A Step-By-Step Experience of the Shelby Avenue Arboretum From S. 7th St. to Shelby Park

Inter­est­ed in check­ing out every­thing the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum has to offer but don’t know where to start or what to expect? Con­sid­er this your vir­tu­al primer as we take you through the process of cre­at­ing the arbore­tum and on an online tour of the arbore­tum itself, high­light­ing many of the impor­tant trees that line these streets. 

The Con­cep­tion of the Shel­by Avenue Arboretum

What is an arbore­tum? What makes these projects impor­tant to the envi­ron­ment and the peo­ple vis­it­ing them? Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is one of dozens of arbore­ta estab­lished in the Nashville area by the Nashville Tree Con­ser­va­tion Corps. As one of the newest arbore­ta, Shel­by Avenue has ben­e­fit­ted from our organization’s col­lec­tive his­to­ry of tri­als and tribu­la­tions. Many of the lessons learned in pre­vi­ous projects were put into the plan­ning and plant­i­ng of Shel­by Avenue, from where we plant to what we plant. Much of the funds for Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum were secured from gen­er­ous dona­tions made by Nashvil­lians from all walks of life. Some of our larg­er bene­fac­tors include a dona­tion from the fam­i­ly of Mar­tin and Bet­ty Brown, two incred­i­ble phil­an­thropists whose vision helped beau­ti­fy Nashville in count­less ways. Bet­ty Brown’s love for nature and trees helped trans­form many a Nashville park, and that vision lives on after pass­ing in the trees she plant­ed and inspired. 

Shel­by Avenue was always beau­ti­ful, but it was in need of some new life. The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum project began in 2020, not long after the spring tor­na­do that caused destruc­tion through­out east Nashville. While our urban arbore­tum is just a two-mile stretch head­ing east toward Shel­by Park, we have man­aged to pack in over 680 trees, with a final goal of over 1000 trees on Shel­by Avenue and off two of its side streets. Being in an urban loca­tion, Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum needs to stand up to the many chal­lenges a city can throw at trees through all stages of their lives. Care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion was giv­en to each tree plant­ed, tak­ing into account their pro­ject­ed growth through­out the years and the infra­struc­tur­al needs of the city and its res­i­dents. Pow­er line loca­tion, under­ground util­i­ties, and side­walk place­ment were all fac­tored into the plans for plant­i­ng and main­tain­ing the arbore­tum. Beyond beau­ti­fy­ing the street and sur­round­ing area, we also want­ed to make things more prac­ti­cal. We paid close atten­tion to the canopy we’d be fos­ter­ing at Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum to pro­vide opti­mal shade for pedes­tri­ans walk­ing in the sum­mer heat. 

As with every major plant­i­ng under­tak­ing like Shel­by Avenue, we also had to con­sid­er the trees’ safe­ty and health. Cars, plows, bus­es, and any oth­er vehi­cle can dam­age trees direct­ly and indi­rect­ly. We had to account for the risks any city street may pose for trees, so we chose only the hardi­est trees and plants for the job. Trees that don’t mind trace amounts of things like engine oil or rock salt in the water were espe­cial­ly impor­tant. We also had to take pre­cau­tions with our plant­i­ng loca­tions and have out­fit­ted each tree plant­ed along Shel­by Avenue with a tree dia­per. This fun­ny-sound­ing prod­uct is an incred­i­bly use­ful acces­so­ry for fresh­ly trans­plant­ed trees and mature trees alike. These rings you may notice around the base of each tree help to hold in mois­ture dur­ing the dry sum­mer months and can also act as a phys­i­cal bar­ri­er from things like lawn­mow­ers and weed wack­ers. Pro­tect­ing our trees is para­mount to the aim of Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum, and this liv­ing muse­um needs a lot of protection.

A Vir­tu­al Tour of the Shel­by Avenue Arboretum

The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is split into four major sec­tions, with sev­er­al sub­sec­tions con­tained in each. This makes for a vibrant and var­ied expe­ri­ence whether on foot or pass­ing through on a com­mute or Sun­day dri­ve. Let’s take a brief vir­tu­al tour of the arbore­tum so you know what you can expect before stop­ping by for a visit!

• From South 7^th Street to South 10^th on the north side of the street, you’ll notice our first themed sec­tion of the arbore­tum: the Trees That Bloom. There are some cher­ries along this part of the route, and they pro­duce even more vibrant buds that don’t often yield fruit. Cher­ry species at the arbore­tum include the Ake­bono, Kwan­zan, Okame, and Yoshi­no. These beau­ti­ful and fra­grant blooms range in col­or from white to deep magen­ta and are fea­tured more heav­i­ly in oth­er sec­tions of the arbore­tum, too. Oth­er trees that bloom in this sec­tion were select­ed for their low­er canopy size, since the near­by pow­er lines call for small­er trees. For­tu­nate­ly, many small­er trees pro­duce the best spring­time blos­soms. Besides cher­ries, expect to see pur­ple robe black locusts, mag­no­lias, and var­i­ous red­buds. Each of these trees con­tributes to the vibrant spring­time show that this area puts on each year. 

