Participate in Vancouver Park Board $10 spring tree sale

Grow your own fruit, provide some summer shade and contribute to Vancouver’s forest canopy by purchasing a $10 tree from the city.

Residents get the opportunity to buy up to a total of three trees this month. There is a pool of 2,851 fruit, flowering and shade varieties available — many of which are bird friendly providing both food and habitat.

Species include Victoria southern magnolias, sentinel columnar apples, celestial flowering dogwoods, inaba shidare Japanese maples, baby blue Colorado spruces, lapins cherries and yamhill hazelnuts.

“This is the fourth year for the tree sale and we have 28 varieties, more than ever before,” said Vancouver Park Board chair Stuart Mackinnon. “We encourage residents to try our “Treelationships” quiz to find out which trees would be best for their yard or balcony. Trees always sell out so residents are encouraged to order as soon as possible in order not to be disappointed.”

For online customers, they can pick up their orders on May 11 (between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.) and 12 (between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) at the Nat Bailey Stadium overflow parking lot. Limited first-come-first-serve cash transactions will also be taking place on May 12 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Busy on those dates? Another option for residents is to visit one of the participating nurseries: Figaro’s Garden, Hunter’s Garden Centre or Gardenworks at Lougheed and Mandeville, to get $20 off an eligible $50 purchase.

Vancouver park board has a goal of seeing 150,000 trees planted by 2020. Since 2010, they have already put in 125,000 along streets and in parks and private lands, which is enough to cover Stanley Park over four times. As of four years ago, the existing canopy cover was estimated at 19 per cent.

The spring sale aligns with an updated Urban Forest Strategy adopted last fall.

For more information, visit https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/vancouver-tree-weekend.aspx.