by Chris Earley

Oh, "J" was a hard one to find enough examples for! Try to identify these to see how good you are at your "J" Arboretum plants and animals! A printable version is available here.  The answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.

by Shelley Hunt

The month of September always feels like a new beginning – especially when you’re a part of an educational institution, with its flood of excitement and fresh faces each fall. At The Arboretum, September means more students strolling out to explore our greenspaces and find some respite from the bustle of the main campus. We become energized by herds of athletes taking advantage of our running and cycling trails, and inspired by budding student researchers seeking subjects for course projects in our plant collections and natural areas. This month, The Arboretum also celebrates the end of a successful summer season, with thanks due not only to our permanent staff and dedicated volunteers, but, importantly, to a great crew of students who worked hard all summer to make the grounds look as beautiful as they do today, and to our summer interpretive naturalist who helped show it all off by running regular walks and programs for the public. Our annual plant sale fundraiser, which caps off the summer and represents the culmination of months of plant propagation and care by staff and volunteers, was a great success – the rain stayed away, and we drew a large crowd of plant-lovers eager to check out the offerings.

This year, September has brought The Arboretum another milestone to celebrate – we recently were awarded Level 3 accreditation under the ArbNet Accreditation Program for Arboreta, run out of the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, in collaboration with Botanic Gardens Conservation International and the American Public Gardens Association. This program evaluates Arboreta worldwide, based on the quality of botanical collections, curatorial activities, education programming and science and conservation initiatives. There are 4 levels – at Level 3 we become the highest-ranked (and only the second accredited) Arboretum in Canada. The ArbNet program is designed not only to recognize achievement and set standards, but also to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing among Arboreta. We feel that we have much to gain and much to share as part of this international community of Arboreta.

Finally, this month we are introducing a new workshop – a guided walk based on the practice of Shinrin Yoku, or ‘forest bathing’. Ben Porchuk, a U of G alumnus and Head of the newly launched Canadian Chapter of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, will guide participants through the process of moving mindfully through nature and experiencing the forest in a new way. Our full workshop schedule and more information is available on our website – if you miss the new workshop this fall, be sure to look for it next year!

Our Annual Plant Sale was on Saturday, September 12, 2015. Thank you to everyone who came and purchased plants. We appreciate your support at our annual fund-raiser. We would also like to send a huge thank you out to all the volunteers that helped make this event happen. A tremendous amount of time and effort is put into this event and we truly appreciate it.

 
Plant Sale - Auxilliary Members          Shelley, Polly and Sean

                            
                             Plant Sale photos by Chris Earley

Have you booked your company Christmas party?. The Arboretum is a perfect location for your Christmas party. We can accommodate up to 150 people for lunches or dinners with a picturesque view of The Arboretum grounds. We still have some good dates available … book soon before they are gone. For further information please contact Barb Watson – Ash, Marketing and Bookings Co-ordinator at extension 54110, [log in to unmask] or check out our website. All catering is provided by Hospitality Services, University of Guelph. For further information on the catering please call extension 53350 or e-mail [log in to unmask].

Auditorium

Basic D-SLR Photography, Gulls and Black and White Photography workshops are approaching. The dates and registration deadlines can be found in our Coming Events Listing in the column on the left side of this newsletter. A detailed description of each course is available on our website. Help us promote our programs … please forward this e-mail on to your friends and colleagues who may be interested. The more participants we have, the more programs we can offer.

Registering early is important for us because we need lead time to decide if we are running the workshop or not. To encourage registering before the deadline, we now have an Early Bird Fee. You can still register after the deadline, but it will cost an extra $10, so why not register early?

Registration is available on-line which allows you to register for our programs at anytime, not just during our regular business hours. A secure link is provided on our website for this easy registration process.

If you do not have internet access registration can still be made by phone or in person at 519-824-4120 ext. 52358 as in the past. Please remember that a decision is made on the registration deadline as to whether the workshop will run or not, based on the minimum number of required registrants. You may still register after the deadline as long as the workshop is running and there is space.

The students are back, the students are back!

Hooray for September and the return of our wonderful university students. They are my best wildlife sighting so far this month. :) And speaking of wildlife, we had an amazing group of students show up for the student Wildlife Club tour. They were very keen and very knowledgeable! We found the strange, brain-like fruits of Osage Orange and talked about their missing seed dispersal partners (mastodons!). We also covered topics such as rare woody plants (using Cucumber Tree as our example) and how goldenrod fields are important biodiversity spots. We learned how to identify a Green Frog (no, its name doesn't help!), how robins and chickadees told me that a Red-tailed Hawk was nearby and what a great resource The Arboretum is for undergraduate course work. If you want to learn all of these things, too, then come on over for a visit and listen to what our natural areas and plant collections have to say.

 
Cucumber Tree Fruit                          Osage Orange fruit
photo by Chris Earley                         photo by Chris Earley

                           
                            Green Frog
                            photo by Skye Earley

Be a part of the BetterPlanet Project by donating on-line:

Your donation can be directed to The Arboretum online through the secure University of Guelph donation page: http://uofg.convio.net/arboretum

If you prefer not to make an online donation, there are several other ways to provide your financial support. You can choose to donate by telephone, mail, fax, or in person:

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH Attention Alumni Affairs 50 Stone Road East Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 Tel: 1-888-266-3108 ext. 56934 Tel: 519-824-4120 ext. 56934 Fax: 519-822-2670 Email: [log in to unmask]

If you would like information on bequests and planned giving to The Arboretum please contact:

Ross Butler
Director, Gift Planning
at (519) 824-4120 ext. 56196 or by e-mail at [log in to unmask]