JC Raulston Arboretum e-Update

January 2005

In This Issue

Brightening Up a Dark Alley
Planting the Seeds for Development
Connoisseur Plant Update
Coming Attractions – Highlights of January
January Calendar

Brightening Up a Dark Alley

Over the course of the past nine months, the JCRA has been quietly working with Delores Crotts and John MacKenzie, Ph.D., of the Department of Microbiology's Center for Electron Microscopy, based in Gardner Hall on the NC State campus. What, you say, does this have to do with the Arboretum? Well, all you need to do is think of the Bostian Hall Auditorium, where FOA Lectures were once held. Walking from the (former) parking lot behind Kilgore Hall, through the paved alleyway lined with old Magnolia grandiflora specimens, a once-bare alley could be seen to the right as one walked toward the Brickyard. This alleyway, nearly always shaded, had only several specimens of Prunus caroliniana (Carolina cherrylaurel) growing there and begged for more horticultural attention. This, evidently, not only stood noticed by me, but also by Delores, who day-by-day walked this corridor and wondered of a way to brighten it up.

Enter into the equation Shannon Carter and Greg Kopsch of NCSU's Landscape Services division. With the go-ahead from John MacKenzie, a meeting was scheduled with Shannon, Greg, Delores, and myself. With Landscape Services agreeing to come up with a planting design and landscape materials, the JCRA agreed to supply a cadre of plants that might be suitable for this site. JCRA Research Technician, Jon Roethling, and student workers, worked with me to divide a number of shade perennials scattered throughout the Arboretum grounds, such that sufficient numbers could be generated for this mass planting on the main campus. The result is that Dryopteris erythrosora (autumn ferns) divided from the Klein-Pringle White Garden; Arum italicum (Italian arums) divided from the Necessary; and a host of colorful Liriope cultivars and various Solomon's seals and close relatives (Polygonatum, Disporum, Disporopsis) were grown and donated to the campus, these perennials supplemented with an assortment of shade-adapted shrubs. Make sure to take a look at this rich, new planting, a great example of collaboration between the JCRA and the NCSU Campus Landscape Services division, all spurred on by the Department of Microbiology. – Todd Lasseigne, Former Assistant Director

Planting the Seeds for Development

Special Tribute and Memorial Gifts – A Loving Remembrance for Someone Special

We invite you to read the special messages on the bricks, benches, and garden plaques that are all around the Arboretum's grounds. They are tributes and remembrances of special people, beloved pets, important events, honored organizations, and many more.

What a thoughtful and unique gift a tribute brick, bench, or other naming opportunity makes for these special people. Plus your gift will be helping to support the many fine programs, research, and education that the JC Raulston Arboretum provides.

Gifts for the Future..........Or Leaving a Legacy

Planned Giving – Creating a Legacy

Please join us for a
Free – No Obligation
Planned Giving Workshop
March 9, 2005 (Wednesday)
10:30 AM-2:00 PM (Lunch Included)
Ruby C. McSwain Education Center
at the JC Raulston Arboretum

Hosted by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College Advancement
and led by Steve Watt, Director of Planned Giving

(To register, please call or e-mail Anne Porter at (919) 513-3463 or
<anne_porter@ncsu.edu> by March 1, 2005.)

We all have the opportunity to be philanthropists. Some of our best opportunities come through planning our estates, allowing us to make the decisions about how our assets will be used. Charitable bequests are easy to include in your will and can be for any amount (large or small) and designated for any purpose- like the JC Raulston Arboretum.

Charitable gift annuities and charitable trusts offer the opportunity to receive income for life and significant tax advantages, especially when using assets that have appreciated in value or do not produce much income. Ultimately, these life income agreements become charitable gifts to the Arboretum.

To find out how charitable estate planning can help you and the Arboretum, join us on March 9, 2005 for our planned giving seminar.

Thanks for your support in 2004! Happy New Year! Here's wishing you a happy, healthy, and joyous 2005!

