By LYNN ARTZ
Special to The Sun
To celebrate Florida Arbor Day, a drive-thru tree giveaway will take place on Saturday, Jan. 20th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The giveaway will be outside the Wakulla County Extension Office at 84 Cedar Ave. Each vehicle will receive two young trees in pots for free.
The 20th annual Crawfordville Arbor Day celebration hopes to find homes for nearly 1,500 native trees. There will be 15 kinds of trees offered: chinquapin, eastern mayhaw, southern live oak, pignut hickory, possumhaw, southern red cedar, rusty blackhaw, parsley haw, dahoon holly, redbud, overcup oak, red maple, river birch, sweet shrub, and longleaf pines. All are suited to Wakulla County.
The Florida Forest Service is providing red maples, river birch, and longleaf pines. Other trees were purchased as bare-root saplings with funds from the National Wildlife Federation’s Trees for Wildlife program. Members of the Wakulla County Garden Club and the Sarracenia Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society planted the bare-root trees into 1-gallon pots last winter and Just Fruits & Exotics Nursery watered them for a year.
To get two free trees, drive north on Ochlockonee Street from Arran Road (at the county courthouse) to get in line. After passing Hudson Park, turn left onto Cedar Avenue. Each vehicle will receive an order form and tree information. Complete the order form and exchange it for two tree tickets at the ticket station. Continue around the circle drive to the 15 tree stations. Turn in tickets at matching stations and your trees will be loaded into your vehicle. Vehicle occupants are asked to bring a pen or pencil and stay in their vehicles.
Master gardeners and other experts will be on site to help people choose trees. Be prepared to choose alternatives to your first choices as some species run out quickly. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Lynn Artz (lynn_artz@hotmail.com; 850-320-2158).
