We’ve always known that trees rock; studies show that trees fight asthma in kids, they keep everyone healthier, can save you tons on energy costs, and they’re beautiful and fun to hug. However, trees have some other benefits that you may not have heard of – in fact some of the benefits below I hadn’t even heard of, and I read about trees all the time. The Morton Arboretum has a fabulous piece up at their website about the many (research proven) ways that trees have a positive effect on people’s lives, including their health, homes, businesses, communities, …read more

The mimosa is not just a fruity cocktail, but a pretty cool tree. Otherwise known as the Albizia julibrissin or silk tree, the mimosa has lots of neat components that make up the whole of the tree….
Such as beautiful silk-like fragrant pink to yellow flowers that appear in mid summer.

And the cool palm-looking leaves…

The mimosa is a perennial that’s part tree / part shrub that’s hardy in zones 6-9. This tree is really pretty, and birds and butterflies are especially drawn to it. However, the mimosa is also packed with pollen that can cause allergies in some people. I like …read more

[Eastern Redbud via National Park Service]
As previously noted, I’m reinstating the Hug This Tree series. I miss it. Kicking it off with the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis). I mainly picked this tree because it’s hardy to my zone, pretty, and very old, which is cool. This tree dates back to biblical times, and is sometimes known as the Judas tree.

I’ve totally been slacking about us hugging trees latey. In fact, we haven’t hugged a single tree for a very long time here at Tree Hugging Family. Sad. That said, I’m thinking I’ll recharge this series, because I like learning about new trees, and I bet you do to.
In case you’re new to Tree Hugging Family, and missed this old series entirely, here’s a recap of some of the trees we’ve hugged in the past…

Coconut Tree
Pear Tree
Paper Birch
Lilac
Lemon
Blue Jacaranda
Royal Purple Smoke
Autumn Trees
Yellow Poplar
Pomegranate
Tea Tree
The Pumpkin Tree
The Chocolate Tree
Almond
Binary Tree
Red Flowering Dogwood
Cedar
Sugar Maple
Douglas Fir
Edible Tree
Heirloom Peach Tree

THREE POP QUIZ QUESTIONS:

We’ve …read more

Hey tree hugging families… Peggy and I have a new poll up. We’re going to be leaving this poll up for an entire month so that we can really allow people time to think about the question.
The question is: What green topics would you like to learn more about?
We’d like to make this blog as useful for our readers as possible, but it’s sometimes hard to tell what you folks enjoy most. I’ll say this; our readers are interested in all sorts of topics.
Using our stats and keywords here at Tree Hugging Family, it appears that topics like homemade body …read more