If you are interested in receiving more information on will bequests, a planned gift, a memorial/tribute gift, or other JCRA giving opportunities, please contact Anne Porter at (919) 513-3463 or <anne_porter@ncsu.edu>. – Anne Porter, Director of Development

Connoisseur Plant Update

For those of you who have gotten your orders in for the 2004 Connoisseur Plants, thank you. I am proposing a bit of a change in getting the plants out this year. Rather than start shipping the plants right now, I would prefer to hold the plants until a bit later, possibly March. This would allow our weather to stabilize to something akin to normal (for North Carolina). It is more than likely easier for the plants to continue on in the greenhouse here at the JCRA than be sent out in a somewhat tender state right now. If anyone would still prefer to pick up or have their plants mailed at an earlier time please feel free to let me know and I will accommodate those requests. – Jon Roethling, Research Technician

Coming Attractions – Highlights of January

The JC Raulston Arboretum has many winter delights. Witchhazel, grapeholly, and wintersweet are now in flower, while the buds of the Japanese flowering apricot trees are starting to awaken. Watch as the first blossoms of the Lenten roses emerge in the Winter Garden and the Lath House. The Conifer Collection is now a delightful mosaic of blues, grays, and greens that is not to be missed.

Southall Garden
Acer griseum – paperbark maple
Mahonia ×media 'Winter Sun' – grapeholly

Winter Garden
Chimonanthus praecox – fragrant wintersweet
Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Gold Rush' – golden paperbush
Helleborus ×hybridus (Ashwood Garden hybrids) – Lenten rose
Iris unguicularis – winter blooming Algerian iris
Mahonia japonica Bealei Group – Japanese mahonia
Prunus mume – Japanese flowering apricot

Klein-Pringle White Garden
Acer palmatum [Dissectum Atropurpureum Group] – red lace-leaf Japanese maple
Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula' – weeping blue Atlas cedar
Fatsia japonica – Japanese fatsia

Nandina and Witchhazel Collection
Chimonanthus praecox – fragrant wintersweet
Hamamelis 'Brevipetala' – flowering witchhazel
Hamamelis ×intermedia 'Jelena' – copper-flowered common witchhazel
Hamamelis ×intermedia 'Pallida' – common witchhazel
Hamamelis mollis – Chinese witchhazel
Hamamelis vernalis – Ozark witchhazel
Hamamelis vernalis 'Carnea' – red Ozark witchhazel
Hamamelis vernalis 'Christmas Cheer' – early Ozark witchhazel
Nandina domestica – heavenly bamboo

Japanese Garden
Mahonia (Yucca Do hybrids) – grapeholly
Phyllostachys nigra – black bamboo

Lath House
Mahonia ×media 'Hope' – grapeholly

Mixed Border
Daphniphyllum macropodum – false dahpne

Paradise Garden
Corylus avellana 'Contorta' – Harry Lauder's walking stick

Perennial Border
Arundo donax 'Variegata' – striped giant reed
Cortaderia selloana 'Aureolineata' – golden pampas grass
Miscanthus floridulus – giant Chinese silver grass

Other Areas of the Arboretum
Berberis thunbergii 'Golden Ring' – purpleleaf Japanese barberry – E41
Betula utilis 'Kashmir White' – Himalayan white birch – E43b, S06
Ilex 'Carolina Cardinal' – hybrid winterberry holly – E35, E43b
Lonicera modesta 'Lushanensis' – E09
Lonicera ×purpusii – E09
Poncirus trifoliata 'Flying Dragon' – contorted hardy orange – E19, W15
Prunus persica 'NCSU Dwarf Double Red' – dwarf flowering peach – E17, T01, T06
Ulmus alata 'Lace Parasol' – weeping winged elm – E40

This show is free. We invite you to visit often. – Nancy Doubrava, Interpretive Specialist

January Calendar

There are no programs scheduled for January 2005. January and February 2005's Plantsmen's Tours have been cancelled due to Todd Lasseigne's departure from the Arboretum.

Please visit the "Calendar of Events" section on the JCRA Web site for a complete listing of our upcoming programs.

JC Raulston Arboretum e-Updates are published electronically every month for everyone interested in the Arboretum. Did you find this edition informative? What information would you like to see in future editions? Send Christopher Todd Glenn your suggestions. To remove yourself from this mailing, please write Christopher Todd Glenn.