Rainforest Wholesale Nursery in Harlingen donated a couple hundred small Live Oaks,
Quercus virginiana and Montezuma Bald Cypress,
Taxodium mucronatum trees to the Cameron County Master Gardeners. Live Oaks are native to the "ranch country" in the northern Rio Grande Valley. The Montezuma Bald Cypress is another Valley native that thrives along waterways. A private home in San Benito happens to be home to the national champion Montezuma Bald Cypress. We'll use these trees either to promote The Arboretum or sell them and use the funds for Arboretum expenses. The City of San Benito, one of our partners in the Compost Demonstration Site, loaded up a number of the trees for use in their parks along the Resaca de los Fresnos. Won't those Montezuma Bald Cypress look majestic in 10 or 20 years!
The first scheduled "moving day" was last June. But we were rained out. Since then we planned to pick up our wonderful gift two other times - each time it RAINED and we postponed. It's now the end of September and you can't imagine how excited we are to finally get our hands on those trees! Many thanks to Perin and Jose for their equipment and manpower.
We do have work to do on these trees - staking, fertilizing, trimming and training - and in the process, learning a little bit more. . . . Watch this site for a planned work day. Until then, they are safe under an automatic watering system at a member's nursery.
