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Share a special moment from Dale Grant's life.

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The Monkey Puzzle Man

January 9, 2012

     I was priviledged enough to know Dale for twenty years or so. In that time I was able to work with him and spent many days learning and laughing with him. We went on many field trips to explore his botanical interests. Dale had a way about him that immediately affected people. Dale was the inspiration for many trips I took with my family to the St. George area. I would inform him of our plans and he would plot out excursions to seek out plants of interest. From Zion's canyon to Joshua Tree National forest to Lytle ranch to Snow canyon and back to Springdale, we would roam, on a "safari" of unique specimens we would go. There were always great vistas and animals to see along the way, which was a  great experience for myself and my children.

     Dale would occasionally visit my yard and make recommendations for plantings. Later he would come back to see his "babies" and make further suggestions. Twenty years later I have a small arboretum with such specimens as an Edith Bogue magnolia, Bur oak, Camperdown elm, Monkey Puzzle trees, and many other trees and shrubs. These have brought many years of enjoyment to my wife and family. Many neighbors have stopped by over the years to say things like, "that tree won't grow here", or "that isn't a Southerm magnolia", or "Monkey Puzzle tree is it?" I have since been able to share these with others.

     Dale would regularly call me at work to check up on me and ask how my family was doing. On several occasions he inquired if I was intersested in burial plots, as he may have some available next to his, and wanted to put together a fun group of people for resurrection day! He was one of a kind.

     I will forever remember Dale for his wealth of knowledge, which he shared so willingly. Never judging, always smiling, he was a master of kindness and generousity. I consider him one of my truest friends, with no hidden agenda. Dale had a very positive impact on my life and I am a better person for having known him. To his family I give my love and affection. With them I celebrate the greatness of this man's heart. No doubt he is already learning new things and making recommendations on the other side of the veil.

                                                                             Darren Hall 

GONE WAY TOO SOON...

January 8, 2012

I have known and loved Dale for the last 12 years...I believe that I might have been one of the last persons he spoke to...I was outside his apartment calling him from the parking lot to let me in...I was too late; it was too late...Dale had already been rushed to the hospital.  I wanted to give him the AA speaker CD that I'd promised him.  My magical. wishful thinking told me that if he could only listen to Clancy I.'s talk...there is always hope for the alcoholic, but for some, sobriety comes when you behold the face of God and fall into the arms of Jesus Christ...Your struggles are over, Dale.  You taught me all over about the power of this nasty disease. 

I left a photo of hibiscus that Dale told me grew here.  I was incredulous, but I got one last summer and anxiously await its spring awakening.  The plants that Dale loved and taught us about signify life, the Eternal life he is now enjoying.  I love you, Dale.

Rita

My friend Dale Grant Rose

January 7, 2012

Dale and I would check out plants in the valley that I said wouldn't grow here. I remember a Camelia growing in a microclimate he showed me hidden away in at an apartment complex on 7th east under a stair well. At his parents home a magnificent Edith Bouge Magnolia. Spanish Fir in the Murray Park Aboretum hidden among many great plants. His vast knowledge of plants to us in the plant world amazed us and his quizzing of seed, flower, stem made us search for a greater wisdom of the depth plants could survive if given the correct microclimate. Dale almost always made you smile with his unique humor about life, his forever positive additude of planning the next project, the eternal optimist. I am sure when he gets to the other side him and Peter will be planting seeds of change for a better universe.

Good Bye for now Dale

Ben Hall

January 3, 2012

Dale came into my life much like he entered the lives of others, without invitation, and always impromptu.  I was in the garden in front of my house, lamenting the yellowing of the leaves on the two silver maples planted one year earlier when this youngish-older man appeared and stated:  "those maples will not live here!  The soil in Salt Lake City is short on acid.  And the City should not be planting them over there in Faultline Gardens, either.  See - they are also yellowing."  What was one to say except - "what should I be doing?"  His answer:  "Dig them up and replace them with Burr Oaks.  They do well in this climate, they have great leaves, beautiful bark, and grow to about 80 feet, and I can find them for you."  We didn't plant Burr Oaks there, but Dale introduced me to a nursery near Kaysville, and we ended up planting 12 Boleana Poplars in a gentle curve across the front of my garden.  That was about 6 years ago, and they are now over 30 feet, standing out among the most stately of other trees along the street.  An Atlas Blue Cedar graces my garden along with six varieties of Magnolia, Timber Bamboo, Douglas Blue Oak, Spanish Golden Fir, Smoke Tree, and more. During those years, he introduced me to a number of unique and beautiful trees ("not supposed to live in this climate", he said, adding: "but I have checked out their natural climatic latitude and longitude, and they just might make it here")- Southern Grandiflora Magnolia, whose blosam is displayed in one of the photos. The (then) younger Poplars can be seen in another photo.  That day with the maples began a long friendship between Dale and me, one which I cherish, and eill always celebrate.  An unassuming man, with a rich, complex and varied history, Dale could work his way into your heart within minutes.  His mind was akin to a treasure chest filled with horticultural details, and woe is the one who opened the lid of that chest without a built-in love of nature and infinite patience.  His mission was to convert everyone to join up and to demand a "Green Planet", long before 'being green' hit the architectural headlines.  "We should be planting Broad Leaf Evergreens, as winter oxygen generators."  His trees can be found throughout the Salt Lake Valley, Utah and many other states.  Unfortunately, no one has 'mapped' his tracks of plantings. But his tracks everywhere, nevertheless.         

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