Photo of the Day: Wishing Tree, Children’s Discovery Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, MA

This “wishing tree”—which I photographed a year and a half ago in late summer, while visiting Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA—is part of a children’s discovery garden. This tree, containing four different kinds of cherries grafted onto it, features a mailbox and supplies that children used to leave dozens of messages.

Photo of the Day: Japanese Stone Pine, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge MA

I took the attached photo nearly a year and a half ago at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. It took me several tries over the years before I got around to this longtime institution in Western Massachusetts, but I’m thankful that I finally had a chance to experience its beauty on a late summer afternoon.

The Japanese stone pine is a shrubby, evergreen conifer that, at maturity, can grow to 20 feet. As its name indicates, it is native to Japan, as well as to North Korea, northern Mongolia, Siberia (east from Yenisey River); and China.