10 FREE Flowering Bareroot Trees From the Arbor Day Foundation - 🌱🌸🌳 

funny story - when we moved into our first home (35 years ago) I received the "free" trees from Arbor Day. I left them on my kitchen table for a couple of months when one day I noticed green leaves on several of the whips - yikes ! so I planted them out in my yard. One tree in the front yard was mown over three times but continued to grow. I don't know what type of tree it was but it wasn't the prettiest - we named it the ugly tree - and the birds loved it !! One of the others - a locus (thornless), I planted in our back yard. It was a glorious tree and got to be about 40 foot tall !!! finally it began to decline - I think it was either lightning or wind shears twisted it - and it had to come down (sad day). You got some great ones in your bunch - I'll take a redbud and a dogwood any day !!! and the crepe myrtles can be glorious if you prune them correctly. I'm with you - go ahead and pot them and let's see what happens !!! thanks for sharing (and for listening to my story - haha !!)

These trees can turn out beautifully! I received my Arbor Day trees years ago and still have a gorgeous white dogwood which has grown to 30 feet tall over the last 20 years, with beautiful branching structure. I soaked the bare root sticks and initially planted them in the garden bed, tending them like flowers for 2-3 years, then later transplanted into the yard. One of the best investments I ever made!

I made a donation last fall and got my "trees" in December. I have room for several and planned on giving the rest of them to neighbors. I decided to plant them each in their own nursery pot and make sure they were getting sun, yet sheltered from harsh weather. I live in zone 7b, so the winters are not too bad. I made sure they didn't dry out. Now, every one of the trees is starting to bud. The Crabapples are fully leaved out!! I'll probably plant the ones I want in the fall or next spring.

Thank you

I put mine in fabric bags setting in a kiddie pool for 2 seasons. I planted what ones that didn't become food for whatever varmints run around my yard at night. Out of the ones they sent, 6 are doing good. The others didn't make it but NOT because I put them in a pot. I think the rabbits or whatever would have ate them whether they were in the ground or in my fabric bags.

Did you ever make a follow up on this? I just got the same order as yours this past week! Excited to see how they grow here!

You may want to contact the Arboretum in your area and ask if they know of any place that might want to have some trees. Also, the Parks and Rec might want to have someone plant a tree. The best time to get them planted is in the spring (as you know) so that they can take advantage of the rains that come during this time of year.

Just now finding this video, do you have an update on these trees for us? I'd love to check it out!!

All these trees will be gorgeous when they are planted and allowed to grow. Having all those fruits throughout the winter for birds is wonderful. I don't have a very large yard so I could not plant any trees. However watching your videos gives me the fill of trees. Looking forward to seeing what you do with them and if I had any of them and know that there is way too many I would either talk with my city to see where I could plant the trees I don't need and maybe give some away to friends.

Hi Jenny. I too made a donation several years ago and received the same trees. I put them all in one large pot under another small tree so they wouldn't bake in the sun. I haven't done anything with them. Last time I checked a few were still alive and had a few leaves. You have inspired me to check on them again and do something with them this Spring. See you around Reg19. 🎶

My husband got these for me too. The Crepe Myrtle did the best, it bloomed last year and is 6 ft tall. The other two that survived and look nice are the Crabapple and Washington Hawthorne. My sweet Westie, Pearl is buried under the Crabapple. The last two are about 3 to 4 ft tall and look very healthy. I planted them soon after they arrived and that was about 3 years ago. The others would have lived, but my neglect got them. 7b MS

Thanks for sharing Jenny! Always enjoy your videos 🤗

Beautiful trees Jenny 🌸🦋🌸

We just got our 10 trees this week as well. We’re going to put them in pots for this year. Fingers crossed they survive 😄

Arbor Day is a good organization since we need lots of trees to fight climate change. In addition, most of those trees flower.

I received the exact same order from Arbor Day yesterday ( truthfully, I thought my donation to them a few months would be just that and that I’d not receive anything) . Anyway,I plan to dig a trench today and use the”heel in” method until our weather warms up a bit and I can decide where they’ll go. I definitely need to tag them to remember what I planted where!!

Thanks Jenny 🌷💚🙃

Hi I've listened to you the last few months and this is exciting for I also joined Arbor Day and received my trees like you but being in zone 5 I think I have 1 or 2 different ones for my zone but they are very hardy plants that they send because 20 yrs ago I received 4 Rose of Sharon in the fall I put them aside for like 8 months and remembered them even tho at the time they looked like sticks like what we got now and the 4 Rose of Sharon are 20 feet tall !!!! and in June or July covered with flowers Just an eye stopper !!!!

I planted my arbor day trees in pots until they got a little more established. The Washington Hawthorne did wonderfully in my clay soil, the rest I gave to friends.

I received 5 Norway spruce & 2 pee gee hydrangea that are all growing in old plastic plant containers. Watering is NOT a problem, but I do keep my eye on them.

