Who?

I'm moving.

You?

I'm in.

La la la la la la la la la la la la.

Oh la la.

Oh no no no.

La la la la.

Oh, no.

You.

Excuse me, sorry I have this horrible cough.

Hi1 Frankenstein the Monster here.

I know I can seem a little scary, right?

I got this scar on my head, got these bots sticking out of my neck.

I'm the whole, guy that's vbeen brought back by lighting thing.

So yeah I get it, I cancome across a l ittle intemidating.

But hopefully today I'm going to tell you something that's going to make me seem a little less scary.

Ane what is it?

I got my own tree!

That's right, my own tree!

Well is acually not my tree, But is called a Frankenstein Tree.

And it so awsome!

I can't wait for you guys to see it!

So let get out ot this dark dreary dungeon and go outside and learn everything there is to learn about About a Frankenstein Tree!

I love it.

My own garden.

Whoa!

This place is so great.

Can I find this, Frankenstein tree?

Well, it's over here.

Well, here it is.

My Frankenstein tree.

I love this tree.

but actually, it's not a monster.

Technically, it's a tree.

But in a lot of ways, it's like me.

It's like when you take other things and you put them together and you create something special and new.

And how do you do that?

Well, you do it like thing called grafting.

What's grafting?

I would, I know I'm Frankenstein, but I got just the guy here to tell us all about it.

It's Ken Sunshine from the Mitzvah Garden.

Ken, come on in here.

Ken.

Thanks for helping us out, and planting this tree!

Well, thanks for coming.

And I have to say, this is the first time I've ever been interviewed by Frankenstein.

Ken, you need to get out more.

Yeah.

All right, so let's get to some brass tacks here.

What exactly is a Frankenstein tree?

Well, thanks for asking.

So the Frankenstein tree is where we take the rootstock of an invasive Bradford pear called the Callery pear.

And we graft in a little twig called the scion and into that rootstock.

And that makes it that a fruit tree is growing on an invasive Callery pear rootstock.

this has been growing for about 14 years.

And you can see the fusion line between the graft and the host or the rootstock.

We're saying hold it hold for it.

You're telling me you can take one tree and you can combine it with another tree?

That's right.

I can take two pieces of living tissue and I can put them together and they fuze and make a new living organism.

Oh, my God, I love what it's just like me.

Okay, so this grafting thing, can you show us some little thing about it?

Absolutely.

Let's go over to the grafting bench.

Okay, cool.

You lead the way.

Sorry, I still got that cold.

All right, so we're here at the grafting bench, right?

Right.

Okay, so this is where you're going to show us about the grafting.

So what do we do that back here?

Yeah.

Let's go over here.

Okay, well let's go, let's go.

All right.

Let's slice em and dice em!

So what we're going to do is we're going to take, a branch.

Right.

And let's say this was a branch that we wanted that had a fruit that we really like.

Okay.

And in this case, it's all pears.

this is called the cambium layer.

And the cambium layer is where all the life of the tree exists.

So what we're going to do is we're going to do what's called, whip and tongue graft.

So the idea is you create this little tongue and and you and I guess the other part would be a whip.

And they, they come together like this.

And that living tissue that I showed you is going to here, come to here.

push them together, they fuze and become one living thing.

Wait, that's where we get them fuzed together.

That's like me.

Exactly.

I love this.

Alright Ken!

I love the walk, buddy.

No one knew about that I had this amazing tree, and they wouldn't have known it without you.

So.

Ken thank you so much for letting us come to your garden.

You're welcome.

I'm glad that it's like a family reunion.

I love this guy.

It's the kids.

What do we learn today?

Well, one, you can take one tree and another tree and you can put them together.

And two, a fruit tree can have more than one fruit on it.

And three, I'm not such a bad guy.

kids, if you want to know more about Frankenstein trees just has your parents to go to the library.

Or you can go to Giving grove.org to find out more.