The Town of Farmville Tree Board will celebrate Arbor Day on Saturday, March 19, by giving away bare-root bald cypress, persimmon and redbud tree seedlings at the Farmers Market on North Street from 9 a.m.- noon.

Bald cypress, a deciduous conifer that grows to become a large size, is an adaptable tree that grows equally well in wet swampy soil or average soil. Persimmon, a small to medium-sized tree, is an attractive ornamental as well as a food source for wildlife. Redbud is well known for its beautiful, early spring blooms which actually are not red, but more of a deep lavender. The blooms show to great advantage because they appear before spring leaf out.

The Town of Farmville purchased the seedlings of these three native trees from the Virginia Department of Forestry which grows them from seeds collected in Virginia.

Farmville’s Arbor Day is sponsored each year by the Town of Farmville Tree Board. The board includes Patrick Murphy, Nan Colvin, Katie Register, Chris Rogers, Town Manager Gerald Spates and Town Horticulturist David Fowlkes. This year’s Arbor Day event is dedicated to the late Mike Lafoon, who was also on the Tree Board.

The board seeks to raise awareness of the benefits that trees give to the community. Trees provide beauty to homes, public spaces and the surrounding countryside. They provide shade as well as habitat for wildlife, reduce wind and noise levels, reduce erosion with roots that anchor the soil and reduces the impact of hard rains with their leafy canopies. Trees also feed soil microbes as leaves and wood decompose, and their wood provides fuel and construction material.

“Each year for the past 10 years, Farmville has met the requirements set forth by The Arbor Day Foundation to achieve status as a Tree City USA,” Fowlkes said. “As citizens of Farmville and surrounding localities, let us honor that distinction by planting trees in appropriate locations and by doing our part to keep them healthy and looking their best.”