Nice trees. I forgot all about getting that in the mail, I'll have to send mine in, I guess it isn't too late. I have 2 Crape Myrtles in a very wet area of my yard during our rainy season, and very dry end of summer, when we wish it would rain, they make out fine.

I would pot them up if it were me, lol. I've had good luck starting bare root trees that way, and terrible luck starting them in the ground. I get that offer from the Arbor Day Foundation all the time but I've had the same hesitation: what would I do with all those trees? My front yard is also my septic drain field so I can't plant just anything there.

White dogwoods are my absolute favorite tree! I haven’t had any luck keeping one happy in my garden… There are many that grow here in our middle Tennessee area, so I do enjoy seeing them all around our community! The crepe myrtles would love it in your front flower beds by the sidewalk (that you created last summer), they will bloom beautifully all summer and they will stay a manageable size!!

I am getting mine in Nov 2023

I used to get trees from the arbor day foundation every year. I never got a single 1 to live! Please give updates on your success with them. I would put them in pots even though they say not to. I never tried it but I think it would be more successful than in the ground. Good luck with them.

Put them in pots. My baby trees do very well in a pot. Then they seem super happy once they go to the permanent spot.

I have a Thornless Hawthorne and love its spreading habit. It has kind of an Asian vibe and glossy leaves. After 20 years, though, I will be taking it out this year. I cut branches off over the years and terribly misshaped it. It also has blight. Years ago, I purchased a redbud whip and that's another lovely tree I look forward to its pink/purple "blooms" every spring. Because I neglected it (forgot, really) it has multiple stems and an arching shape that I think is attractive. Probably not good to keep that as is, it will tip over as it ages. Slow grower.

I would probably share the trees Jenny. I would also, grow them in pots temporarily as it seems the best way to keep track of their progress while deciding where to plant them. 🌳

This made me laugh! I received these free trees about 30 years ago and put all of them in a pot as it was still too cold to plant in the ground. Over a year later the pot was still outside behind the shed. I took the pot to some acreage I had but found the roots in a tangled mass and couldn't get them apart. I put them in the hole I dug all together. Amazingly, there are still 3 of these trees still growing together and less than 3 feet tall!

I forgot to send my survey in. I'm already a member. I bought 2 trees from Arbor day but sadly they didn't survive. I think the really tiny trees are a bit harder to take root. My garden is like yours in that there are already a lot of trees and most of my sun spots are already occupied. So I would give them away. I do have a few a few shrubs coming that I am going to squeeze in somewhere. A Blue Chiffon Rose of Sharon, Purple Smoke Bush and 2 Berry Heavy Winterberries. I really wanted to try some Blueberries but I think I'm tapped out as far as spots in the yard for sun. The people who mow our lawn probably already hate me. Lol

30+years ago, we had just moved into a new home on a bare plot! We ordered 10 FREE trees from the NADF and got to planting! When we left that home 18 months ago there were still 2 of those trees on that property, a majestic oak and a beautiful Japanese maple! We were young gardeners and really had no clue what we were doing when we planted them, but we sure enjoyed them over the years we were there, raising our family. The Japanese maple was just stunning and the talk of the neighborhood, as it caught your eye the minute you turned onto our street. It’s well worth ordering from the NADF if you have the time to enjoy the growth of the trees. We want to plant some Eastern Redbuds here on our new property (in the woods) and have tried getting some seedlings to grow (that we brought with us) and have not had any luck. Did you get to request what trees you received, or did they just send you a variety? We are zone 7a, south central Virginia with clay soil.

I would pot those little saplings up into pots and let them grow on. I had little maple saplings volunteer in my yard, and I potted them up. Two are doing ok. One has been gnawed on by those pesky deer. I just used bigger nursery pots that came with other plants that I bought.

I would share them with my neighbors and keep one of the Crepe Myrtle

Hi Jenny - I ordered a spring flowering tree pkg from arbor day and from the looks of your trees here, I intend on getting them into long term pots. How are yours doing and where did you end up putting these? Thanks (Baltiomre 7b).

What did you end up doing with your trees? I watched this video when it came out and it motivated me to donate to the Arbor Day Foundation too-- my 10 baby crepe mertyls just arrived today! We're really more in zone 5b than 6 so I'm nervous to plant them in the ground. I'm thinking containers are the safest bet.

I am in Zone 7b. The redbuds and dogwoods are definitely understory trees. Full sun is too much for them.

I wonder if you can grow them in pots for couple of yrs then transition them to bonsai then you won’t need so much space. Heron bonsai channel is where I heard of growing trees in pots to develop roots and trunk for few yrs before placing them into bonsai pots.

How are your trees doing? We're receiving the same 10 tree species as you and I'm wondering if any are deer resistant? The goal being to plant them in an optimal location and AVOID attracting more deer as we have lots of oak trees in my backyard and have deer frequently.

If I reserved them I pot them up, and grow them up for about 3 years.

What size pots are you all starting with?

Why don’t you plant them at the far back of your property behind the fence where you took all those other trees out? At least temporarily?