by Chris Earley

This month features the letter "D" - can you figure out the following? The answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.

by Shelley Hunt

The Arboretum is many things to many people, but in the broadest sense can accurately be called a public garden. Our Arboretum is one of 500 member institutions of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA), an organization that promotes and provides professional resources for botanical gardens and arboreta throughout North America and the world. Through this organization, we are able to network with, learn from and share ideas with other institutions, including many university and college gardens across North America. Being part of a large organization also gives us some perspective on where we sit in the big picture: it is safe to say that we can be pretty proud of the high quality plant collections, educational programs, and conservation work that we develop and deliver, especially given our relatively tiny staff contingent. Those of you familiar with our great and hardworking staff may have noticed some conspicuous absences in late June – four of us travelled to Denver, Colorado for a few days to represent our Arboretum at the annual APGA conference. We gave three poster presentations on various U of G Arboretum initiatives and participated in a jam-packed schedule of sessions on topics ranging from plant taxonomy and conservation to the use of digital media in garden education and community outreach.
As an academic and an ecologist, I at first highlighted the plant conservation, biology and diversity sessions in my soon-to-be-worn-out conference schedule booklet. However, I soon realized that the greatest learning potential was in sessions on topics less familiar to me, such as dealing with the highs and lows of large fundraising campaigns, communicating with potential sponsors, and mounting special exhibits to attract visitors. While very different from the research seminars I’m used to attending at conferences, these sessions were really dynamic and fascinating and provided great perspective on the ‘people’ side of public gardens. And in representing our Arboretum as a team, we were able to split up and cover sessions on a wide variety of topics, meeting as a group afterwards to compare notes.
As luck would have it, the timing of the conference overlapped with an outdoor exhibit of glass art by Dale Chihuly at the Denver Botanic Gardens, in the heart of the ‘mile-high city’. These colourful and striking sculptures were integrated into the gardens and either lit from within or spotlighted to create a fantastic spectacle when the sun went down. However one only had to look at the real-life plant next to any of the glass sculptures to see something even more amazing, weird and wonderful in shape and colour – and maybe that was the point. Our encounter with this exhibit, along with a conference session on winter light displays in botanic gardens, were reminders of the power of pure aesthetics to inspire, delight, and maybe even attract a new audience into the world of plants and nature. On the whole, being part of the conference gave us insight into strategies for continuing to fulfill our mission with limited resources, as well as ideas for how to increase those resources, and not to mention inspiration for what we might be able to achieve should we manage to do so!
Of course, being ‘tree people’, we could not visit Colorado without venturing out of Denver to see some amazing trees – most notably the ancient Bristlecone pines on the Rocky Mountain treeline. Some of the Rocky Mountain Bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) are more than two thousand years old, growing slowly but steadily in the cold, dry, nutrient-poor conditions at high altitude. These hardy ecosystem pioneers sprout readily after forest fires and provide shelter for spruce and fir species to get a foothold in the harsh windswept environment. You can see a Bristlecone pine for yourself without leaving Guelph…at The Arboretum, of course! On your next visit, look for them in our World of Trees and Conifer collections. While not quite as old as the famous pines in Colorado, we can hope that our trees will be around for centuries to come.

  
Sean, Kellen and Aron checking out       Dale Chihuly glass sculpture
a Bristlecone pine tree on                     at the Denver Botanic Garden
Mount Goliath in Colorado

by Ric Jordan

If you are reading this newsletter I want to thank you for responding to our communication re the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). In the neighbourhood of one thousand, yes 1000, of you e-mailed us saying yes, we want to continue to receive updates about the U of G Arboretum. This was a great affirmation in the development of The Arb and the staff appreciates your support, whether it be by taking workshops, donating time or money or simply visiting the grounds.

Last month I mentioned we were about to begin the treatment of selected ash trees (Fraxinus sp.) for Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) and I am pleased to say that 36 trees in the collections and 3 woodlots have been injected with TreeAzin by Williams & Associates. This is the company was awarded the contract for treatment of trees by the campus and we tagged along on the contract. Two years in the first round of treatment some of you donated funds to assist in offsetting the cost of this program and it was greatly appreciated. We expect this program to continue for 3 more rounds every two years and while $5000 is an expense we don’t want, we feel it is worth every dollar in order to preserve the diversity of our ash trees for teaching and research purposes. We have also been able to post some informational signs courtesy of the Sentinel Plant Network, a division of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA).

As the summer progresses visitors will notice more educational signage being installed in our Native Trees of Ontario collection. The initial group of signs went up last fall and the next round will be going in this month. Collecting the requisite photographs for them has proven to be more of a challenge than we expected but we hope to have all done by next spring. This program has been funded through the Ivey Foundation endowment. We are also in the process of replacing the original, rustic arbor at the entrance to the Gosling Wildlife Gardens with a more formal arbor. Garden 1, the Moth, Hummingbird & Butterfly Garden, was the original pollinator garden in the Guelph area so it is only fitting that we have entered into a joint venture with Pollination Guelph to install a structure which will welcome visitors to the site. I’ll post a photograph in the August newsletter. Another community group with which we are working with is the Guelph-Wellington Master Gardeners and they have taken over the maintenance and expansion of the Jane Goodall Roots & Shoots Peace Garden to the south of the Arboretum Centre. We are very grateful to this group for their continued interaction.

