Green Matters Lawn and Landscape

Six of the most commonly planted trees in the U.S. are invasive — and every one has a native swap that gives you the same shade, same flowers, or better fall color.

These were planted on purpose by cities, developers, and homeowners who didn't know what they'd become.

🌳 The swaps:

- Tree of Heaven → Black Cherry — tree of heaven is the primary host for spotted lanternfly and suppresses plants around it chemically. Black cherry supports hundreds of moth and butterfly species and produces fruit birds depend on

- Norway Maple → Sugar Maple — Norway maple's dense canopy and shallow roots prevent anything from growing beneath it. Sugar maple gives you the same shade with richer fall color and supports the native insects songbirds need to feed their young

- White Mulberry → Red Mulberry — white mulberry hybridizes with native red mulberry across its remaining range. Red mulberry produces larger sweeter fruit and won't send root suckers through your sidewalk every spring

- Princess Tree → Eastern Redbud — princess tree drops millions of seeds that colonize any open ground in one season. Redbud blooms pink-purple in early spring before its leaves appear and is one of the first food sources native bees find after winter

- Russian Olive → American Plum — Russian olive changes soil chemistry enough to push out native plants along waterways. American plum produces edible fruit, blooms white, and provides dense nesting habitat

- Mimosa → Fringe Tree — mimosa seeds stay viable in soil for years and resprout aggressively after cutting. Fringe tree produces fragrant white blooms in late spring and never sends a single sucker beyond its canopy

Sweet Emotion® Abelia — a shrub you’ll enjoy for years

With its white-and-pink blooms, Sweet Emotion® Abelia adds a lovely, jasmine-like fragrance in late spring. Through summer it stays neat with glossy green foliage, then finishes the season with beautiful red-orange fall colour.

Why gardeners love it:
Tough, dependable and frost-hardy.
Easy-care and low maintenance.
Thrives in full sun to partial shade. Perfect for beds, borders and containers.

Plant it once and enjoy it year after year.

You can purchase this plant along with many others of your choosing with Green Matters Lawn and Landscaping.

Please call us today at 256-221-0918 and one of our team members will be happy to assist you.

ON January 30, 1966: Alabama’s coldest temperature ever (-27F) was measured at New Market in Northeast Madison County about 25 miles northeast of Huntsville.

The reading was recorded under clear skies with light winds and 12 inches of snow on the ground, perfect for extremely cold weather. This broke the previous state record of -18F at Valley Head, which was measured on February 14, 1905.

Other lows on that frigid morning:

-24F at Russellville
-17F in Haleyville
-12F at Redstone Arsenal
-11F in Valley Head
In the Birmingham area, it was -4F at the Airport, -5F in Pinson and -2F in Bessemer.
In South Alabama, it was:
9F in Fairhope and Bay Minette
13F in Mobile
14F at Fort Morgan
5F at Montgomery and Selma.
It was 0F as far south as Clanton.

The same storm dumped heavy snow across other parts of Alabama, including:

11 inches at Moulton
8 inches at Hamilton
Scottsboro, Cullman and Red Bay
7 inches at Huntsville, Guntersville, Double Springs and Russellville
6 inches at Jasper, Falkville and Albertville.

Mississippi also recorded their state all time record low on this date with -19F at Corinth.