By Devon Higginbotham
Photo by Shirley Denton
Florida has celebrated Arbor Day since 1886 and has one of the first Arbor Day celebrations in our nation: the third Friday in January. In 2016, this will be Friday, Jan. 15.
Most of the country celebrates Arbor Day in April, but here in Florida, our subtropical climate is more conducive to planting trees in January. Louisiana celebrates the same day.
Other states follow, beginning in the south in January and spreading north with the spring flush until Maine pulls up the rear, taking the entire third full week in May.
On the first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted mainly by school children. J. Sterling Morton was a newspaper man in Nebraska who loved trees and used his profession to share his views. When he was Secretary of the Nebraska Territory (back when it was parts of five states), he suggested a tree planting to populate the naturally treeless prairie landscape. It was so successful it became the gold standard for every state in the nation and eventually spread worldwide.
Today, 41 countries celebrate some variation of Arbor Day, such as “Dia del Arbol,” as Venezuela calls it, and most encourage planting native trees.
In Malawi, in southeast Africa, National Tree Planting Day is on the second Monday of December.
New Zealand celebrates Arbor Day on June 5, which would seem late in the year until you recall they are “down under.”
In Nebraska, where it all started, Arbor Day is a legal holiday and celebrated on Morton’s birthday, April 22.
This Arbor Day, consider planting an oak, longleaf pine, red cedar, sycamore, magnolia or pignut hickory, if your yard has the room and sunlight.
But if your landscape cannot accommodate a 125-foot pine or you have more shade than sun, consider planting a smaller native tree like the Simpson stopper, wax myrtle, cabbage palm or flatwoods plum. For wet areas, choose the cypress or red maple.
Whatever your conditions, visit a nursery in your area this Arbor Day and say, ‘I want to plant a ‘native tree.’”
To learn more about Florida native plants and wildflowers, join the Suncoast chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society at SuncoastNPS.org. It meets every third Wednesday of the month (except December) at 7 p.m. at the Seffner Extension Service Office, 5339 CR 579, Seffner. Learn more about Florida native plants at fnps.org.