Nursery visit instructions
One of the best places to learn about plants grown locally is at the many outstanding retail nurseries in our area. For this course, you will visit nurseries and collect information about trees you find at the nursery.
You may use a cultivar of a species found at Washington Park, but not the species itself. For example you could do, Betula pendula ''Dalecarlica', the cutleaf weeping birch if you find it at a nursery. If you find the plain species, Betula pendula, in the nursery, you cannot use it.
For each tree, take a close-up photo of the plant and record the following information to be included with your photo: nursery name, date, botanical name of the tree, common name of the tree. In addition, research and find the following (you will probably find some of this information on the nursery label which is fine): the family the tree belongs to, mature height of tree, mature spread of tree, sun requirements of the tree (sun, partial shade or shade), water requirements of the tree, rate of growth, and any desirable features such as showy flowers (include general time of year, i.e., spring, summer) or fall leaf color. Since the information you are gathering will be used to make your personal tree guide, any additional information you find and include will make the final product more valuable to you.
Fill out the required information and attach it to the nursery tree form with your photo and send it to me for checking and grading.