paperbark

The objects include stone knives with handles made of grass resin sheathed in paperbark bound with string.

The walk took an hour and a half longer than the bus would’ve, but what I gained was immeasurable: I stopped to admire the shiny red metallic sheen of paperbark cherry trees, I smelled flowers, I took pictures of ducks.

Longtime Imperial Courts resident Loretha West, 78, dutifully waters the paperbark tree Hayes planted last year outside her apartment, which she requested as a memorial to her son who was murdered at age 29.

And most want sun, although vine maple, katsura, paperbark maple and ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ dogwood don’t mind some shade.

Ticking off the seasons, Libner shares how the witch hazel blooms “fragrantly and flagrantly” in January, an Italian prune fruits in summer and a paperbark maple with cinnamon exfoliating bark is “gorgeous in every season.”