Jacksonport Women’s Club is Planting Prairie Fires

The Jacksonport Women’s Club is still taking orders for this Arbor Day’s Prairie Fire crabapple planting, part of the club’s Tree Beautification Program.

If the Jacksonport Women’s Club has anything to say about it, the Door Peninsula will soon be full of striking pink blossoms and dark green foilage.

The club has filled most of their orders for this year’s planting of the Prairie Fire Crabapple tree that club member Jo Wahlen and Roger Opiela of Earthscape Landscape chose to use for the Women’s Club Tree Beautification Program, but those willing to pick up and plant their own tree can still get in on the order.

“The color is beautiful,” said Wahlen. “And it’s highly disease-resistant. It doesn’t need a lot of water after the first summer.”

But Wahlen didn’t just choose the tree for its biological qualities; she was also interested in its designer. The Prairie Fire was developed by Dr. Dan Dayton, a University of Illinois horticulture professor who worked at the Peninsular Agricultural Research Station and summered in Jacksonport. Dayton specialized in developing disease-resistant plants like the Prairie Fire and the “Dayton” apple.

“I knew him back in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Wahlen. “This actually ended up to be his best tree and they didn’t patent it which was a shame because it ended up going all over the world. It’s in Kew Gardens [in London]; it’s everywhere.”

Inspired by the Door County Visitor Bureau’s work with daffodils, the Women’s Club launched the Tree Beautification Program last spring, with this year being the first the trees will actually be planted.

Wahlen and the Tree Beautification Program committee, made up of Opiela, Mike Madden, Mariann Valosek, and Sevastopol FFA head Dale Carlson, are enthusiastic about the project and hope the Prairie Fire will eventually line the county’s scenic byways and lakesides.

“Hopefully people throughout the county will pick up on the idea, not that they have to use this exact tree, but it would be nice to see these trees blooming throughout the county every May,” said Wahlen. “I would really like to see this be a long-term project.”

The Women’s Club is partnering with the Sevastopol School FFA to deliver and plant the trees on April 26. All the delivery and planting slots for this year’s order are full, but if a potential planter is able to pick up their own tree they can still place an order for a Prairie Fire.

The cost per tree is $50, and inquiries can be directed to Wahlen at 920.823.2032. The final order date is April 12.