Plant lovers and horticulturists across the state will celebrate Arbor Day this month. While National Arbor Day isn’t until April, Florida and other warm climate states celebrate earlier, since our mild winter climate lends itself to ideal planting weather.
The idea for Arbor Day originated in Nebraska in the mid-1880s. At the time the state was a treeless plain, and a nature loving Detroit transplant named J. Sterling Morton spread agricultural information, and his enthusiasm for trees. At the time, trees were greatly needed to keep planting soil in place, for fuel and building materials, and for shade from the hot sun. For those reasons his ideas were well received, as was his vision of establishing a tree-planting holiday.
Over one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day. While that type of celebration is not feasible today, we asked SFM’s four ISA certified arborists for ideas on how to celebrate. Here are some of their ideas …
Plant a trees as a group. Have each member of the group sign a pledge to care for the tree and bury it in a time capsule near the tree. Take a photo of the planting crew and send it to the community newspaper to tell everyone about the significance of the new tree.
Choose a public park or downtown area to clean up.
Recycle what you can and dispose of the rest properly. Ask residents within the area to help with the cleanup and encourage everyone to maintain the area once the work is done.
Read a book about trees. Learn to identify the trees in your yard by their leaves, bark and seeds. See what animals, birds and insects live in and around a tree.