Historic Congressional Cemetery Arboretum Accreditation

Over the next three years, the Trowel Garden Club will lead the initiative to develop and implement plans with Historic Congressional Cemetery (HCC) to achieve Arbnet Level I Arboretum Accreditation (https://arbnet.org).

To meet these criteria, Trowel members will work hand-in-glove with HCC landscape and grounds staff to identify 25+ different species of trees or woody plants and plant additional native trees as needed.

General timeline and project focus:

Year 1 -- We will begin our P4P initiative with cemetery staff by identifying native trees and cultivar varieties on HCC grounds using Casey Trees’ historical guide and planting maps. We will host a public event (possibly in conjunction with Arbor Day activities) to announce the launch of the arboretum project and engage volunteers to work with garden club members and cemetery staff on site preparation, and planting and tagging trees in the cemetery’s collection.

Year 2 -- After cataloging the different species, we will fill in existing gaps by planting and tagging additional native trees that will help diversity and restore natural habitat. We will further help provide for the maintenance and care of the selected varieties in the arboreal collection.

Year 3 – We will complete the tagging of 25+ designated specimens in accordance with Arbnet’s requirement that trees in the arboretum collection must be labeled in some way to identify them taxonomically.