April is the month to plant and celebrate TREES! No need to wait for Earth Day (April 22nd) or Arbor Day (April 28th) to select and plant a glorious tree to enrich your home landscape. The fact sheets on native trees within the MGNV Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic are a rich online resource. After you have planted your tree, watch Best Bets: Native Plants for Shade on April 21 for ground covers that will protect your tree’s roots as well as providing their own beauty.
No room for a tree? Then consider upgrading your shrubs and refresh yourself on the best practices for tree and shrub care when watering, mulching, pruning and dealing with pests or diseases to help these botanical marvels thrive in our tough urban environment.
Plant NOVA Trees | Additional Resources
Plant NOVA Trees
Plant NOVA Trees is a focused drive by the Plant NOVA Natives campaign to increase the native tree canopy in Northern Virginia. The drive launched in September 2021 and continues through the fall of 2026.
Plant NOVA Trees is a partnership made up of representatives from state and local agencies, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, and numerous concerned citizens, all pooling their resources to work toward this common goal. The campaign’s success rests on the action of the millions of individuals who make up our Northern Virginia community. The majority of trees in our region, and of spaces that need more trees, are on private property.
You make a difference with every Virginia native you plant on your property and with every mature tree you preserve. Just as important is spreading the word to your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
Additional Resources:
- Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid Atlantic: Trees
- Invasive Trees and Better Alternatives
Articles from MGNV
- Celebrating Native Trees – April 6, 2022
- Assessing and Dealing with Snowstorm Damage on Trees – January 5, 2022
- Planting Trees – October 30, 2021
- Increasing Our Tree Canopy – August 31, 2021
- Protecting Young Trees from Deer – January 20, 2021
- Small Trees Make Big Canopies – May 27, 2020
- Watering New [Tree] Plantings in Winter – January 22, 2020
- Climate Change, Weather Extremes, and Oak Decline – January 8, 2020
- Identifying Trees by Their Bark – January 5, 2020
- In the Winter Garden, 2019 Edition – December 25, 2019
- Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States [book review]- October 30, 2019
- Healthy Bark, Healthy Tree Part 2: Mechanical and Weather Damage – March 13, 2019
- Healthy Bark, Healthy Tree Part 1: Wildlife and Fungi Damage – March 11, 2019 (updated April 12, 2022)
- Are You Lichen the Bark? Five Birch Trees of the Mid-Atlantic Region – February 6, 2019
- Are You Lichen the Bark? Beautiful Bark – January 30, 2019
Illustrated Glossary
- aril: an extra seed-covering, generally fleshy and brightly colored, especially one that develops from the funiculus or seed stalk
- axis: the central part of a longitudinal support on which organs or parts are arranged; the central line of any body New in 2023!
- cauliflory: flowers and fruit produced directly on trunks and branches of woody plants rather than on new growth or the ends of twigs/shoots
- conifer: a thin-leaved (having needles or scales) tree or shrub that produces cones New in 2023!
- deciduous: not evergreen, used in botany to describe trees, shrubs, and lianas (vines) that shed all their leaves in one season.
- dioecious: plant species having male and female reproductive organs on different individual plants
- drupe: a fleshy, simple fruit with a central stone containing the seed
- evergreen: having leaves that remain green and functional for more than one growing season, including in winter; not deciduous. noun: a plant that stays green more than one growing season New in 2023!
- flute: a vertical fold or groove in the stem of a tree
- knee: a conical woody growth above water from the roots of some trees
- legume: a dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel, usually opening along two seams; plant belonging to the Fabaceae New in 2023!
- lenticel: a pore or aggregation of cells penetrating the surface of stems and through which gases are exchanged between the atmosphere and the underlying tissues
- marcescent: remaining attached although withered (leaves, petals, sepals)
- phyllotaxis: the manner in which leaves are arranged with regard to the axis and in relation to one another; the study of the factors that determine the growth patterns and arrangements of plant leaves
- pome: an accessory fruit with fleshy receptacle tissue (hypanthium) surrounding a tough core (inferior ovary) containing the seeds
- samara: a winged achene
- strobilus: cone-shaped mass of ovule- or spore-bearing scales or bracts; reproductive structure of conifers
Public Education Recorded Classes
- Celebrating Native Trees March 15, 2022
- Pruning Trees and Shrubs: Winter – Updated in 2022! – February 18, 2022
- Native Trees: How to Select, Plant and Transplant – October 26, 2021
- Tree Care: Managing Pests and Diseases – September 25, 2021
- Fruit Producing Trees: Insect and Disease Management Strategies – Part III – May 19, 2021
- Native Plants for Winter Interest – October 27, 2020
- Fruit Trees and Berries for the Urban Landscape: Natives – Part II – August 17, 2020
- Fruit Trees and Berries for the Urban Landscape: Selecting – Part I – July 20, 2020