Part two of my Arbor Day experiment will begin soon! Today I received my 10 free trees. I found them unceremoniously shoved into my mailbox courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. Fortunately I don’t think any damage was done. I would think that a package that has LIVE PLANTS in big letters on the outside of it would dropped off by the door and not shoved into a mailbox shorter than the package! But enough complaining, on to the trees!
I was able to choose from several of the available free tree packages and picked the Wild Bird Garden. It’s a selection of trees and shrubs that make good habitats or food sources for birds and wildlife. Here are the plants that came in it: a Burr Oak, a Northern Red Oak, an Arrowwood Viburnum, a River Birch, a Gray Dogwood, a Tulip tree, two Canadian Hemlocks, a Sargent Crabapple, and a Washington Hawthorne. The package came with a pamphlet that has descriptions for the trees as well as a leaf identification page. This could be very useful in the spring when the leaves begin to show. Each tree is supposed to be labeled with a color just above the roots but I know from planting some free Arbor Day trees last year that the paint marks can be very hard to read and the leaf identification guide could be useful in identifying them.
I have not examined the trees very closely since the instructions said not to open them unless you can plant right away. I stored the saplings in the garage where they would rest in cooler temperates until I could take care of them, hopefully tomorrow. The baby trees will have a temporary home in a trough-like planter since I don’t have permanent locations picked out. I’ll have to think very hard about where to put those trees, especially the oaks. Though I may never live to see it, the Burr Oak can reach 80 feet tall with a similar spread. (Not exactly a small tree!)
There’s more to come later about my Arbor Day experiment! If you haven’t already you can read about part one by clicking here!