Unpopular opinion: the 100 year old oak at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis taught me more about roots than any garden book

Alice Shah · 2026-10-11T00:15:04.318808+00:00

I walk through Elmwood Cemetery here in Memphis about 3 times a week and there is this bur oak near the south gate that has been there since around 1910. What got me was the root flare. It spreads out maybe 12 feet in every direction, looking like fingers gripping the dirt, and it sits about 4 inches above the grass line. I always thought you were supposed to bury a tree up to where the trunk goes straight, but this thing has been half exposed for over a hundred years and it is thriving. A groundskeeper named Ray noticed me staring at it and said they never once filled in that soil because the oak likes the drainage. Now I am second guessing every tree I ever planted too deep in my own yard. Has anyone else seen old cemetery trees with exposed flares like this, and did you change how you plant because of it?

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Unpopular opinion: the 100 year old oak at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis taught me more about roots than any garden book | Botany Lovers - Discusd