Apple Seeds

Seeds amaze me. I have been gardening for years, and each year God's mighty power in a little seed never ceases to amaze me. They are so little, yet they grow into a beautiful plant. I save seeds from flowers, from vegetables, and fruit. I look at all of the seeds in a single flower, and think of how many flowers that could potentially grow from just that one blossom. God's creation is amazing.

Years ago I was the leader of my daughters' Girl Scout troop. I brought apples for each of the girls to the meeting and wanted to teach them how they could start their own apple trees. They ate their apples, and planted the seeds as I had told them. When my daughters' trees started growing, it was very exciting, and the trees grew on their windowsill for a while. I don't remember what happened to their trees, but what I do remember is my son's impression of the whole process. He was only 7 at the time, and of course it was necessary that he come to the meetings with us. He would usually just play with his trucks or keep himself busy somehow during the meetings. But at this particular meeting, he must have been paying attention. When we got home he told me that he would like to plant some apple seeds. So I bought some apples, he ate one, and planted the seeds. Again, it was very exciting when his trees began growing. They grew on his windowsill for a while, but then he wanted to re-pot them. We planted them into a bucket, and the trees moved outside. They grew in the bucket for a long time, and eventually were needing to be transplanted. I gave him a corner in my garden to plant them, and as time went by they grew larger and larger. About four years ago, we transplanted one of the nicest ones into the yard. However, when we got a new puppy she chewed it in half. It is now lovingly referred to as our "apple bush". Each year in the spring I look for blossoms on his trees, and we have never seen any. We have thinned out some of the smaller trees, and there is now one very large apple tree growing in the corner of my garden. This year while I was weeding around it I noticed a very small apple laying on the ground. I looked up and could hardly believe my eyes --- there were real apples growing on the tree! Obviously I just didn't see the few blossoms that must have been growing this spring. We counted 12 apples. The other day my daughter and I picked the apples (at least the ones we could reach). I counted 18 apples growing on the tree. It has taken 13 years for this tree to bear fruit, but God was faithful nonetheless.

In case anyone is interested, it is very easy to grow your own apple tree. All you need is an apple, a small pot of dirt, and apparently about 13 years. After you eat the apple, plant the seeds in the potting soil and water it well. Place the pot in a brown paper bag and keep in a refrigerator for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, water the pot once again and place in a sunny spot. Continue to water it and it should start to peek out of the soil in a short amount of time. And don't forget to write on the outside of the bag what kind of apple it is. We didn't do that, and I have absolutely no idea what kind of apples are growing on our tree.