Learn How to Plant Trees: Small, Medium & Large

Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Cole Park in Madison (corner of Greenwood and Fairview Avenues)
FREE! Please register here by noon on Nov. 8.

Madison, NJ – On Saturday, November 8, 2025, at 3:00 PM, Madison’s Shade Tree Management Board (STMB) will present a free tree planting demonstration, showing recommended planting techniques for three different sizes of white oak (Quercus alba). The advantages and disadvantages of each size, how to properly mulch and protect your trees, and common mistakes to avoid will also be discussed. A limited number of free white oak seedlings will be available to attendees as “outdoor prizes.” RSVP at bit.ly/tree-planting-25.

Leading the demonstration and discussion will be STMB members George Limbach, a landscaping professional for 49 years; Brian Monaghan, a Rutgers Master Gardener; and Bridget Daley, a certified Rutgers Environmental Steward. Guest expert Jean Epiphan, Licensed Tree Expert, ISA Certified Arborist, and forest ecologist from Rutgers University, will also offer important tips and insights. Members of Madison’s Department of Public Works (DPW)—who plant more than 120 trees annually on Borough property—will prepare the site and help demonstrate proper planting and mulching techniques.

White oak was the species chosen because it is suitable for the light and soil conditions at this site, and because oaks are a keystone species—providing critical habitat resources for the ecosystem. Oaks not only produce acorns that feed birds, squirrels, and other wildlife, they are a host plant for 513 species of butterflies and moth caterpillars in our area.

Attendees and residents will also be encouraged to observe the trees’ growth over time. This planting is part of a community science project to test the hypothesis that smaller tree seedlings—such as landscape plugs or bare-root “whips” like those given out for Arbor Day—or container-grown trees will establish and grow more quickly than traditionally planted balled-and-burlapped trees.

Gene Cracovia, Shade Tree Management Board chair, explains, “In Madison and throughout New Jersey, we are unfortunately losing shade trees faster than we can replace them—due to construction-related damage or removal, death due to diseases and invasive insects like emerald ash borer, increasingly frequent severe storms, and an overpopulation of deer, which eat and damage young trees. This event is to help encourage residents to plant more trees in their own yards or elsewhere. We’ll show how easy and inexpensive it can be to do it yourself, discuss how to protect trees from deer, help set expectations for how quickly a small seedling or sapling can grow, and talk about common mistakes to avoid when you or your landscaper are planting and caring for a tree.”

The event was inspired by a young American hornbeam, a.k.a. Ironwood (Carpinus caroliniana) tree in Daley’s yard, planted only a few years ago from a bare-root whip and already thriving at about 12 feet tall. “To watch this tree grow every year has been so awe-inspiring and gratifying,” says Daley.

Funding for the purchase of the white oak trees was provided by The Friends of Madison Shade Trees, Inc.

To contact the Shade Tree Management Board or for questions about this event, please email shadetree@rosenet.org.