Florida Arbor Day celebrated at Mounts Botanical Garden

A newly planted paradise tree now grows in paradise.

Paradise as in a lush patch of suburban West Palm Beach. That would be Mounts Botanical Garden, where Florida Arbor Day was honored on a sun-warmed Sunday with walks amid the foliage, educational exhibits and the ceremonial planting of the Simarouba glauca, or paradise tree.

The garden hummed with stories. Some were told on the tours that wove along fragrant paths, past yellow elder, cinnamon, bamboo and eucalyptus trees. Some were told without words, in fluttering orange phrases, in a part of the garden where nectar plants attract butterflies.

Some were told in impromptu horticultural lessons.

"What kind of tree is this?" asked 9-year-old Melanie Ferran, a studious girl with long, flowing hair, holding a potted seedling.

"It's a loquat tree," replied Debi Bowen, a science educator for the schools district of Palm Beach County, her hands smudged with soil from planting and distributing seedlings at the event. "It's a fruit tree."

The young student lit up at the prospect that her tiny plant might bear fruit within two years. She has come to appreciate the matters of the Florida soil and its harvests. As a member of the garden club at Wynnebrook Elementary School in West Palm Beach, young Melanie has helped plant a vegetable garden at the nearby Elks Lodge 1352.

Ask her what she likes most about the garden experience and, after a thoughtful pause, she'll say, "I like weeding the garden."

Clear across the botanical garden Sunday, her club was represented in colorful drawings in honor of Arbor Day. At the booth where they were displayed, gardener Barbara Hadsell proudly showed the students' artwork. She leads the Wynnebrook garden club of 28 fourth and fifth graders with her husband Tim, who built the school garden at the Elks Lodge, where he is a member.

Once a week, she walks with the students to the lodge garden, where last fall they planted corn, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, peas, peppers, eggplant and a variety of herbs.

"We pick our tomatoes ripe off the vine. They're delicious – the kids loved them," says Hadsell, a district director for the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs. "We're having fresh corn on the cob this Tuesday, right from our garden."

Across the path from her booth, officials of the Florida Forest Service distributed literature about the difference between "bad fires" and "good fires," as well as information on the state's native trees.

"Florida native trees are more drought tolerant and they help sustain our wildlife," said Mark Torok, a senior forester for the service's Everglades district.

He offered the example of the paradise tree. It's a generous tree that doesn't demand premium soil or much water. It can grow in wastelands, in uninviting terrain where fruits and vegetables might wither. It turns large quantities of carbon dioxide into clean oxygen, produces nutrient-rich seeds and termite-resistant timber.

In the spring and through the summer, notes Torok, the tree's new growth gives off a lovely orange flush across the branches.

For now, the young, green paradise tree grows a world away from the snowy north, the storm-weary Pacific Northwest and the tornado-bracing Midwest. It takes root not in a wasteland, but in rich, native soil, in paradise.