Blogs

Time to replace, refresh, renew and replant our gardens after a year of extremes that seems to have changed everyone's landscape in some way. Many gardens were either heavily damaged or destroyed due to Hurricane Irene or the Halloween snowstorm or trees and shrubs have outgrown their space or outlived their usefulness. A garden is never static and sometimes we need to look at our gardens with new eyes. Perhaps the ravages of Mother Nature can be turned into a new adventure for the gardener.

The loss of a grand old tree opens up the possibility of a new sunny spot to garden. A shrub that has outgrown its space can be filled by something new and perhaps better--more floriferous, more disease resistant,with multi-season interest, etc.

It's a time to think outside the box. Why replace that rhododendron with another rhododendron when you can replace it with something else--like fothergilla which has vanilla scented bottle-brush flowers in the Spring and beautiful Fall foliage. Although fothergilla is not evergreen I don't miss those rhododendron leaves curled uptight against their branches, as if shivering in the winter cold. Or plan on adding a witch hazel to truly brighten a winter day. On this breezy January day (appearing a little earlier than usual) I see the coppery-orange petals of Hamamelis Jelena out my window, beckoning me to go outside and smell its gentle perfume and delight in its audacity to defy winter. Read the rest of the post »

At the Scotland trip slideshow at the recent Members New Year's Party, members and presenters alike were stumped at the identity of the tree on left. The picture was taken on our visit to the Royal Botanic Garden at Benmore.

Thank goodness for teachers! Sherrie Carr went home after the party and found a picture she had taken of the same tree at the RBG Edinburgh with its name tag showing (the picture on the right). As a result, we can say the tree is a Monkey Puzzle Tree, Araucaria araucana. It is a native of Chile and Argentina.

You can read an article about the Monkey Puzzle Tree on Wikipedia by clicking here.

Despite the snowy look outdoors, our Plant Sale planning is well under way. Check out the Plant Sale Page for everything new about our 17th Annual Plant Sale coming the first weekend of May.

Gardens are for pleasure. Designed to please you, the gardener. To delight with color. To entice with fragrance. To soothe the mind and refresh the spirit. A place to sit, to linger and to indulge the senses. A private space as well as a public place. It beckons you in, enfolds you and releases you refreshed, back to everyday living. Your garden is a sanctuary and a playground. It is not just an extension of the house but an extension of you.

One of your gardens' greatest pleasures is fragrance. A scent can carry you back to childhood, remind you of a first love, invigorate you, make you hungry, energize you or give you comfort. Think of lilacs in May. You can recall their heady perfume, even now, in the middle of winter, when their branches are bare. Imagine a hot Summer's day when the air is suffused with the fragrance of lavender. Its fragrance is warm, heavy and transports you to fields in Provence. It is a scent so loved that we make it into soaps, sashays, and lotions so that we can indulge year round. Brush the leaves of basil and soon your mouth is watering in anticipation of a Summer salad or pasta with pesto. Crush mint leaves and you'll be longing for an iced tea or a julep at the Kentucky Derby.

To this day gardenias bring me back to the corsage my father gave me one Easter, that my date gave me for the Junior Prom and the bouquet I carried at my wedding. I cannot pass one without gently sticking my nose in, I cannot resist buying them, even though I know my green thumb does not extend to the indoors. They always bring a smile to my face. Such is the power of fragrance. Read the rest of the post »

Mother Nature cooperated, the plants were terrific and everyone working on the 2011 Plant Sale were wonderful. Click on the image on the left to see pictures from the Friday night Preview Party and Sale.

We hope to see all of you at this year's sale.

Preparations for ordering have started, and our first efforts can be seen on this year's list. Hundreds of plants were ordered for last year's plantsale -- annuals, biennials, perennials, trees, shrubs, herbs and vines and this year's should be even better! Check them out any time by going to our online plant list. We update it regularly, so you'll want to check it often. Be prepared for the best Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum Plantsale!

Join us for an entry from this time last year....

What can a gardener do during this very snowy winter but dream? Dream of the latest offerings in the catalogs, that one area in the garden that needs tweaking, how to turn the patio or balcony into a tropical jungle. I long for the blossoms of hellebores hidden under the snow, the cheery flowers of witch hazels against the pure white snow, the first snowdrops. I dream of flowers and fragrance, birds and butterflies. The Friends Plant Sale Committee is doing more than dreaming, we are busy researching and ordering the newest stars in the plant world -- trees and shrubs with multiple season interest, perennials bold and new as well as tried and true, annuals and tropicals in every shade and hue and herbs for your culinary enjoyment. Read the rest of the post »

Experienced gardeners know that many plants continue their displays throughout the winter, showing interesting shapes, bright berries or winter blooms that help make up for the loss of summer's bright flowers. Check out this list of Plants for Winter Interest.

Whether you are a new visitor or need a refresher, here is a brief guide to our website. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements, email them to webmaster@arboretumfriends.org.

Best wishes to all our friends for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Check out our new People's Choice Award Winners Page for the latest updates about the thousands of ballots cast at this year's Gingerbread Wonderland. The show closes tomorrow night and our vote tally-ers will be at work late at night to be sure to get the count right.

In the meantime, go to the page for lots of pictures and information about how you can construct one of these edible wonders.

by Lesley Parness – lparness@morrisparks.net

In reflecting back on this summer in the garden, I can definitely say that something was missing: Bees! What is more pleasant than dozing off on a mid-summer afternoon to the quiet drone of someone else (human or otherwise) working hard to improve your garden? Statistics confirm what our senses already know – pollinator populations are diminishing. Animal and insect pollinators include bees, moths, flies, bats, birds, ants, butterflies, wasps and beetles. It has been estimated that pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Domestic honey bees pollinate approximately $10 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year. What can we do? Plenty. This summer, we’ll be hosting several programs on pollinators so here’s some homework to get ready:

Begin at www.pollinator.org – a great site for an introduction to the topic. FYI – NJ is an “Eastern Broadleaf Forest Oceanic Province.”

At the Applewood seed company’s website, http://www.applewoodseed.com/ we learn that “Animal and insect pollinators are essential to pollination in over 75% of the world’s flowering plants, which includes roughly 35 percent of the world’s crops.” See their “Pollinator Conservation” section for good plant selections.

At www.xerces.org tackle the heavy science. The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. For forty years, the Society has been at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs. Read the rest of the post »

Winter dealt many of us a pretty severe blow last weekend. If that made you miss the entry deadline, don't worry! We have extended the entry deadline until November 21st. Read all about it on our Events page and show your castle, house, winter scene, space launch, family, etc. (to name a few of the past entries). It's great fun for young and old and will take you mind off the last week's mess.

Yesterday, artist Nelson Hancock installed an exhibit of charmingly evil cucurbits (that's pumpkins of all shapes and sizes) on the slate patio just outside the Haggerty Education Center that is both whimsical and fascinatingly scary. The pumpkins will be on display through Halloween, so try to get over to the Arboretum to see them.

Jennifer Basile was there yesterday and provided several pictures of this fun display -- click on the picture at right to see these in our picture gallery.

The Morristown Daily Record was there too and has posted a gallery of the artist at work. Don't miss out on this fun exhibit.

While walking around the Arboretum this afternoon I saw that Fall has begun painting the trees while asters, sedum and mums show off their colors. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this season soon. In the meantime, click on the picture at the right to go to our picture gallery for lots more.

Don't forget the Autumn at the ARTboretum event starting tomorrow, Oct. 23rd through Halloween. Lots more photo opportunities!