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200-year-old tree renewed by Bartlett, local garden club
200-year-old tree renewed by Bartlett, local garden clubBy Betsy Parker
Special to the Times-Democrat
Standing silent sentinel at Warrenton's northern border, a 200-year-old white oak tree is benefiting from some deferred caretaking this week.
Arborist Tom Armstrong and Bartlett Tree Experts have joined with the Warrenton Garden Club to renew the ancient tree, known locally as the Loretta oak, by removing invasive undergrowth, trimming dead and damaged branches, and fertilizing the root system to help the tree thrive into a third century.
The name stems from the historic Loretta estate, just east of the big tree. Now isolated in the median strip of U.S. 17, the white oak — genus Quercus Alba — used to mark the entrance to Loretta. In 1980, Virginia's highway department marked 17 to become a four-lane road, putting the tree in jeopardy. The backside of Fenton Farm lay to the west of the existing lanes of 17, Loretta to the east. Any highway expansion would nibble into one farm or the other.
WGC president Penny Dart explained how the club got involved in the original fight. "It was a terribly dangerous road as a two-lane," Dart said. "But everybody in town was against widening 17, against change" in general, she added with a chuckle. "But we were most worried about the tree."
"I got this frantic phone call, added Jocelyn Sladen, editor of the club newsletter. "Someone had heard VDOT was going to widen 17 and take out the big oak right at Loretta farm," she said. "Well, we weren't about to let that happen. That tree is too much part of Warrenton's history." Loretta owners William and Dootsie Wilbur joined the fight.
But would they prevail, they wondered? How could a group of local plant enthusiasts and landowners counter the will of the powerful highway administration?
They needed help from above.
Sladen called her mother, Marjorie Arundel, who called close personal friend Sen. John Warner, already a senior member of Congress. Warner traveled to Warrenton.
"So, we — Mr. Warner, Jocelyn, me and the VDOT people, all met right here, right on this spot," Armstrong recalled. "Sen. Warner asked the VDOT people if they thought the tree was in good health. They said no. He turned to me. 'Tom,' he said. 'Is this tree in good health?' I told him, 'Yes, sir. See the new twigs? Up at the top? This tree is in great health.' Warner told VDOT to make other arrangements."
That's all it took.
The highway department relented, adding an extra 10 feet — three times the diameter of the tree, equal to the breadth of the root system, Armstrong said — to the width of the median to allow for the massive oak.
The tree was saved, but would it be enough? Highway plans could not kill the Loretta oak, but deferred maintenance might.
Since the highway project was completed later that decade, mowing crews left shrubby undergrowth to encircle the giant tree, not mowing within 50 feet of it, keeping to the edge of a rocky knob that's been formed by the tree's giant root system protecting the surrounding soil from erosion. Too, steep highway shoulders — left by the cut for northbound lanes of 17 east of the tree — make mowing near it too risky.
"They mow right up to that area, then go around," Armstrong explained. Invasive undergrowth took hold in the ensuing 25 years, elanthus and thorny weeds, honeysuckle and strangling vines endangering the tree's health and growth. "We've taken out all the 'bad' invasives," he added, leaving behind a few healthy saplings formed by the giant itself, tiny clones of the great tree born of acorns littering the long-undisturbed soil. "By the time the Loretta oak is gone, the young trees will be well on their way."
White oak trees, he said, can live for 300 to 400 years, making the Loretta oak exactly middle aged.
Tender care
Armstrong oversaw pruning and fertilizing work on Monday. "The tree sustained a good bit of damage from gypsy moths over the last few years," he said, peering at a few dead branches halfway up, but pointing out the healthy top twigs, 100 feet above the ground.
"We're taking out any damaged branches so the healthy ones will thrive."
At ground level, Bartlett workers used clippers, trimmers and chainsaws to remove heavy underbrush competing for nutrients in the soil around the 15-foot base of the tree.
"Tom is helping us take care of the tree," said WGC project manager Jane Jenkins of the future of the Loretta oak. "Today, they injected fertilizer right down into the roots. In April, when the growing season gets underway, we'll treat for gypsy moths, and check on what needs to be done to keep down the invasive plants. There are some old daffodils, and a few other flowers," leftover from the original Loretta entrance.
Warrenton Garden Club members will oversee the tree's care, Jenkins said, caring for the original oak, and nurturing the small saplings and an adjacent black walnut tree.
"This is the gateway to Warrenton," Jenkins said. "We want it to remain as beautiful as it has for years."
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