Cathy Maddox shares Mayor Stephen Reed’s Arbor Day proclamation with Ethel Boykin as Mamie McClure, Karin Carmichael, Dr. Sheila Austin, and Nellie Moore look on.
April 28, 2023, Arbor Day at Montgomery Botanical Gardens was a sunny, breezy day for tree planting. Opening with the Arbor Day Proclamation for the city from Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, Cathy Maddox, President of the MBG Board of Directors welcomed visitors and board members to the gardens. Arbor Day was established in 1872 in Nebraska and is now celebrated throughout the United States of America. Trees not only provide beautiful shade and attractive landscapes, but they are a precious natural resource that reduces the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cuts heating and cooling costs, moderates the temperature, cleans the air, producing life-giving oxygen, and provides habitat for wildlife. Trees are also valuable to all of us because they are a renewable resource giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products.
As Shade Tree Landscaping team planted trees including Oak, Gingko, Redbud, and Dogwood, visitors observed their progress and toured the gardens. The spring blooms along the pathways in the gardens provided a colorful scene of reds, purples, and gold, with many shades of green. Some plants, like the many hydrangeas, are only beginning to form flower heads to bloom later. The Pollinator Beds were beginning to display their colors and attract visiting pollinators. Montgomery was named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation many years ago and this distinction was proudly displayed in the garden entrance.
Donations may be made to MBG to plant a tree in honor or in memory of loved ones. Memorial trees are planted in locations within the existing design for the gardens where they are needed. If you would like to donate a tree, you may send an email through the MBG website or contact a board member.
Workers from ShadeTree Landscaping plant a tree.