In October 2008, Roger and Caryl Jones, who live on Kenny Circle, received a Stewardship Award for their Franklinia  (Franklinia alatamaha) tree. A small grove of these previously unknown trees was discovered in Georgia growing along the Alatamaha River in 1765 by John and William Bartram, father and son botanists from Philadelphia, who named the tree after their good friend Benjamin Franklin. The Bartrams, who gathered seeds and took a cutting to propagate in their garden in Philadelphia, are credited with saving the tree from extinction. Twenty years later, when William Bartram revisited the spot where the Franklinia had been discovered, the trees were gone. All of today’s Franklinia trees are descended from those grown by the Bartrams. Mr. Jones said, “I chose to plant a Franklinia because my father had two of them. My father’s name was Franklin Jones, after Ben, and my middle name is Franklin, so there was a linkage there, too.“

The Franklinia tree, which prefers full sun with some afternoon shade, and acidic, moist, well-drained soil, can reach a height of 20’ – 25’. It blooms in August and early September bearing five-petal, three-inch-wide, white and yellow, fragrant flowers. In the fall, its leaves turn orange-red. The Franklinia has the reputation of being a hard to grow. Mr. Jones indicated that when his tree was first planted in 1993, “it sat there for about three years, without growing, but looking healthy otherwise, and then began to flourish.” He put up a deer fence to protect it, and has had to regularly relocate and enlarge the fence to accommodate the tree’s growth.