Missouri Arbor Day

Powell Gardens celebrated Missouri Arbor Day by planting a grove of 27 lindens (Tilia spp.). It was a typical Missouri Arbor Day with cloudy skies and a cool breeze.

Missouri Arbor Day is celebrated by Powell Gardens' staff and volunteers gathering together at morning break. This year's honorees were the members of KMOS TV and 90.9 The Bridge who pledged an extra $5 each. These extra pledges help establish a fund for tree planting at Powell Gardens to offset the stations' carbon footprint.

Here Powell Gardens' Director Eric Tschanz (right) and Senior Gardener Janet Heter place the first shovel of soil. Janet led the program with her "Top Ten Reasons to Celebrate Arbor Day:"
10. Trees are TREEific.
9. Trees provide a cool and beautiful place to live, work and play.
8. Trees improve our air and water quality.
7. Trees are renewable resources for paper, fuel and countless wood products.
6. Trees reduce heating and cooling costs.
5. Trees increase property values.
4. Trees provide habitat for wildlife.
3. Trees are a source of joy and spiritual renewal.
2. Trees enrich our lives.
1. PLANT a TREE!

Janet closed with this poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes:
"When we plant a tree we are doing what we can to make our planet a more wholesome and happier dwelling place for those who come after us, if not for ourselves."


KMOS TV and 90.9 The Bridge were represented by Dr. Don Peterson, Director of Broadcasting Services (left), and Mark Pearce, Coordinator for Corporate and Community Support (right). Each lent a hand with a shovel of soil.


The new linden grove is on the right (east) side of the road to the Powell Gardens chapel. You can see the Heartland Harvest Gardens nursery in the distance.

How did you spend your Arbor Day? Get out and visit your favorite nursery this spring and purchase a tree for your own arbor day celebration. There is hardly a more important thing one can do for our environment. Powell Gardens chose to purchase linden trees for our KMOS - 90.9 The Bridge donation not only for their carbon banking but because linden trees have very nectar rich flowers in late spring-early summer when there is a lull of flowering. The flowers are important for our declining honeybee populations as well as for a plethora of other pollinators and beneficial insects. (Remember how important these creatures are to pollinating our fruits and vegetables we all too often take for granted!) They make a fine honey and the blossoms are listed as edible, especially used for teas.

The lindens planted in the Powell Gardens linden grove:

American Linden or Basswood (Tilia americana) represented by the following four cultivars: 'American Sentry', 'Boulevard', 'Legend' and 'Lincoln'. Native locally.

White Basswood (Tilia heterophylla) 'Continental Appeal'. Native to Missouri.

Silver Linden (Tilia tomentosa) 'Sterling' native to Eastern Europe - Western Asia.

Crimean Linden (Tilia x euchlora) a natural hybrid from the west side of the Black Sea.

Harvest Gold Linden (Tilia cordata x T. mongolica) of garden origin.

Summer Sprite Linden (Tilia cordata 'Halka') which is a genetic dwarf that only reaches about 15 feet tall at maturity.

All photographs taken by Roland Thibault on Friday April 4, 2008.