The Friends are sponsoring a free, family-oriented event, Pollinator Day, on Saturday, June 25 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM in the big tent at the top of the Arboretum parking lot. (See program description below.) We're hosting exhibits and tours featuring butterflies, bees, birds, and the plants they pollinate. We hope to make this a fun event for all ages with several craft tables at which kids can color, build simple feeders and play games, all geared toward educating them about plants and pollinators.
We're looking for 8 adult and 16 teenage (age 15+) volunteers to help staff the four exhibitor stations and four craft stations. Two shifts: 9 to 12 and 11:30 to 2:30 on June 25.
Register here to volunteer.
Highlights of the Chicago Botanic Garden with Fred Spicer
Sunday, June 12 - 4:00 PM
VIRTUAL ZOOM PROGRAM
Join Fred Spicer for a virtual tour of the Chicago Botanic Garden, one of the world's great public gardens. Opened in 1972, the 385-acre site features nine islands, 28 gardens, and six natural areas. Fred will explain the sound planning basis for the Garden, which features the work of some of the masters of 21st century landscape architecture and garden design. The Garden is a modernist masterpiece, and is known for eye-popping seasonal displays, dramatic views and vistas, and plant collections, now numbering over 14,000 different kinds of plants.
Fred Spicer has been the Executive Vice President and Director of the Chicago Botanic Garden since February 2017. In his role at the Gardens, Mr. Spicer oversees horticulture, design, facility operations, maintenance and capital planning and projects. Most recently he served 15 years as the Director and then CEO of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Before that, he was Manager of Horticulture for the Morris County Park Commission in New Jersey, where he oversaw The Frelinghuysen and Willowwood Arboretums. Fred is a 1983 graduate of Rutgers University with a B.S. in environmental planning, design and landscape architecture.
This program is eligible for 1.0 Rutgers Master Gardener CEU.
Not a member of the Friends? Join here and then register for this program free of charge.
Tuesday, June 21 - 7:00 PM
VIRTUAL ZOOM PROGRAM
Join Heather Andrews, The Thoughtful Gardener, as she shares the secrets she learned from her Grandfather Andrews in his North Carolina garden, along with extensive garden research that will enable you to create a paradise for wildlife and your own family. Heather will show us how to welcome the "royalty" of the butterfly kingdom into our own gardens by creating the perfect oasis for the Monarch butterfly migration.
Heather Andrews is an author, photographer, traveler and speaker who works with homeowners and businesses to create sustainable native pollinator habitats. During the growing season, you will find her in her Monarch waystation, Cat-a-pillar Haven, video blogging on her YouTube Channel, Garden Thoughtfully. Heather is a two-time recipient of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Garden of Distinction Award for her Monarch waystation and for a pollinator garden she designed for the historic Craighead House in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Master Gardeners of central Pennsylvania. Her proposal, "The Resurgence of Pollinator Hedgerows - Using Science to Create a Pollinator Oasis in Your Own Backyard", was accepted at the 2021 International Master Gardeners Conference.
This program is eligible for 1.0 Rutgers Master Gardener CEU.
Sat June 25 - 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM (Rain Date: Sun June 26)
We're celebrating Pollinator Week with a family-friendly mix of activities and exhibits focused on those all-important insects and birds who pollinate the flowers - without them there wouldn't be any seeds or food!
There will be experts on hand to talk about butterflies, honey bees and their hives, birds, and other insect pollinators. Guides will lead walks to identify insects at work in the garden and explain the clever ways that flowers attract them.
They'll be joined by horticulturists who can tell you what plants will bring pollinators into your own garden from early spring through the fall.
Activities will be under the big tent at the top of the parking lot at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum.
Stay tuned for further details.
RUTGERS MASTER GARDENER IPM TEAM REPORT #4
This issue of the IPM team report covers useful information on Cabbage Worm caterpillars, Spittlebugs, Squash Bugs, Common Horsetail and much more.
Click on the report to access and read.
MORRIS COUNTY PARK COMMISSION PROGRAM
What's in Bloom Tour with Bruce Crawford
Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center
Wednesday, June 15 - 10:00 AM
For more information and to register, click on the flyer.
A bit muggy and cloudy at the Arboretum today, but we are expecting rain. As always, much to see and enjoy, such as the intricate, perfectly round seed head of an Allium flower, the beautiful, but toxic, flowers of a potato plant (Solanum tuberosum, in the Nightshade family) and a stalk of Phlomis tuberosa flowers (Jerusalem Sage, in the Mint family) working their way up the stem in groups of pretty lavender flowers.
Enjoy and plan to visit soon!
Click an image to see them all in our website's picture gallery. Picture credits: Margery Ennist.
We are pleased to make several of our previously recorded events available in case you missed one or another of them.
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.
All our events can be found on our Events Page where, we are happy to say, you can register and pay on line -- just click on the "Add to Cart" buttons on our Events page and Membership page. Questions or need more information? Email Lisa Bencivengo: info@arboretumfriends.net or leave a message at (973) 937-8803.