The national observance of Arbor Day is always the last Friday in April, but many states celebrate Arbor Day at different times of the year based on the best tree planting times in the area. The Botanic Garden on campus celebrated Georgia’s Arbor Day in a new way.

“Normally we plant a tree, and I explain and teach everybody how to plant a tree, but tomorrow we’re gonna do something a little different. They’re actually gonna plant a tree on campus at 3 at Sweetheart Circle, so we decided we wanna do a tree walk. Where we walk around and see some of the trees we’ve planted in the past, on Arbor Day.” explained Garden Manager, Joshua Jones.

The first celebration of Arbor Day in Nebraska 150 years ago saw 1 million trees planted, in the past 50 years the Arbor Day Foundation has planted over 400 million trees worldwide. 

“Trees are just so important to us, and I think it’s really nice to take a day and celebrate what trees do, especially as the climate is warming.” said Carolyn Altman, Garden Director.

11 Acres of land that once hosted the farmstead of Dan and Catherine Bland is now home to our Botanic Garden. The garden offers an array of native plants, including over 20 of Georgia’s protected species.

“The first, and one of the most important jobs we do, and we do on a daily basis, is to promote native plants and animals. We promote the native plants and animals just by doing our job. Maintaining our arboretum, we have a tree walk, we have 2 different forest locations that are all native plants.” Jones explained.

Aside from their efforts to educate the public about the importance of plants and the history of the land on campus, the Botanic Garden offers beautiful scenery and a calming environment for students to visit.

“We’d love for you to come on out and have a picnic, study, people get married out here, they propose to each other, they come on dates. It’s just a great place to come and relax.” said Altman.