Sycamores

[johnnyb]

Somewhere recently I read or heard that in Colonial and later times people building a home would plant a pair of sycamore trees out front. Yesterday, Ro and I traveled a lot of gack roads in Atlantic, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Burlington, and Camden Counties. It was noticeable that many of the older homes had one or mostly two big sycamores out front.
Where did this habit come from? What was the reason/rationale for doing so?
Incidentally, we saw some beautiful old trees.

 

[manumuskin]

I think sycamore are one of the purtiest trees around due to the bark.Maybe thats why they planted them.I know they like water and do better where they can have lots of it.There is a big sycamore in Roadstown down the street from my Moms.We had dry summers two years in a row a few years ago and the tree went yellow and lost all it's leaves both summers.I thought for sure it would die.The next year we had plenty of rain and it has made a full recovery.It's gorgeous but right next to the road and I fear will have to be mutilated to keep the limbs off the lines eventually.

 

[noboat]

They were planted for newlywed couples for good luck.

 

[ecampbell]

My ex boss did that and after a few years his died, haven't heard from him in awhile.

 

[Spung-Man]

As I understand there is an old Quaker tradition of planting a “marriage tree” at a wedding. This planting task involved ceremony and silence. I too have seen a number of reputed marriage trees planted in pairs, often being sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) or its hybrid cousin London plane (Platanus occidentalis X P. orientalis). I worked on a pair of eastern redcedar in front of a c.1825 timber-framed cottage at Little Worth (near Petersburg), which were reputed by the owner to be marriage trees. As sycamores grow in good soil, they were seen as markers of prime farmland—not too wet, not too dry. If you’ve ever tried to split one for firewood, the interlocking wood grain makes the task difficult—hence their value as buttonwood (another name) for button manufacture. Maybe the sycamore’s longevity and splint resistance could symbolize the expectation of a long marriage

 

[RednekF350]

My ex boss did that and after a few years his died, .....

His wife died ?

 

[manumuskin]

I can vouch for their unsplitability! As a teenager my chore was to split the family firewood with a 16 lb maul.We had two chopping blocks.One was Red Maple,the other Sycamore.They were both rubber trees as far as i was concerned.I could split neither,not get the maul stcu neither,it just bounced off.Thats why they became chopping blocks,they could not be split. Dad couldn't even do it.

 

[ecampbell]

His wife died ?

No, his tree.