Friends of the Occoquan

To preserve and maintain the intergrity of the Occoquan Watershed.

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Red Maple Tree Project
In the Fall
In the early summer

Meet Mutti the Red Maple. Mutti means Mama in German. Every Spring Mutti produces many seedlings that in the past got plucked and thrown away. This years about 30 of those seedlings were transplanted into small containers to share to promote tree planting. Photos and stories will be posted here so Mutti can see where her seedlings have gone and what they are up to.

To find out more about Red Maple trees visit the National Wildlife Federation website.Click Here

Tips on growing a Red Maple sapling click here.


Top 22 Benefits of Trees click here


Seedling Stories

I wanted to write to tell you about the further adventures of the little red maple tree, which is still called Little Tree...even though it has grown some over the summer.

Sometime in early September, when I still didn't have the little beast potted, and it was still sitting on the table outside my back door in its paper cup, we had a storm predicted.  I'd been feeling guilty anyway, so I got out a big, outdoor pot, planning to protect the tree from being blown off the table in the storm.  I filled the pot with organic compost, put the tree down in and watered it, told it how happy it would be sitting closer to the ground.
The next morning I went out.  It hadn't rained hardly at all, but a big old squirrel had decided to bury a nut in the beautiful soil in the pot, and tossed the little tree right out!  Fortunately, the tree was still in its paper cup, since I'd decided it would be gentler to let it get accustomed to the new soil slowly, so it wasn't damaged.
I put the dirt back into the pot, put the tree back into the pot, and put the pot up on a wrought iron tripod, so it would be safe.
THEN  it rained and the winds blew.  I went out the next morning and found that the tripod had tipped over, dumping the pot and the tree.  But amazingly enough, the pot was unbroken and the tree was undamaged.  I don't even know how that happened.
Two weeks later (now that I've put the tripod back and wedged it against the table), Little Tree is safe and sound, and starting to decide that it might be Fall.
Hope you and your trees are all okay.
Jean Campbell (Portsmouth, Virginia)

Happy 1st Birthday to our 2015 Seedlings!
Birthday Stories Year One
Dear Sonia and all Maple moms,
I would send a photo, but since I'm not well-equipped for that, I'll send a word picture instead.
There are a number of reasons that Little Tree should be dead by now, but instead he seems to be alive and thriving.
You'll remember that I told you last year about the squirrels digging him up?  Well, that squirrely behavior continued.  I've got a lot of oak trees here, and a load of squirrels.  I would go out and find Little Tree tipped over on his side, though still in the paper cup.
Finally, I transferred him to another pot, and put the pot into a plant stand, thinking that would help.  It did, for a while.
I thought that the frost this year might kill the little twig that he was.  However, come spring, I began to see a leaf....
And then one morning I went out, after the strong winds we've had blowing, and discovered the plant stand had tipped over, spilling that poor Little Tree and a bunch of potting soil, out on the ground!  Still the leaf kept growing.
And then more leaves.  Little Tree now has half a dozen branches with beautiful red leaves on them...even though yesterday I discovered that another squirrel had found the pot, and knocked Little Tree aside.  I gave the tree a few pets and strokes, and some water, repotted him, and today in the sunlight, he looks just fine.
This tree is a survivor!!
I hope his siblings are doing well too.
Jean Campbell
Portsmouth, Virginia

I am sorry to say that the Maple Babies that I was given....I believe I had at least 2, did not make it.  I have searched for them, but have not found them.  The landlady had hired a crew to clear her property and amongst the items on her "to-do" list was to clear the small patio garden that I had last Fall/Winter.  Anything that wasn't green was thrown out and my poor babies were mere sticks at the time.  If luck is with me, they may have been buried in a pile of dirt/compost that was salvaged under a large Fatsia.  I will continue to look to see if they show up as sprouts there.  If so, I will send an update!I

Atsuko Biernot

Virginia Beach, VA


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