A 2002 Arbor Day "stick", one of the ten free trees.

I took these photos today of a Redbud tree that was one of my ten free trees from Arbor Day in 02'.
For the first time, it flowered real well this Spring. I planted it at my Mom's house then, and has it grown! I would guess-timate it is 4" at the trunk and 18 feet high. 18 feet sounds like a lot but it has this one skinny limb that has shot way up. That limb might be dead, it doesn't have any flowers on it, but I'll wait to see when leaves come on. If that limb gets pruned, the tree would probably be around 12 feet tall.

There is only one other survivor, a Crabapple tree that is planted at my Aunt and Uncle's house.
I haven't yet inquired about it, to see if it has flowered this year, but I doubt if it did.

I am also guessing that this Redbud tree is a grand total of 5 years old. It may have been a year old when they sent it, it was indeed a "stick" then.

I totally agree that the ten free trees are small, there is no doubt at all about that, they DO grow though. I guess I am saying if one is willing to wait a few years, are they ever rewarded.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/OneOfArborDays10freetrees2002Redbud/

Will


This message was edited Apr 9, 2006 9:46 PM

That's terrific growth. A lot of those NADF "sticks" die, but even if only one in ten performs like your redbud the price is right. I have a few old NADF trees here too.

Guy S.

My problem with these folks weren't the 10 free trees. The problem was with the ones I paid for out of their catalog. Dried out pines sent in Sept, broken trunk on T. distichum, wrongly identified trees... And trying to get them to stop sending you junk mail, well, good luck.

I bet the vast majority of Bradford Pear sticks and Sawtooth Oak sticks they sent out to help "Mother Earth" survived. Hmm, weren't they offering up Russian Olive sticks too? My memory is sort of cloudy here ;)

Did you send 10 dollars for those "free" trees?
Out of at least 20 "free" blue spruce, I ended up with one that survived. It is now at least 15 feet tall. What a joke!

Hehe.. yes, 10 dollars. Eeee! 1 in 20 isn't too good. I'm not real sure what happened to the rest of the ten free trees, they weren't planted at my house. Although, from what I heard when I asked about them, it sounded like they may have been run over with a mower.

I asked my Aunt today if the other NADF tree was blooming, to my surprise she said it was! It is blooming white, and all along I thought it was a Crabapple, I think now, that it might be a Dogwood. I'll look at it again and take photos if I need to.

Back in late 01' when I ordered them I had just got the tree bug a few months before that and I just wanted to order some trees, I didn't even have a place to plant them.

Will

My gripe with NADF is that no matter when people join, they immediately send the trees. I bet there were ten threads over on the other Forum by people asking what they could do with their trees after NADF mailed them out in the dead of winter. Now, if a foundation is about trees, and supposedly cares about trees, and sends folks (free) trees so that ostensibly there are more trees growing all over America, don't you think they'd care just enough to send them at a plantable time of year?

Scott

This message was edited Apr 11, 2006 8:02 PM

We've been down this road before with this organization. It would appear that they care about appearances and bringing in the money. They also like their website to get lots of hits.