Hortman, an avid gardener and lover of growing things, selected many of the newest trees planted during the ongoing redesign of the Capitol Mall.
Snowdrift crabapples. Autumn blaze maples. There will be hundreds of new trees on the Mall eventually. She wanted even more.
State Rep. Brad Tabke, a landscape architect, worked closely with Hortman on the tree plans. His oldest is graduating from high school. Mark and Melissa were going to come to the graduation party.
On this night, he tried to focus on Melissa’s trees instead.
“The next time you’re there, on the fringes of the Capitol lawn, if you look closely you’ll notice 40, 50 new trees that were all planted within the past year,” Tabke said.
“Those are Melissa Hortman trees.”
