You can get a free sapling to plant out in your yard during a free tree giveaway for Texas Arbor Day.
Set for 9:00 a.m. – noon or while supplies last on Friday, November 5, 2021 at the main pavillion at Getzendaner Park in Waxahachie, the Texas Arbor Day tree giveaway will have 100 trees to give out on a first-come first-served basis. The trees available will be 50 native pecan trees and 50 burr oak trees. All are two-foot saplings in a one-gallon pot.
“The City of Waxahachie was approached with the opportunity to partner with the Boys and Girls Club’s Gardening program, local resident Jacob Calvit, and the Master Gardeners and Naturalists. We are excited about the opportunity to provide the trees to our residents while also enhancing the city’s green spaces,” says Amy Borders, director of communications and marketing for the city.
Arbor Day is a springtime event up north, but the official Texas Arbor Day is the first Friday in November, a time when trees are dormant and can get their roots settled in during the winter months before the heat and drought of summer begin.
Unlike most holidays or days of recognition, Arbor Day doesn’t reflect back at the past but optimistically looks to a future filled with greenery while exploring all the ways that trees enrich our lives and stabilize our environment.
The first Arbor Day in the U.S. took place Nebraska in 1872. In Texas, the first Arbor Day celebration occurred in Temple in 1889. Just a year afterward, Texas Arbor Day was recognized throughout the state as a day to set aside for planting out new trees. Back then, though, Texas Arbor Day was held in the middle of winter. In 1989, the state legislature moved the day to November after forestry research and the experience of arborists bore out that fall was the best time to transplant a tree.
To make the most of your free tree or any tree that you decide to plant, the Texas A&M Forest Service has a Tree Planting Guide to help you know where to plant trees around your home, how to avoid potential problems, and the best way to plant a tree.
I have a dozen oak trees in pots that I can donate. They are mostly Shumard red oak trees about 2 feet tall.
Someone would just need to come pick them up from my back yard.