 I want to welcome you. I don't know how many years this is we've been doing this. I think it's over 20. And we want to thank you so much. Of course we took a hiatus during COVID and it's been really kind of hard to get it all back together but we're really happy to be back together, to be back in the governor's mansion complex. We really appreciate that from them. And the Columbia Garden Club is one of our sponsors. I'm actually here from Columbia Garden Club. I borrowed this idea from the city of Asheville. Actually they had a group there that was doing this 20 and 30 years ago. And they actually put a beautiful calendar out every year. But since people don't use calendars anymore, we didn't ever get around to that point. But we want to welcome you and thank you for coming. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us. And after the ceremony at three o'clock, the governor's mansion T is being hosted by the Columbia Garden Club. Our club decorates. It's a busy time for the Columbia Garden Club. We do the tree at the state house. We do direct rate the governor's mansion for the people of South Carolina. And we do this and Arbor Day. So this is my third time today. This is treasured trees and to be a treasured tree, it isn't just you need to be either a special tree of numerous kinds, either a special species, an extra large species, a tree that somebody has loved and adored like a child climbs in. And we've had wonderful writings from children before we didn't get any this year from the kids. But it's really anything that makes it special to you. And we have a couple of these this year that are special to certain people. So let me start now with one. I'll start with the ball cypress at the Congaree National Park. John Greco is like the champion, champion of champions of the Congaree National Park. And a dear friend, and this is a ball cypress that is one of the largest in the Congaree National Park at 31 feet around. That's the conference at waste time. That's huge. A portion of the top of this tree, of this holla giant, broke over a decade ago and stands today, impaled upside down in the muck of the Indian hill gut. After exhausting, after the foresters in America exhausted white pines in the Northeast and the Midwest, the timber industry turned its attention in the late 19th century to the South's bottomland and hardwood forest. Ball cypress were particularly attractive to them because of the unbranched trunks and the wood durability. If you know much about cypress, you know it's pretty much resistant to rot. And only a few stands of mature trees are left untouched today of what was typical of the ancient forest. Some of them were left because, after repeated timber harvesting, because they were holla or had damage from age. Interestingly, most of this one in particular is found in the eastern section of the park outside of the beadle track, which is the park's old growth core. Thank you, John. Thank you. And I did catch that they'd written down his home address, and that is not somewhere you'd find one like that. OK, the next was nominated by another friend of mine, who's an architect, Heather Mitchell. She is not able to be here today, but she lives on Main Street. And this is a pinnacle that shades and defines Main Street. As owners of a third floor condominium with a unique balcony that is enhanced by its canopy, we're particularly value this tree. It makes us feel like we live in a tree house. We have nicknamed it McGregor. And also admire the personality of its unique art markings that make it look like eyes. The city street trees are such an important part of the character of Main Street. And we especially appreciate the fall color right in our front yard. So that is nominated by Heather Mitchell. She's on the 1,500 block of Main Street. I think that's the block. I think she's right across the museum. That archway in the picture makes it look like that. Yeah. That's a second story building with the overlook into Main Street. She says she's on the third story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Third story up, yeah. Yeah. And she hated that she couldn't make it, but she owns Boudreaux Architects. So it's really good to have a tree lover as an architect. We save a lot of them that way. The next one is a Deodorosite cedar that is at 805 Kilburn Road here in Columbia. This massive Deodorosite is in our yard. The house was built in 1923, so it's possible that the tree is close to 100 years old. The pictures do not do it justice. It is both grateful and stately. The wood, the resin, and the bark have any inflammatory, any oxidant, and any cancer properties. Is Judy Hendricks here? Oh, you're Judy. I know we've met before. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Appreciate you doing this. I'm so glad you do. Protect it with your life. And next one is really interesting to me, because I just remade a connection on Facebook with one of my roommates from college, or sweetmoats kind of, from college. And she saw my post and nominated her tree. This is a white oak at 912 Old Chapin Road in Lexington. And it's nominated by Pamela Harmon. But I call her Pam Little John still. And she says, meet Earl, our over 100-year-old white oak. He almost met his demise when Earl Seeley, see, see, see, Earl See, my husband's grandfather, almost cut him down as a sapling, because he was too close to the smokehouse. We now live in the house that was built in 1909. We moved the smokehouse to allow Earl to grow. He's a majestic tree for sure. He can be seen from the front of our house and dominates the backyard. So thank you so much. And I think this was our only one from the middle. This is Midland's treasured trees. And this is one of the only ones I think from Lexington. So that makes me a represent. Even after this. And