Product Description

Like many residents of Jacksonville, Florida, the Jeffrey Meyers family liked to picnic under the city's magnificent Treaty Live Oak. When their toddler handed them an acorn from the tree, Meyers, a nurseryman, planted it in their back yard.
That acorn was the inspiration for an immensely popular project, America's Famous & Historic Trees, sponsored by American Forests, the country's oldest nonprofit conservation organization. Through this program, Meyers and his volunteers have collected seeds from more than a thousand different historic trees, which are grown to sapling size in the project's nursery. The descendants of these famous trees have been planted on the grounds of state capitols, in schoolyards, and in back yards across the country.
In this fascinating book, Meyers tells the stories of seventeen historic trees, describes their role in America's history, and tells how their seeds were collected and their offspring propagated. For readers who want to grow a replica of an important tree themselves, each chapter contains instructions for planting the seeds of that particular species.
Among the trees in this book are the Indian Marker Pecan, dating back to the 1600s, when Comanche warriers would mark a good camping spot by tying a young pecan tree to the ground. At the other end of the time line is the Moon Sycamore, grown from seeds that traveled to the moon in 1971 on Apollo 14.
Trees associated with presidents are George Washington's Tulip Poplar, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address Honey Locust, Andrew Jackson's Southern Magnolia (planted at the White House in memory of his wife), and John F. Kennedy's Post Oak, which grows beside his grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Most of the original trees still stand, but in some cases all that remains of their place in history are the seeds propagated by Meyers and his group. These include the last Johnny Appleseed Rambo Apple tree and the last Lewis and Clark Cottonwood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146819 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 130 pages

Amazon.com Review
Nurseryman Jeffrey Meyer founded the Famous and Historic Trees Project as a way of preserving and propagating the past. The project began after his son came to him with an acorn fallen from Jacksonville, Florida's "Treaty Live Oak"--a vast old tree growing in the spot where the Timucuan tribe sat for tribal councils. Meyer took the acorn home and planted it in his backyard. "From that little acorn also germinated the idea of growing descendants of important trees," he notes.

America's Famous and Historic Trees tells the stories of various trees that Meyer and his cohorts rescued or propagated: oftentimes, when trees were going to be cut down, he and his workers headed off the bulldozers, rescuing the tree with their massive tree hoe. Other trees--like the Indian Marker Pecan in southeast Dallas--were propagated before they died. Some of the ancestor trees still stand in their historic places--like Elvis Presley's Pin Oaks on the grounds of Graceland. Chapters here follow the trials and tribulations of specific trees, and end with "how to propagate" instructions for a wide variety of species: sycamore, cottonwood, bur oak, magnolia. This book is not about photographs--what images are included are simply of big trees alongside houses or suburban developments, awkward and misplaced, like an elegant old man in a multiplex. Meyer hopes to inspire his readers to plant and nurture forests that will outlive them, and to rescue trees from the unknown forces of the future by revering their pasts. --Emily White

From Library Journal
A decade ago, Meyer, a history buff and nurseryman who planted trees in new housing developments in Florida, had an inspiration to gather seeds from famous trees throughout the country and make the saplings available for people to plant in their own yards. He proposed this idea to the nation's oldest conservation organization, American Forests, and with their encouragement, founded the Famous and Historic Trees Project. Here, Meyer focuses on 17 of these trees, including the Frederick Douglass white oak and the Walden Woods red maple. For each tree, he provides abundant historical background, a description of its distinct qualities, detailed instructions on how to grow it from seed, and suggestions about where to plant it. Numerous illustrations enliven the text, and a 16-page color insert provides photographs of all the trees described. Because of its somewhat narrow focus, this is recommended for larger American history collections as well as landscape gardening collections. Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, TX
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As mighty oaks from little acorns grow, so do mighty ideas. For Meyer, this was literally the case, founding the Famous & Historic Trees Project after his son handed him an acorn plucked from the ground beneath Florida's Jacksonville Treaty Live Oak, a seventeenth-century Timucuan tribal council site. Meyer planted the seed in his backyard, and the program that would eventually register more than 400 remarkable trees and produce thousands of descendant saplings took root. In this exceptional combination of horticulture and history, Meyer entertains with anecdotes and obscure tales of the people and events surrounding 17 celebrated trees, from a tulip poplar on the grounds of Mt. Vernon to sycamore seeds sent into space aboard Apollo 14. Whatever your favorite historical figure or period, there surely exists the offspring of a tree that bears silent witness to the illustrious incidents that took place beneath its branches. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Jeff's Trees
What a thrill to find Jeff Meyer's book at Amazon and Barnes& Noble! I had no idea he was working on one - and one so comprehensive as this. I knew he was extremely involved in the historic tree/seed program and research. There is also a very interesting documentary on this subject that Jeff appeared in and advised on, which was aired on PBS this year. His mother, Joanne, has been a strong influence on Jeff in this field. She is a tireless member of The Garden Club of America and, by her efforts, raised the conciousness of many.This book is a fine explanation of all the work that has been done to preserve history, as well as to make us more aware of how important beautiful trees are to our quality of life on this planet. The photography is marvellous and the book is a wonderful read, as well as a great coffee table book for just a quick pickup. We all love a "picture book", don't we?

America's Famous and Historic Trees
Here is a book that combines a love of trees with famous American individuals to make an outstanding addition to any book collection. The author, Jeffrey Meyer, gives an account of 17 of the most noted trees and the historic persons associated with them. From the Indian (Comanche) Marker Pecan or George Washington Tulip Poplar to John F. Kennedy=s Post Oak or Elvis Presley=s Pin Oak, Meyer goes through pages of American history to pick out some the most significant figures of the time (Patrick Henry, Lewis and Clark, Johnny Appleseed, Frederick Douglass, Wyatt Earp, etc) and the trees (Osage Orange, Cottonwood, Rambo Apple, White Oak, Black Walnut, etc) that meant so much to them. In so doing, he provides the reader with a fine book, easy to read, beautifully published, with magnificent black/white and color photos and illustrations, and sidebars on how and where to grow the particular tree. As a idea and as a published work, America=s Historic Trees ranks in the top five per cent of books I would urge all to read and enjoy.

Organic Historicism
I bought, "America's Famous And Historic Trees" as an Arbor Day gift for an old friend who loves all things trees. In looking it over, I decided to buy another one for myself because it's just too good not to have. The author of the book, Jeffrey G. Meyer is a latter day Johnny Appleseed who has been planting trees successfully since he was five years old. I loved all of the stories, particularly the Elvis Presley and George Washington portions. This is not only a fascinating read, it

contains really valuable information on how to actually grow trees from seeds. This is also an excellent book for all ages.