Photo by Jon Anderson.
A boy helps Hoover City Forester Colin Conner plant a tree during the 2017 Arbor Day celebration.
Hoover residents have a chance to get a free tree at an Arbor Day celebration at Aldridge Gardens on March 2.
The city and Hoover Beautification Board are giving away about 180 trees that day, beginning at 9:30 a.m., City Forester Colin Conner said.
The city is offering 17 species of trees, including (in order of size upon maturity, beginning with the smallest) highbush blueberry, American hazelnut, American fringetree, “Cherokee Princess” flowering dogwood, Eastern redbud, American hornbeam, Carolina silverbell, Kentucky yellowwood, “Wildfire” blackgum, persimmon, red maple, sugar maple, bald cypress, white oak, Southern magnolia, tulip poplar and black walnut.
The trees will range from 3 to 6 feet tall when given out but can grow to be 6 to 100 feet tall, according to information provided by Conner. Trained people will be on site to help property owners pick out the right tree for their property, he said.
“We have definitely noticed a demand change over the years,” Conner said.
As subdivisions have become more dense, average lot sizes have decreased, allowing a growing number of homeowners room for only smaller species, he said.
The trees are for Hoover residents only and will be limited to one per household while supplies last, he said.
The Hoover Beautification Board is paying half the cost to buy the trees, and Alabama Power Co. is providing the other half, Conner said. The average cost of the trees is about $12, he said. They come from Nature Forest Nursery in Chatsworth, Georgia.
An Arbor Day program is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Aldridge, during which the Beautification Board will present awards to winners of an Arbor Day essay contest for fourth-graders in Hoover schools. Students wrote essays from the perspective of trees, describing what they look like, what they do, what happens inside and outside of them, and how they feel about it.
After the program, people are invited to stay for the planting of three bur oaks at Aldridge. There are not many bur oaks in this area, Aldridge Gardens Executive Director Rip Weaver said. There once were more, but many of them have disappeared due to logging, so Aldridge is trying to reintroduce them, Weaver said. Bur oaks can grow to 70 or 80 feet tall and have massive trunks with rough and deeply furrowed bark, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. The cap of the acorn covers the entire nut, Weaver said.
Hoover schools also were encouraged to hold tree plantings between Feb. 20 and March 13.