• Look­ing to the south of this same area, from S 7^th to S 10^th Street, you’ll be able to check out some of the largest trees in the arbore­tum. This themed sec­tion is dubbed the Large Canopy Tree Exhib­it and con­tains vari­eties of oak, maple, cypress, and elm trees. Since the pow­er lines are all locat­ed on the north side of Shel­by Avenue here, we were able to plant trees that can sprawl and grow sky­ward with­out limit. 

• 10^th South Street marks The Trees in Tough Places, a theme we are proud to present along this arbore­tum. These trees were select­ed for their extreme har­di­ness and abil­i­ty to stand up to urban con­di­tions like we out­lined above. These trees, includ­ing species like the Chi­nese pis­tache and zelko­va, are the tough­est of the tough and show just how resilient nature can be. Since many of these trees are plant­ed in the medi­an, they need to be tough and will­ing to put up with a small amount of space. You’ll find them between S 10^th and 11^th Street. 

• After South 11^th Street, you’ll enter the His­toric East End dis­trict of Nashville. Head­ing right down S 12^th Street, you’ll meet anoth­er sec­tion. Here is the Cher­ry Blos­som Exhib­it, which fea­tures over 90 Ake­bono cher­ry trees. Their col­ors range from a pale pink to a deep­er and more vibrant magen­ta shade. On both sides of this slight­ly down­hill street, for a few days each spring, you can see a nat­ur­al burst of color. 

• South 13^th Street is anoth­er diver­sion from Shel­by Avenue, which includes dozens of red­buds that pro­duce beau­ti­ful dis­plays of col­or, not to be out­done by the Cher­ry Blos­som Exhib­it. Between South 14^th and 15^th Street along Shel­by Ave, you will notice many red­buds and red trees, name­ly San­gu Kaku Japan­ese maples and Twobley’s red sen­tinel Japan­ese maples. This sec­tion of the arbore­tum is ded­i­cat­ed to the sac­ri­fices made by America’s ser­vice­men and women. Trees in memo­ri­am can also be found through­out Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum, ded­i­cat­ed to the lives of peo­ple who loved this city as much as we do.

• From South 15^th to South 16^th, you’ll encounter anoth­er themed exhib­it pay­ing homage to the many beau­ti­ful native tree species you can find in Nashville. Many small and medi­um canopy trees were plant­ed here, and these trees show how tough Nashville nature can be. Take in the sights of local species like the Amer­i­can horn­beam, black­gum, and yel­low­wood trees. 

• Next up is the Red­bud Col­or­burst Exhib­it, which goes for about three blocks, ter­mi­nat­ing at S 19^th Street. The many red­bud trees fea­tured in this exhib­it are notable for their bud­ding leaves rather than blos­soms. Their leaves often start as pink in the spring and devel­op into dark­er and deep­er shades of crim­son as the year goes on. This dra­mat­ic and breath­tak­ing area of the arbore­tum is sure to impress. Along this same stretch of Shel­by Avenue are oth­er exhibits, includ­ing Maples From Around the World.

• Near the end of the arbore­tum, close to Shel­by Park, we also have a dis­play ded­i­cat­ed to a tree’s best friend: the many pol­li­na­tors that help them grow. These trees are plant­ed on the hill near the Shel­by Park Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter ten­nis courts, and they help draw pol­li­na­tors to the area, which help prop­a­gate and grow new trees and plants. The Pol­li­na­tor Mead­ows aren’t the last exhib­it, though. Down clos­est to the park is the Native Ever­greens Exhib­it, which includes trees like the east­ern red cedar and the loblol­ly pine.

If you still aren’t tired from this walk that encom­pass­es sev­er­al miles of east Nashville, you can take a walk through Shel­by Park. This 300-acre park isn’t a part of our plant­i­ng ini­tia­tive for the most part (because it already came with its trees), but it’s a very refresh­ing con­clu­sion to a brisk spring or warm sum­mer walk. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this vir­tu­al tour of Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum and all of the trees we have on dis­play. When you’re ready to make the walk in per­son, we hope this resource helps give you a handy guide on what to expect along your route. We’d be hap­py to answer any ques­tions you may have about the arbore­tum project, so give us a call or shoot us an emailtoday. On our web­site, you can find a com­pre­hen­sive list of every tree species fea­tured in the arbore­tum, as well as links for buy­ing trees of your own or how to sup­port the ongo­ing plant­i­ng we’re doing at Shel­by Avenue Arboretum.