In year’s past, Decatur residents had to get through the entire winter without a festival.

But not anymore!  From a note, I received a few days back…

…we wanted to let you know about the 1st Annual Nalley Tree Festival being held at Decatur Square on Saturday, Feb. 12, from 12 – 3 p.m.

The event is being hosted by Nalley BMW, Nalley Infiniti and Nalley Nissan, as the kick-off to its environmental, year-round Nalley Tree Campaign initiative to plant 10,000 trees in the City of Decatur and DeKalb County. It is a local business/community initiative being led by these three Nalley dealerships at the 1600 block of Church Street in partnership with several green businesses and organizations, including City of Decatur, DeKalb County, Park Pride, Trees Atlanta and Keep DeKalb Beautiful.

The Nalley Tree Festival, welcoming Decatur families and residents, promises to offer attendees music, children’s activities, as well the opportunity to learn more about planting complimentary tree seedlings in recognition of Georgia’s Arbor Day on Feb. 18.

Decatur resident Neil Norton tells us that the seedlings available this weekend are Redbuds and White Oaks; 2 years old about 2-3 feet high.  Norton was also good enough to fill us in on how this newest Decatur festival came to be…

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While ranking other people based solely on appearance is generally frowned upon in most circles these days, the ranking of trees – by age and size – is a perfectly acceptable way of celebrating of our leafy friends.

News has been slowly blowing around town over the past couple weeks that resident  Neil Norton got a White Oak over by the post office onto the Georgia Urban Forest Council’s Landmark and Historic Tree Register.  City Planner Amanda Thompson brought it to the City Commission’s attention during their last meeting and the DNO posted a nice follow up a few days later.

This got me thinkin': what and where are Decatur’s other trees of note?  Turns out there are quite a few all over the city.

First, there are three other Decatur trees on the Georgia Urban Forest Council’s list, all at Agnes Scott.

There’s “Professor Dieckmann’s Magnolias”, planted by the long-time ASC professor back around 1905 where while walking one day, “took them [magnolia seeds] up with his pocketknife,” and planted them in front of Rebekah Scott Hall.”

There’s the “Battle of Decatur” White Ash, that “dates back to 1854. “The Battle of Decatur, the eastern front of the fateful Battle of Atlanta, was fought on this very spot ten years later.”

And then there’s the “Mystery Incense Ash”, the oldest and most – well – mysterious of the three trees.

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