There will be live oak trees at Toomer's Corner again soon.
Auburn announced that on Feb. 14, landscapers will plant two new 35-foot trees at the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue -- better known as Toomer's Corner to the legions of Tigers fans who have celebrated victories there for decades.
The tree-planting ceremony will take place nearly two years after Auburn removed the original oaks from the corner. An Alabama fan poisoned the 80-year-old trees out of anger after Auburn rallied to beat the Crimson Tide en route to the 2010 national title. Auburn scientists went to great lengths to save the Toomer's oaks but eventually determined preservation to be a lost cause.
Auburn fans continued their tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner with toilet paper in recent seasons even without the two oak trees while the university implemented a plan to renovate the area.
Planting the new trees will complete the first phase of the renovation project, which also included enlarging the Samford Park plaza and additional landscaping work. Auburn will launch the second phase of the plan after the Tigers' spring football game in April, and will add 30 15-foot-tall trees -- grown from acorns collected from the original oaks -- in the park between Toomer's Corner and Samford Hall.
The university will ask fans not to roll the new trees until the 2016 season in order to give them time to acclimate to their new environment.
Much like when it removed the original iconic trees in 2013 -- when a sellout crowd attended the Tigers' A-Day spring game and then flocked to the corner to celebrate the Toomer's tradition before the oaks were uprooted days later -- Auburn is making an event out of the new trees' arrival. The university invited the public to attend the tree planting, and the school's equestrian, softball and baseball teams will all be in action on campus that afternoon.
The new trees will arrive at Toomer's Corner via flatbed trailer between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Feb. 14. The city will close the streets surrounding the corner until approximately 2 p.m.