Springfield lost its bid this past weekend to be named the most picturesque city of its size.

But it won the top award for urban forestry among all cities at the 2012 America in Bloom Symposium and Awards Program in Fayetteville, Ark.

“In a way, that’s an even bigger honor,” said Melanie Wilt, co-chairwoman of the Springfield in Full Bloom committee.

To put it another way, host city Fayetteville — which once again beat out Springfield and Racine, Wis., in the 50,001 to 100,000 population category of the annual America in Bloom contest — is the complete package.

But among all 27 cities in the 11-year-old national beautification program, Springfield was deemed to have the best trees and the best plan in place to care for them.

Helping seal the deal, Wilt said, were the Ferncliff Cemetery and Arboretum and the Wittenberg University campus.

This year was Springfield’s third in the competition, with the judges writing that, “Springfield seems to be a wonderful city to live and work in. Repeatedly we were told how much people wanted to live in Springfield.”

“We always want to win,” Wilt said. “But, knowing Fayetteville has won our category for the last several years, while we wanted to win, we had realistic expectations.”

Contest judges visited town for two days in July — not long after a freak windstorm had battered the city’s trees.

“Where we thought it would hurt us,” Wilt said, “it ended up helping us. They were pleasantly surprised how effective our crews were at cleaning it up.”

Still, even as Springfield strives to be awarded for being picturesque, the Springfield in Full Bloom committee sees a bigger picture.

“While competing against other cities is motivation,” Wilt said, “it’s really us competing against ourselves and making our city a better place to live and a better place to visit.”