Home Front: How to Get a Pedigreed Tree

Why plant some nameless sapling in your yard when you could have one with a Very Virginia family history? Plant a tree with a past from the American Forests Historic Trees store. The nonprofit-run online store, at www.historictrees .org, cultivates and sells the offspring of trees associated with famous Americans and historic events: the Elvis Presley Southern Magnolia, for example, or the Clara Barton Redbud.

A good number of the trees associated with presidents, the Civil War and Revolutionary War come from Virginia. Most saplings cost $39.95. Of course, you could drive over to Berkeley Plantation or the Poe Museum and pick up a few seeds yourself.

Here are some ways you can branch out:

Edgar Allan Poe Live Oak — stands in the garden of Richmond’s Poe Museum.

Ulysses S. Grant Black Locust — stands at Grant’s field headquarters on the bluff overlooking the James and Appomattox rivers at City Point, now Hopewell.

Robert E. Lee Sweetgum — grows at Lee’s Stratford Hall birthplace.

Appomattox Courthouse Honey Locust — witnessed the signing of the surrender documents and perished in 2000 at the age of 183.

Berkeley Plantation Black Locust — stands on the site of the first official Thanksgiving and birthplace of Presidents Benjamin Harrison and William Henry Harrison.

Patrick Henry Osage Orange — bestowed on Henry’s daughter by Lewis and Clark, this tree stands today at Henry’s Red Hill Plantation west of Lynchburg.

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