Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Pileated woodpeckers work a red bay ( (Persea borbonia ) before it was killed by the laurel wilt disease. Trees are so important! And to receive the maximum benefits with the least amount of effort, plant a tree native to your region and one that's been bred from local stock.  Here is a post to help with this: Natives for your landscape: an FNPS tool for you . In addition to being beautiful and supporting local wildlife, here are a few of the more quantifiable benefits.   Trees: - clean the air. In 1991, Chicago's 51 million trees “removed an estimated 17 tons of carbon monoxide, 93 tons of sulfur dioxide, 98 tons of nitrogen dioxide, 210 tons of ozone, and 234 tons of particulate matter. They [also] sequestered about 155,000 tons of carbon. ... where trees were large and lush, they could improve air quality by as much as 15 percent during the hottest hours of midday. More trees and bigger trees meant cleaner air." ( What Is a Tree Worth ) - absorb wat...

The Mayan Calendar for sale in a Mexican shop. On the Winter Solstice, 12/21/12 at 6:12am EST, the Mayan calendar stops. I can't decipher the calendar, so I personally don't have any way to verify that this assessment is true, but this impending date has engendered many interesting responses. As an example, see the dire weather forecast for this week, which has gone viral on the Internet. So..., we'll see what happens tomorrow. An interesting weather forecast! But if you believe in the future, you'll plant a tree before the day ends because… When you plant a tree, you believe in the future. If we all plant at least one tree today, maybe our collective efforts will prevent the world from ending. Of course, I'd highly recommend a native tree from local stock. So go to the FANN (Florida Association of Native Nurseries) consumer website, to find the nearest FANN member with the trees you'd like to plant. www.PlantRealFlorida.org . Plant some m...

 Arbor Day Foundation website presents important educational material. The Arbor Day Foundation has played a big part to help people, cities and towns plant more trees since 1865 when J. Sterling Morton started this foundation. In Florida alone there are 165 Tree Cities . We've discussed this organization in these previous posts: Florida's Arbor Day: Third Friday in January  and our followup post on our members' favorite trees: Your Favorite Trees .  So yes, The Arbor Day Foundation has done a lot to increase awareness of the importance of trees even in urban and suburban environments and presents a lot of good educational material. BUT... With their membership packages, they make it almost irresistable to acquire trees from their Nebraska-based nursery. Where I live in northern Florida, the 10 free trees offered are 3 redbuds, 4 dogwoods and 3 goldenraintrees, plus I could qualify for 2 crape myrtles.  Arbor Day Foundation offers  ...

Up in Wakulla County, Arbor Day 2011 was a big success due to the efforts of two groups who joined forces so that they could make a substantial contribution to the goals of the event. The Sarracenia Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society and the Iris Garden Club of Wakulla County gave away over 500 trees in one-gallon pots this year, despite the really cold weather. Their collaboration began four years ago when they realized that the little bareroot twigs given away as part of their community's Arbor Day celebration were too small to stand a good chance of even surviving the car trip home, let alone a chance of being planted and growing into a beautiful tree. So the two groups made a commitment to collaborate that worked so well they have never looked back. The Garden Club put up the funds to buy 900 bareroot native trees from the local AFNN member nursery, Superior Trees . They bought enough potting soil to fill 900 gallon-sized pots. A local nursery operation, Just Fruit...

The first Arbor Day was actually declared back in 1865, when we had a lot more trees.  J. Sterling Morton lived in Nebraska when he founded the Arbor Day Foundation . His son founded the Morton salt company in Chicago, and then the Morton Arboretum which is a vibrant, beautiful place and home to a superlative outdoor children's learning area. Don't miss it if you're ever out there. The Mortons have done a lot to help trees, and now it's our turn. Taking time out to celebrate the planting of trees is more important than ever. The Arbor Day Foundation sponsors many activities and programs including Tree City USA certifications. Florida has 153 Tree Cities. Orlando has been a Tree City the longest—for 33 years.  See www.arborday.org/states/?state=FL for other information and Arbor Day opportunities in Florida. Most of the country celebrates Arbor Day in April, but here in Florida, it’s much better to plant a tree now. So both Florida and Louisiana celebrate Arbor Day ...

Did you know that Arbor Day is celebrated on different dates from state to state? When you think about it, it makes sense; spring comes earlier in some places than others! Florida and Louisiana lead the pack with the first Arbor Day date, which is the third Friday in January. Our state tree is the cabbage palm, Sabal palmetto , Louisiana’s is the Bald cypress.   National Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday in April. Twenty eight states also use that for their own Arbor Day activities. The other states use dates that coincide with their planting times, sometimes on the same date that the state’s governor made the original proclamation to be part of the Arbor Day event. Our next post is going to give you some help with choosing a tree that you will like and that is good for the region you live in. We will also have some warnings about using trees from the official Artbor Day list, and how to say ‘no’ to the free tree that won’t grow where you live. Cabbage pa...