This newsletter is brought to you by the Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum and was delivered to your mailbox because you directly subscribe to it or gave your e-mail address as part of your membership registration. If you have changed your mind and wish to unsubscribe, please see the instructions at the bottom of this page.

If you have trouble viewing this as an email, open our Email Blast page in your browser at https://www.arboretumfriends.org/email-blast/.

While you may view our full program on the Events Page of our website, we are pleased to highlight these upcoming programs.

STARTING SEEDS INDOORS with Master Gardener Grace Tshanakas

Tuesday, December 13 - 7:00 PM

VIRTUAL ZOOM PROGRAM

There is such joy and excitement watching as seedlings emerge and mature. The biggest excitement, of course, is from either harvesting a food you have grown or seeing a beautiful flower develop. In this presentation, you will learn everything you need to know about starting seeds indoors, including seed types, supplies needed, the planting process and caring for your seedlings. Handouts will include a great list of resources as well as Rutgers Fact Sheets.

This program is eligible for 1.0 Rutgers Master Gardener CEUs

Click on the photo for more information and to register.

GINGERBREAD NEWS

Even though the Friends will not be presenting the Gingerbread Wonderland event this year, we were pleased to hear from Barbara Amabile, a long-time contributor to the Friends’ Gingerbread Wonderland exhibit. Barbara has shared a photo of her 2022 Scooby-Doo inspired creation with us and mentioned that her family’s annual gingerbread creation tradition began way back in 1996 when they entered their creation in the Arboretum’s Gingerbread Wonderland event for the first time!

Barbara will compete in this year’s Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown early in December.

Congratulations! (click to enlarge the image)

THIS WEEK AT THE FRELINGHUYSEN ARBORETUM

It was a cool and cloudy day at the Arboretum. I found an interesting Echinops ritro (Globe Thistle) seed head in the bed by the Scherer Pavillion and a beautiful Euonymus fortunei cv. Variegatus (Wintercreeper Euonymus) climbing up a tree across from the Waterwise Deck; an opened fruit, nestled among the crisp green and white leaves.

A young Beech (Fagus spp) sits under larger trees next to the bus parking area, while stubbornly holding on to its browned leaves. This is a phenomenon known as marcescence, and can be seen in other trees as well, such as Oaks and Hornbeams. The thinking is that retaining leaves until spring could be a means of slowing the decomposition of the leaves (they would rot faster if on the ground) and that dropping them in spring delivers organic material at a time when it is most needed by the growing tree. Isn't Mother Nature wonderful?

Click an image to see them all in our website's picture gallery. Picture credits: Margery Ennist.

FRIENDS YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum have a YouTube channel.

Please visit by clicking the image (or go to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwLu6l-05_VnSNQlkvi3Aw)

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER FOR PREVIOUS ZOOM PRESENTATIONS

We are pleased to make several of our previously recorded events available in case you missed one or another of them.

Go to our prerecorded-events Events page for more information and to register and pay online.

Retail Partners

When shopping at our fine Retail Partners, please remember to present your Membership card at the beginning of your check out transaction. Our Retail Partners need to enter the discount at the beginning of that process.

If you have not yet used this wonderful Member Benefit, you can view our full list of Retail Partners by clicking here.

Amazon Smile

Don't forget to "SMILE!"Amazon Smile, that is!

Amazon, through the AmazonSmile Foundation will contribute 0.5% of your purchases on Amazon to a charitable organization you select. Please consider selecting The Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum as your designated recipient from this wonderful program.

Click here and log in to your amazon account to designate the Friends as your charity.

That's it for this time. Hope you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter. Tell your friends about this handy way to keep up with activities at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum (click here for complete directions for subscribing.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Friends Staff are still out of the office, however we will continue working remotely. Please note our new Post Office Box number and staff emails.

SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENTS

PANDEMIC SCHEDULE

Morris County Park Commission has reopened the Frelinghuysen, Willowwood and Bamboo Brook Arboreta 7 days a week, from 8am to dusk.

• Parking is limited. Buildings remain closed. Portajohns are available.
• HUNTING IN THE PARKS - Be aware that deer hunting is permitted in many of the MCPC facilities, including the arboreta, during the fall and winter. The schedule and type (bow or firearm) is listed on the MCPC website here.

We will keep you posted as further updates become available.

Visit our website: https://www.arboretumfriends.org.
Email your comments or suggestions to webmaster@arboretumfriends.org.

The Frelinghuysen Arboretum is a facility of the Morris County Park Commission