District of Columbia Fruit Trees, Flowering Trees and Shade trees.

Planting fruit trees 'worldwide' has become an important focal point that is centered from the nation's Capitol, Washington, D.C. and from the Hollywood, celebrity , James Cameron, the director of the 'all time' movie bombshell, "Avatar". Attention to the tragic earthquake in Haiti has led the Earth Day Network to plant 500,000 fruit trees for suffering farmers at Haiti in a hope of restoring some normality for the economy and everyday life in Haiti. Of course the important point is choosing fruit trees that will produce fruit in a tropical climate that is quite unlike the climate of that in Washington, DC. Tree plantings in other countries to renew forests is another significant goal of the Earth Day Network, and tree planting around huge urban centers like Los Angeles, CA, New York, N.Y., and San Francisco, CA., where toxic fumes are being constantly generated from numerous sources are focusing on cleansing the air and turning disagreeable automobile fumes of Carbon Dioxide into life giving Oxygen.

Planting fruit trees in Washington, D.C. is important to government homeowners who want to improve the taste and quality of the fruit and nuts that normally supply Washington, D.C. children and their families. Many apple tree cultivars can be grown, such as the old standard apple trees, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious apple, Fuji and Red Rome apples. It must be remembered that apple trees are one of the few fruit trees that require cross pollination, meaning, that two separate apple tree cultivars must be planted in order to produce apples.

Peach trees are easy to grow in Washington, D.C. The Red Haven peach is excellent in flavor and color. The Elberta peach tree is a classic yellow peach,( freestone), and the seed is easy to separate from the pulp.

The Stanley plum tree will survive cold winters in Washington, D.C. and the yellow gold plum matures in June to produce sweet juicy plums. The Kieffer pear tree produces hard pears that mostly mature in the late fall that are excellent to preserve in fruit jars, and wildlife animals seek out these pears when fall food sources become scarce. Several sour cherry tree cultivars are popular fruit trees in the District of Columbia, such as the Red North Star Cherry tree and the Red Montmorency cherry trees. Sweet cherry trees like the Bing cherry trees and the Black Tartarian cherry tree will grow plump, excellent sweet cherries that are of good size and flavor. Flowering cherry trees make tourism popular in and around the Washington D.C. area during the spring, when the National Cherry Blossom Festival is held. President Taft's wife, and as the First Lady, Helen Taft, imported the first Kwanzan flowering cherry trees (pink) into the District of Columbia in 1912 along with the white, single Yoshino flowering cherry trees.

More unusual fruit trees like the American native fruit, paw paw trees grow well in Washington, DC. The paw paw fruit tastes very similar to banana pudding, and the aroma of the paw paw is very much like that of over- ripened bananas.

Japanese persimmon trees are being grown in many weather protected areas of the District of Columbia, and the favorite Japanese persimmon tree is Giant Fuyu persimmon that can be eaten straight off the tree, even in the green unripe stage.

Mulberry trees are very good producers of high quality berries. New grafted Persian mulberry trees produce sweet mulberry fruits, black in color and juicy. Red mulberry trees, Morus rubrum, are native berry trees to the US and are a valuable wildlife deer food in the Spring, and wildlife game birds like the wild turkey congregate under the trees, as the mulberries begin to ripen.

Many kinds of grape vines thrive in Washington, D.C., such as seedless grapevines, bunch grapes and wine grape vines. Muscadine grapevines are being tested near Beltsville, Maryland, and muscadine grape vines are believed to be cold hardy in protected areas. Fig trees of many kinds are widely planted in Washington, DC and the fig tree often will bear a few figs the first year of planting. Washington, D.C is home to many types of nut trees to include native shagbark hickory trees, Carya ovata, American black walnut trees, Juglans nigra, filbert trees, Corylus americana,American chestnut tree, Castanea dentata, and the James pecan tree, Carya illinoinensis, is cold hardy enough to produce a medium size, papershell pecan nut of good quality. Filbert and walnut kernels are crunchy and have a sweet delicious taste. All these nut trees produce a valuable food source for wildlife animals and wildlife birds. Blueberry plants are a valuable berry plant in organic, pick-your-own berry orchards. Blackberry bushes and thornless blackberry bushes and thorny blackberry bushes produce high quality blackberries for backyard gardens. Many kinds of raspberry plants are adapted for growing in the D.C. The Cumberland black raspberry plant is highly productive and the Heritage and red Canby raspberry plants ripen their berries in late, summer and early fall.

Shade trees are valuable to District of Columbia homeowners for cutting air conditioning costs and as a nesting site for song birds. The many shade trees, like oak trees, maple trees and elm tree plantings help to purify the air of auto exhaust fumes. During the fall the Ginkgo tree leaves turn into a brilliant yellow mirage, and tourists drive throughout Washington, D.C., garden sites to enjoy the extravagant, fall leaf color spectacle of orange, red and purple. Sugar Maple tree leaves become intermixed with gold Sycamore tree leaves and purple Beech tree leaves.

In the spring the tourists also enjoy the native white, flowering dogwood trees, the pink, redbud trees, and the Japanese flowering trees of Cherry and Magnolia in brilliant tones of pink, white and purple.