I Speak For The Trees

April 16, 2007 2:16 PM

Where can I cheaply obtain roughly 300 tree saplings/seedlings to give as gifts?

I'd rather give an already-growing tree instead of seeds since people will be more likely to plant a seedling/sapling whereas seeds are more likely to wind up sitting on a shelf or in a desk drawer. Ideally, the gift trees would require minimal maintenance, be indigenous to northern California, and would do well in a variety of climates. I'm also interested in suggestions for species of trees, and how to package them.

posted by fandango_matt to home & garden (11 comments total)

Are these to be personal gifts from you, or from a business or organization?

If the latter, you would do well to strike a deal with a nursery in which the trees were donated or sold to you at a discount in exchange for recognition of their generosity. Perhaps the trees could come with a brochure from the nursery, all but guaranteeing that the recipients would return there for follow-up purchases. Such an arrangement would benefit the nursery, as it would most likely be tax-deductable. And then you invite the nursery folks to be honored in person at your next business event.

If they are personal gifts, you can still try to strike the same kind of bargain; a mom and pop place might be willing to help you out by selling them for cost in exchange for a little word-of-mouth publicity, because of the size of the order. But you won't have quite as much leverage as you would the other way.
posted by hermitosis at 2:26 PM on April 16, 2007

You could plant the seeds yourself, raise them to saplings, then give them away.
posted by clh at 2:31 PM on April 16, 2007

Check with Weyerhauser. The do a ton of replanting and might make some seedlings available.
posted by trinity8-director at 3:29 PM on April 16, 2007

This may not be a cheap option, but I've received those kind of saplings in the mail as a kind of promotional item. Here's 2 sites I found with a quick google: one two.
posted by dicaxpuella at 3:52 PM on April 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I recieved a 4" redwood sapling in a plastic vial as a wedding favor for a wedding held in Mendocino. Awesome, no? Looks like they came from dicaxpuella's first link. (It lasted a long time, I can tell you that!)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:11 PM on April 16, 2007

CDF has a program where they sell tree seedlings.
I bought a bunch of Eucalyptus gunni from them
a number of years back, and they were very reasonably
priced (they were small, no more than about 8 inches tall,
rooted in about 12 cubic inches of soil, designed for mass
planting).

From CDF:

Bareroot and a limited number of container grown seedlings are once again available at the Magalia Reforestation Center in Butte County. A price list and order form can be found online at this web site under Resource Management and Forestry, State Nurseries. The nursery staff can be contacted at:

Magalia Reforestation Center
6640 Steiffer Road
Magalia, CA 95954
[phone]

[e-mail]
posted by the Real Dan at 4:16 PM on April 16, 2007

Arbor day foundation?
posted by fermezporte at 5:07 PM on April 16, 2007

You could always order them through the National Arbor Day Foundation.
posted by Ostara at 5:09 PM on April 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

A tree suggestion: Live Oak. These beautiful trees are a common sight along the bay area countryside.
posted by spork at 7:38 PM on April 16, 2007

If you want to get the best price, call around to some forestry companies or companies that do tree planting (AKA silviculture) and ask where they get trees from. Seedlings costs next to nothing, but your problem will more likely be finding someone willing to sell you 300 seedlings (which is, on a silviculture scale, roughly nothing).

If you can work in some publicity for the forestry company (and especially if they are somewhat local), they may very well be willing to give them to you for free. The local forestry company used to give a cedar or fir seedling to every kid in my school once a year as a PR exercise. Of course, if you aren't near enough to any major forestry operations, then none of this will help much.

Once you get the seedlings, make sure to keep them damp and package them so they won't dry out. A damp paper towel works well for the short term.
posted by ssg at 10:03 PM on April 16, 2007

I looked it up on froogle. One of the ads said: Live Trees. Many species. Low prices. Delivered to you. Hell of an adcopy. Not a word wasted.
I suspect that these people are the ones to ask.

Looks like 25 or more of some trees are about 5 bucks a pop.

I'm sure that your best bet is to ship to each one of them from the seller, instead of having them delivered to you.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:02 PM on April 16, 2007