Back in January, I was a wee bit bored and decided to make a donation to The Arbor Day Foundation. As a thank you for our donation, we would receive 10 trees, 2 flowering shrubs, a copy of The Tree Book, and a subscription to the Arbor Day newsletter.
In our house, this boredom buster became known as the "Will It Grow Arbor Day Project?" – and I'm happy to report that our free trees and shrubs have finally arrived.
Now, in all honesty, these trees and shrubs are most definitely twig-ish (some of the weeds in my side yard are bigger than these trees), but I did my research beforehand, so I knew that this was to be expected. And, truth be told, they all have solid root systems intact.
In case you're curious, they did arrive after the ground had thawed, so planting them in the ground wasn't an issue. However, the growing medium was overly wet (and slimy) when the package arrived, so after soaking the roots, I trekked outside in the rain and planted them in my vegetable garden.
It's important to keep these trees and shrubs in a sheltered location as they really are incredibly tiny. If I tried to plant them outside of the fenced-in bed, they would most undoubtedly be crushed by our two English Setters, or worse, mowed down by our landscapers.
Regardless of their size, the kids and I are eager to see if we can make them thrive. The point of our winter boredom buster wasn't to buy full grown trees, it was to support a great charity. So, if you're expecting anything overly hearty to arrive on your doorstep, you will be sorely disappointed – but if you're just looking to support a good organization, then go for the challenge and plant them up as we did!
Here's to seeing what happens…
Thanks for reading,
Denine
It has been a few years since your Arbor Tree adventure. I am curious. Did the trees survive? If so, how big are they?
I am considering ordering some in the spring and would appreciate learning from your experience!
Hi Carol, thanks so much for stopping by! It is really important to understand that these trees shipped super small. They are more “bare root” than anything else. We definitely had to baby them. They were doing very well the first 2 years until my dogs trampled them. It was an honest mistake on their part, but sadly I can’t tell you how tall they got, because they are no longer 🙁
Ha! Cassie, that’s too funny. My daylilies are growing in right now so they’re sheltered from anything too bad, but we’ll see how they do. We’ve have some pretty nasty weather here, so if they survive this, perhaps they’ll stick. 😉
we got the same trees when i was a kid as well…as i recall all but 1 died, and several months later that one died too….i wish you guys better luck than we had! gardening was never my forte, even as a 7 year old…
You shared really nice pictures. I want to know more about how your trees do. Your post is really informative. I just love it.