she's still taller than me. And let's see. OK, the oak trees at Sesquicentennial Park. I think we have three of the rangers here to accept this. They were nominated by Stacy Jensen. A picturesque area of live oaks near the park spillway is probably the most photographed area of trees in the park. Many people have wedding and family photos taken with these live oaks as a natural backdrop. They also happen to be popular climbing trees for many kids who visit the park. These trees have touched many lives over their lifetime. OK, now we have a different tree. I don't know. I think this might be our first cumquat that we've had over the years. This is nominated by Glenn Cooper. And I'm assuming that Mr. Ralph Cooper was your father? His father, yes. Was this a year? No, somebody's getting accepted on this one. But was his father, because I knew him. This cumquat citrus tree planted by Ralph Cooper at Cooper's Nursery in the late 1990s. I'm assuming it was the 1890s, right? It says late 90s. Great citrus tree that produces hundreds of cumquats in the early fall and the fall to early winter. Did you eat the rind? The only citrus where you eat the rind. The rind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now we have a really special presentation, because this is one of my another dear, dear friend of mine that donated this part. Karen, did you nominate this as a sanctuary of treasure trees? I nominated the whole island. OK, that's what I thought. That's how I saw it. OK, this is the Boyd Island Sanctuary Grove. And we do have groves of treasured trees. We have which the State House and the Boylston and all the gardens here are all groves of treasured trees. We also have streets of treasured trees, which my street at Aston Avenue with the Ginkos is a street of treasured trees. So get your nominations ready for next year. But this starts with a towering hickory tree greets visitors as they cross the bridge under Boyd Island, providing some shade in the summer's heat and glowing with gorgeous gold as fall approaches into winter. Following the trail that encircles the seven-acre island, one can marvel at the diversity of the species on the island. Sable minor palm fronds accentuate the canopy above. There are southern magnolias on the high ground, along with colonies of buckeye and pawpaw. Box elders and red maples line the low ground along the riverbank and throughout the island. Spanish moth drapes year-round in its in abundance. Beauty is all around this island, befitting its name as a sanctuary. The juxtaposition of views from the long view across the granite outcroppings at the confluence of the broad and saloon rivers to the short view at the blooms beside the trail shows nature's palette is an unparalleled here. The city of Columbia is incredibly fortunate to have this gem within our greenway system, and we love sharing it with visitors. It was given by Susan Boyd of the Boyd Foundation, who has been very generous with the city. Is she here? Are you here? I tried to call her, but I didn't get to do it. And I went to see if that's a copy of the picture. Thank you, Karen. Karen takes care of all of our, she is the park ranger for the city, and does a fabulous job. Okay, I have the live oaks, well, the park. Correct, Mike? This is more the park, okay. Because I see L Mount Avenue and I was thinking that. On the northwest corner of Rosewood Park, along Montgomery Avenue, at its intersection with Holly, is a grove of live oak trees that grow more beautiful each year. The south end of the park, near the ball park, is shaded by a number of red oaks. In between there are more live oaks and a small variety of other species. Notably, the Rosewood community volunteers have planted new trees around the park. This speaks to the wonderful conservation ethic of the Rosewood neighborhood. They are looking forward to this shading the next generation while enjoying the present canopy. The park exemplifies community connection on any given day, especially on the weekends, you can find people gathering for picnics, to play basketball or catch, walk their dogs, scamper around the playground, and in the summer, in the glorious shade of these trees, it makes our heat a little more bearable. Thank you so much. Okay, two more. This is some Magnolia trees on Dallas Avenue. Am I pronouncing it right? Dallas Avenue. The Magnolia trees in our front yard not only are old, but they're massive. Two of them shade and cool our house in the summer and are great climbing or climbing or hanging a hammock from. They're a large part of why we purchased this house, which has been in our family now for 15 years. Our son loves sitting under them. I'm glad that, and if you go to the city, that one of the first Magnolias, the first year we did is a huge Magnolia as you go into the governance mansion. And now we have a Southern live up, Quakers Virginianus, Virginiana, five feet in diameter, says this tree is why we bought the house, the ownership. It is situated in a backyard and it is a certified backyard habitat. Stephen believes it may be the largest live oak in Rosewood neighborhood. It hosts opossums, raccoons, red-tailed hawks, barred owls, red-headed woodpeckers, and many other species of birds, as well as tree fogs, frogs, and fireflies. And I have seen his, Stephen is an artist, and I have seen his beautiful pictures on Facebook. It was gorgeous. Thank you. Thank you. Is it your house? Yes, it is. This is why I bought the house. It's a rainy day and everybody's saying buy a house, buy a house. I got up to the front porch and I stepped back and the canopy covers the entire house. I love it. It's unbelievable. I love it. Now is that all of them? Well, thank you all so much for coming. We really appreciate it and we love to celebrate trees. As you can tell, this is my thing.