show we drove through Davey Dogwood Park in Palestine to view the dogwoods in bloom. The park covers more than 200 acres with roads traversing the woods abloom with dogwood and redbuds.

According to a marker in the park, it was named for M.A. Davey, who donated the land to Anderson County in 1944 as the scene of the Texas Dogwood Trails Celebration.

Also on the marker was the Legend of the Dogwood.

“At the time of Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion, the dogwood was the size of the Oak and other forest trees,” the marker reads. “So firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross.

“To be used thus for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the tree, and Jesus, nailed upon it, sensed this, and in his suffering said to it, ‘Because of your regret and pity for My suffering, never again shall the Dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross.’

“Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross ... two long and two short petals. And in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember.”

The dogwoods were scattered throughout the woods; all the underbrush had been cleared out in the park, and any time you reached a high point on the road you could look down across the valley and see the dogwoods in bloom.

Many people talk about “the fall colors.” I agree they are quite beautiful to see, but springtime also puts on a color show of its own.

The white blossoms of the dogwood intermingled with the red blooms of the redbud tree make quite a show against the dark green background of the pine and cedar, interspersed with the new light-green leaves of the hardwood trees just budding out.

The dogwood can be seen all along the roadside in this area. On the way over we first spotted the dogwood blooming near Athens.

Another good place for viewing the dogwoods is Tyler State Park northwest of Tyler.

Something else in bloom this time of year is the azaleas. Terrie Gonzales at the newspaper in Rusk told how to get to the azalea trail in Tyler. Gonzales said azaleas grow better in Tyler than they do in Rusk.

I noticed the plants in Tyler were larger and had more blooms than the ones in Rusk, or even the ones where we were staying just 15 miles south of Tyler on Lake Palestine.

Was this because of different soil conditions, or do the people in Tyler use more fertilizer?

The best viewing starts at First Street west of Broadway and meanders around through the near-downtown residential area. Some of the homes here are surrounded with azaleas.

Azaleas are a small flowering shrub, a member of the rhododendron family. Some people call the azalea the “royalty of the garden.” It comes in many varieties and colors, but the main colors we saw were red, white and pink.

Azaleas and dogwoods seem to prefer acidic soil such as found in areas where pine trees grow. They prefer filtered sunlight such as that coming through the pine trees, rather than full sun.

If you enjoy viewing beautiful flowers, then East Texas is the place to go in the spring. The Tyler Rose Gardens will be in bloom soon.



John Watson of Cleburne

can be reached at

texastraveler@sbcglobal.net.

        

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