I love buying silly postcards on eBay. Here’s a postcard of a tree named Roosevelt. Makes me want to name all the trees in my yard after U.S. Presidents.
Now, who shall I mail this postcard to? Maybe someone with a tree. The postcard could declare the name of the tree in front of their house.
Maybe when I receive this postcard from the eBay seller, I’ll post on Facebook asking who wants me to name their tree after a president. First response will get the postcard from me. If there are multiple requests maybe I’ll go hunting on eBay for more tree postcards. (as long as they are under $1.50).
Methods used to name a tree after a U.S. President:
- The year the tree was planted could correspond to the President currently in office at the time.
- The species of the tree could have an alliteration with a President’s name. Madison Maple. Biden Birch.
- A tree species unique to a particular area would have a President from that area. (Can’t think of any now).
- A president known for being from a particular state could use the name of the official state tree. e.g. Abraham Lincoln is known for being from Illinois. The state tree of Illinois is the White Oak. Thus, any White Oak would be called a “Lincoln”.
- A President’s favorite or commemorative tree. MyGardenLife has a nice list. Here’s the summary:
| John Quincy Adams | American Elm | 1826 |
| Andrew Jackson | Southern Magnolia | 1829 |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | White Oak | 1935 |
| John F. Kennedy | ’Katherine’ Crabapple | 1961 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Willow Oak | 1964 |
| Jimmy Carter | Cedar of Lebanon | 1978 |
| George H. Bush | Littleleaf Linden | 1991 |
| Bill Clinton | White Dogwood | 1996 |
| George W. Bush | ’Cherokee Princess’ Flowering Dogwood | 2008 |
| Barack Obama | Littleleaf Linden | 2009 |
Hmmm. I might need to make a spreadsheet of all these different president-tree connections.