Need to spruce up on identifying evergreens? We'll be hosting a winter bud and conifer identification workshop at the Blue Garden arboretum here in Newport on February 25th.

Participants will learn hands-on identification tactics, targeted to professional horticulturists for use in the winter garden. We'll be focusing on differentiating individual varieties and species of an established evergreen border, as well as dormant deciduous material found in the garden.

This 2-hour educational workshop will be led by Nick Castrataro, collections curator for the Newport Tree Conservancy and head of production for Morningstar Nurseries. Limited to 10 participants.

With Spring on the way, we are pleased to share this year's selection of bare root trees available for spring planting.

The Bare Root Tree Program offers subsidized trees to Newport residents to be professionally planted by Newport's City Forester. Trees may be planted in public spaces or on private property within 20ft of a public right of way.

Our goal is to make it easy for residents to plant trees that offer a wealth of benefits to homes and public spaces. The Arbor Day Foundation's website has a number of resources that document the energy, property value, and stormwater benefits of planting trees.

Could your front yard or streetscape use a new tree? Click the link below to see this year's selection of trees and learn more about the program.

Our latest batch of rootstock just arrived at our satellite greenhouse. After waking from winter's dormancy, these host trees will receive grafted scions (cuttings), which will be taken from a number of notable trees from around town. These Newport Heritage Trees have been identified by our staff and partners as being of significant age, provenance, and/or historic or cultural value.

As long as the host tree accepts the grafted material, it will grow into a clone of the Heritage Tree that we are seeking to preserve.