For readers located in the Guelph area I’m sure you have read about, or even worse experienced the inconvenience of the reconstruction of Stone Road between Gordon and Victoria. While I’m never automatically in favour of road widening I must say the city consulted with staff and I feel we came out with a win-win. With the road allowance on the books prior to The Arb’s inception no incursion on to our property was felt, however city staff recognized the importance of the wildlife corridor from the Nature Reserve to Wild Goose Woods and have incorporated a number of ‘critter tunnels’ with appropriate guide fencing into the redeveloped Stone Road profile. While not large enough to accommodate deer or coyotes we feel this will prevent a lot of road kill (turtles, snakes, amphibians, raccoons, rabbits etc. which has been observed in this stretch of the road. Kudos to city staff!

Speaking of kudos I must pass on my own thanks to our hard working staff and volunteers who have plugged away at the clean-up of ice storm damage in addition to regular maintenance tasks. If you visit you may note piles of prunings scattered around the grounds awaiting removal but they will have to wait while our chipper is in the shop and having a vital safety part replaced. Hopefully it will be back by the time you read this and the piles are diminishing but one never knows.

Until next month……

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. - Frank Lloyd Wright

Ric

 
Signage at White Ash                          White Ash with EAB Lure

                            
                             Critter Tunnel under Stone Road

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Join Christina, our Summer Interpretive Naturalist, for Wednesday Night Walks at The Arboretum until the end of August. The cost is only $2 with children under 5 FREE! Walks take place every Wednesday evening from 7 - 8:30 p.m., beginning at the J.C. Taylor Nature Centre.

For more information please contact The Arboretum at 519-824-4120 ext. 52363 or go to our website.

July 16 - Bee-hind the Scenes
There is a story behind every plant and often that story begins with a bee. Come learn about the native, and non-native, bees working behind the scenes to pollinate our nation. We will then get to see some of these creatures at work in The Arboretum!

July 23 - Turtle Talk
These 220 million year-old reptiles roamed the earth with the dinosaurs! From fresh water ponds to the middle of the ocean, turtles are masters of survival. Ontario is home to many different species of turtle and after learning about them we will explore The Arboretum to try and find some.

July 30 - The Truth About Insects
Join us to dispel some common myths about our insect and arachnid friends and discover some of the important services they provide for us. From pest control, to pollination, and cleaning up our messes they do more good than harm! They are pretty amazing creatures when you get to know them.

August 6 - Science and Research in the Arboretum
The Arboretum is a wonderful place to come for a stroll, a Wednesday Night Walk, or just a nice spot to sit peacefully and enjoy nature. But, did you know it is also used by many researchers to further our understanding of the natural world? Let’s learn about some discoveries made by scientists in The Arboretum, as well as their many ongoing projects. We will even try to come up with our own ideas for potential research!

August 13 - Lovely Lepidopterans: Butterflies and Moths
Come discover the butterflies and moths of Ontario! We will get up close and personal with some butterflies and moths, talk about the amazing migration of the monarch butterfly, and learn how to set up your own moth wall at home to see what kind of nighttime creatures you can attract!

August 20 - Be a Bat Detective
Have you ever heard a bat? Chances are, unless you have super human hearing, the answer is no. But, with a little help from technology we can detect and listen to the clicks and screeches of bats as they make their way through The Arboretum in search of food. Bats are responsible for controlling pests and even pollinating plants! Let’s learn more about these amazing creatures and find out how we can help them thrive in Ontario. (We may go later than 8:30 for this one).

August 27- End of Summer Science Fair!
What do you want to learn about? Make your own poster, display or just share your knowledge with your fellow Wednesday Night Walkers. Whether you’ve been attending Wednesday Night Walks all summer, or you’ve just decided to join us, pick a topic and share how amazing nature can be! (You are also just welcome to come and hear what the others have to say!).

Christina with a WednesdayNight Walk Group
Photo by Ehan Lewis

Mark your calendar … The Arboretum Auxiliary Plant Sale is on Saturday, September 13, 2014 from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Night and Low Light Photography, Hawk and Growing Native Woody Plants from Seed 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.

Registration is available on-line which will allow 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 note 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.

It's baby time once again in The Arboretum and we are seeing lots. During the Bioblitz, one of our volunteers, Tim Myles, found a baby porcupine which already knew to swing its tail around threateningly to defend itself. Tim also found some newly hatched Wood Duck ducklings with their mom. The pair of Cooper's Hawks that nested near the Arboretum Centre have produced 2 chicks that left the nest in the last week. Great Crested Flycatchers are still nesting in one of our bird boxes but the Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows have moved out with their now flying young. By the way, if you like Cedar Waxwings, our serviceberries are attracting them down low for nice clear views!

Cedar Waxwing
Photo by Chris Earley

Cooper's Hawk Chicks
Photo by Chris Earley

                       
                        Baby Porcupine
                        Photo by Tim Myles

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]