Question 1

What is the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

The CTN is a collaborative effort to grow better street trees. It is a distributed system of growers where residents and partners steward 5–10 hard to find native trees in pots, after which Grow Monrovia coordinates planting in streets, schools, parks, and habitat corridors.

Question 2

How does the Community Tree Nursery work?

Accepted Answer

The main steps of the CTN process are:

Grow Monrovia starts seeds / new saplings in small containers.
Fosters pick up 5-10 small containers of saplings and provide regular water, sunlight, and care for the potted trees at their homes or campuses.
Fosters report progress updates to Grow Monrovia every 3 months.
Fosters up-pot trees into larger containers when the trees get too large for the previous container.
Grow Monrovia organizes transfer of 15-gallon trees to permanent locations for planting.

Question 3

What are the goals of the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

The CTN focuses on native trees that are ecologically valuable but rarely available in retail nurseries.

Solves nursery supply shortages. 
Builds community ownership. 
Creates locally adapted trees. 
Lowers cost per tree. 
Scales without land acquisition, ideal for wildfire buffer zones.

Question 4

What are the benefits to Community Tree Nursery participants?

Accepted Answer

CTN participants can support greener, shadier streets, even if they don't have much space at home.

Question 5

What are the Community Tree Nursery timelines/deadlines?

Accepted Answer

Fostering trees requires a 9-month minimum commitment. Progress reports must be uploaded quarterly.
Trees are typically transferred for in-ground planting during autumn.

Question 6

How much does it cost to participate in the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

Trees are provided for free by Grow Monrovia. Participants are responsible for providing water and time to care for the trees.

Question 7

What are the Community Tree Nursery age requirements?

Accepted Answer

All ages are invited to learn and grow with the Community Tree Nursery. Participants until 18 years of age may participate with adult supervision.

Question 8

Which trees are available through the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

Particular species, quantities, and sizes of trees are subject to availability and not guaranteed.
Current trees may include:

Question 9

How much space is needed to participate in the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

Short-term potted tree fosters need between 5 square feet and 21 square feet, depending on the size and number of potted trees being cared for.

Long-term in-ground tree stewards space requirements will depend on the tree species selected.

The rule of thumb for avoiding conflicts with underground utilities are as follows:
Stay a minimum of 5 feet away from any buried utility line.
Increase that distance to 10 feet or more over sewer lines.

Always contact DigAlert before digging starts.

Question 10

Where is the Community Tree Nursery?

Accepted Answer

The CTN is not a single location like a traditional nursery. It is a network of community members who are caring for trees as a collective.

The network is currently focused on cities in the San Gabriel Valley that are situated between the foothills and the 210 freeway, including:
Altadena
Arcadia
Azusa
Bradbury
Duarte
Glendora
Monrovia
Pasadena

Availability of trees for planting is dependent on the number of potted trees successfully fostered in each city.

Question 11

Why are these native trees chosen?

Accepted Answer

These trees are selected because they are suited to local conditions and help expand native habitat, shade, and long-term canopy. Once established in the ground, native trees are generally better adapted to the local rainfall pattern and summer drought than many high-water non-native trees.

We hope to expand our selection of native trees in the future. If you or anyone you know has native tree seeds or seedlings to share, please contact info@growmonrovia.org.

Community Tree Nursery

Trees of the Community Tree Nursery

We Sow

Special Thanks

Frequently asked questions