Author: Webmaster

At the Arboretum – 5/22/24

Vibrant shades of pink can be found all over the gardens at the Arboretum, from a large, beautiful Rhododendron in full bloom (the common and generic names come from Ancient Greek, rhodon = rose and dendron = tree), a lovely pink and cream Peony (Paeonia lactiflora ‘Gay Paree’), a shocking pink Dianthus (Dianthus gratianopolitanus cv. Firewitch) and a Blood Red Geranium (Geranium sanguineum) all doing their very best to put on a show for visitors to enjoy.

Thanks to Valerie Scarinci for this week’s photos.

Plant Sale 2024 Photos

Many thanks again to everyone who participated in this year’s Plant Sale, either by volunteering, organizing, advertising, purchasing plants, etc. Thanks to everyone, we had a very successful sale this year which will allow us to continue supporting The Frelinghuysen Arboretum with planting grants, grants for summer interns, etc. Here are just a few shots of this year’s sale.

Many thanks to volunteer and Member, Ann Mauro, for her great photos!

At the Arboretum – 5/7/24

In spite of the very changeable weather, going from rain to sun to wind, many plants continue to bloom at the Arboretum. A beautiful red and yellow Columbine is flowering in the Alpine Garden in front of a bunch of tiny yellow Daffodils. A large Geum is full of gorgeous orange flowers with delicate red venation in the petals and slender filaments topped by anthers covered in pollen. A lovely dark purple Tulip covered in raindrops is a sight to behold; thank you Judy Snow for this photo and Margery Ennist for the other two.

At the Arboretum – May 1, 2024

More and more plants are beginning to bloom now that we’ve entered the lovely month of May. A gorgeous, deep purple Dwarf Bearded Iris, Iris cv. Dark Vader, is flowering in the Progressive Garden next to the first parking bay. Close by, an Epimedium cv. Pink Champagne (Bishop’s Hat) is covering the ground with delicate, pale pink spurred flowers. Not to be outdone, a Cornus florida f. Rubra (Pink Flowering Dogwood) is in full, dramatic bloom at the end of a parking bay close to the Plant Sale tent.

Varieties of all of the above will be sold at the Plant Sale, so plan to shop early to make sure your choices are available!

Thanks again to Judy Snow for these lovely photos.

Plant Sale Setup – 2024

The Plant Sale began in earnest Monday morning by putting shelving together and hanging lights before the “stars of the show’ (3,700 plants) arrived. The afternoon was spent organizing and tagging the plants for sale. We had fun. A very exciting start to a great Plant Sale!

Thanks to Heather Emelander for these nice pictures of the activities.

Sunday Saunter – 4/28/24

Steve Kanan’s Sunday Saunter this week brings us a beautiful collection of macro shots of tulips. Isn’t Spring wonderful?

Thanks Steve for the another update of this great series.

At the Arboretum – 4/24/24

Thanks to Katherine Boyle for the photograph of a Ladybug approaching a group of aphids; Ladybugs are wonderful, natural pest controllers. The aphids suck all the juices out of plants, damaging and killing them; the ladybug, however, eats the aphids (as many as 50 a day) and does no damage at all to the plant. They’re great to have in your garden! You can see more of Katharine’s pictures in several recent photo galleries on our website.

Thanks also to Judy Snow for the pictures of a container collection (Pansies, Geum and maybe a dark leaf lettuce?) next to the sundial in the Rose Garden, a lovely lavender Pulsatilla halleri ssp.styriaca and a gorgeous Cercis chinensis cv. Don Egolf in full bloom.

Linking from Email or Facebook to an Event

Getting our events into the hands of the public is quite important so as to maximize interest and attendance, so it is important that we use the correct URLs that expose only our public-facing posts and pages.

In the case of events, this means directing people only to the Events page or to a specific event on the Events page. This is the only public-facing page related to events on our website. The individual event posts are part of the editing process and should not be exposed to the public.

The Events page URL, of course, is https://www.arboretumfriends.org/events/ which opens at the top of the page. We can, however, open that same page scrolled down to a specific event by using a URL of the form https://www.arboretumfriends.org/events#11314 where the #11314 tells the browser to scroll the page down to that specific event.

URL to Specific Event
URL to Specific Event

To find the URL to use in public links, follow these steps:

  • While logged in, navigate in the Top Menu to Admin | Admin – Events. This opens a page that looks very similar to the regular Events page, but has additional information on it.
  • Scroll down to the specific event and find the URL in the line immediately beneath the event’s title.
  • Copy the URL to your clipboard.
  • Paste this URL into your email, Blast entry or Facebook post.

Then when the recipient of the email clicks the link, they will open the proper, public-facing information.

Elizabeth Brannin – 4-23-24

Elizabeth Brannin sent this beautiful batch of Arboretum pictures, noting “Even though it’s quite cold Spring is in bloom.”

Thanks, Elizabeth, for braving the chill to captures these images of Spring.

Steve Kanan – 4/20/24

These pictures sent by Steve Kanan after his Saturday visit show off spring blossoms — mostly tulips, but with a daffodil and flowering trees for good measure. Thanks, Steve, for the lovely pictures.