This is a horse chestnut tree at puberty - 13 years old. I picked up a conker, the nut of the horse chestnut, in the fall of 2012 and planted it in a pot. The nut sprouted in the following spring - 2013 - and I planted it out that fall. This year is its 13th above ground and it put out its first and only flower; I'm calling that puberty for this individual. The tree is about 30 feet tall and spindly - it's competing for its share of light with the other tree around it.

I planted out about half a dozen that year, and about the same again in various years since. Some didn't make it; I have 2 getting good light and touching 30 feet tall; 3 are half that size but healthy; one is recovering from a woodbine attack and a couple are in shade and barely a foot tall. Only one tree has flowered so far. It's all about how much light the tree can grab.

As a boy in England I threaded conkers on a string and used them to attempt to shattered other boys' conkers. There was a whole alchemy around how to make a conker harder; I boiled mine in malt vinegar and that gained me a few points, but no champion