Not too far from downtown Barrhead there is a crabapple tree. Of course there are more than a few of these trees throughout the area, but there is something special about this one.
The flower-filled giant, planted over 60 years ago by Barrhead resident Lois Richmond, is as tall as the house it stands beside.
Richmond, now 85, was hardly more than 21 when she planted the crabapple tree in her front yard. She bought the little plant from her then-husband’s aunt, who resided in Naples, in 1948. Richmond says she remembers planting it, gesturing its height at the time to a spot just below her hip.
It’s hard to imagine the towering tree was a mere two and a half feet tall when Richmond gave it a home all those years ago. In fact, she says she never expected it to surpass the tiny bush it was.
“I never thought it would grow,” laughs Richmond, as she looks across to the giant crab apple tree. “We just stuck it in the ground and that was it. It took a long time to get started, but it grew.”
And grow it did, to a staggering 30 or more feet.
The house Richmond lived in on the property has since been torn down and replaced with a new home, built on the very spot the original building sat. Ron Barton, Richmond’s son, is now the owner of the home.
Although Barton lived there only until he was 11, it didn’t take him long to return. He moved back for good when he was 21, and the tree still remained.
“I’m surprised it’s never split and fell,” says Barton. “I have to keep trimming it back.”
“They never let us play in it when we were little,” adds Barton, thinking back to his childhood. However, he says with a smirk, his nieces and nephews are allowed to climb in the tree now.
Children are not the only life the tree attracts, as the noisy buzz of busy bees can be heard from afar. In fact, Barton says there are “Quite a menagerie of critters here,” like birds such as nuthatches and gold finches, and squirrels of course.
Despite its impressive height and eye-catching display, Barton says the tree’s white blossoms don’t actually last very long. If the weather is nice like it has been, the flowers only stay about nine days.
“It’s surprising,” says Barton. “It just depends on the weather.”
“Too bad it wouldn’t stay like that longer,” adds Richmond.
Barton says he measured the tree across this year, with the width coming in at about 54 feet. It doesn’t look like the tree is going to stop at any time in the near future either.
“It’s been there for years and years and years,” says Richmond, gazing up at the wonder she helped create. “It’s a beautiful tree.”
