Friends of the Arboretum Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 1
Director's Letter
Traveling and Teaching
 |
 |
 |
 |
By Bob Lyons, Director
I was all set to write this installment of my newsletter note before taking a group to California......and now having returned, I realize what a misjudgment that would've been! I've got lots to tell you about since the last issue, but let me start from the most recent. At this writing (mid-March), I find myself sitting on the plane heading from Dallas to Raleigh; it is the final leg on our trip home from seeing some spectacular sights in Southern California with 26 other JCRA Friends. Early mornings and late evenings sandwiched our travels to Joshua Tree National Park and the high desert; The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens; The Arboretum of Los Angeles County; Descanso Gardens; Hearst Castle; and The J. Paul Getty Museum and Gardens. Each host greeted us with enthusiasm and great hospitality, often embellishing guided tours with additional information and conveniences. We left with a renewed spirit of cooperation and new friends with whom we will likely collaborate in the future.
If I had to identify highlights from any of our stops, they would include the striking architecture of the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) themselves and the views towards Mexico from 4,400 feet up at Joshua Tree National Park; the treks through towering camellia "trees" at Descanso; the outrageous flowering Tabebuia trees at The Arboretum of Los Angeles County; the floods of colors in the Huntington cactus gardens; the Hardenbergia vines at Hearst Castle; and the original van Gogh irises in the Getty art gallery. Of course, the group of tour participants and my accompanying staff made for a seamless coordination of travels and matchless camaraderie.....not to forget the expertise of travel coordinator Judi Grainger of Custom Travel in Raleigh! Please consider the upcoming trip with Todd Lasseigne as he ventures off to some of the neatest nurseries and gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Remember, these trips double as fund raisers for the JCRA.....you'll have a great time and our mission is supported even further.
 |
With all the news about travels, construction, and new garden developments, I didn't want the educational side of what we do to become overshadowed.......and the time is right to make sure you know. Truth is, we are becoming even more entrenched in involving students in the JCRA these days because of the arrival of two new Horticultural Science faculty members: Professors Pat Lindsey and Anne Spafford. Both have begun in earnest to make contributions to the planning and construction aspects of what we do: taking a look at how visitors orient themselves and designing and constructing new vine supports, a new entry from the old parking lot to the Klein-Pringle White Garden, and a more pleasant and logical space near our east entry.
On the more unusual side of the educational spectrum, so to speak, an undergraduate group of NCSU engineers is busy designing a novel, automatic system to count and record our visitorship. It has been especially rewarding to work with this group of students whose knowledge of plants may be limited but whose expertise in electronics is exceptional, and that's what we need from them! More later.
We continue to engage what is called here the "ILE student," that is, the Internal Learning Experience student, who is enrolled in the Horticultural Science curriculum formally but is tracked into various aspects of JCRA operations, depending upon interests and needs. This semester (spring), we are lucky to have Casey Kerley and Jon Roethling working under staff in the areas of site maintenance/development and plant collections management, respectively. These two join a growing list of "ILE alums" who have proven to be invaluable to us while profiting from a unique learning experience outside traditional classroom walls. While this job finds me working with more administrative matters each day, my roots are in teaching and I'm delighted to facilitate these experiences.
Our most prominent and formal involvement in outreach education, education for the professional masses, if you will, takes several forms. Most notably, the JCRA serves as a major site for the spring Turf and Landscape Field Days and the summer Bedding Plant and Landscape Field Days. Literally thousands of people visit and learn from us and our NCSU colleagues. Several staff members, including myself, regularly lecture to diverse clientele groups throughout the year. All in all, our audience numbered over 7,000 in 2001 alone.
On the staff front, I'd like to formally welcome Anne Porter to the development team of the JCRA to partner with Donna Walker. Anne is based in the Office of College Advancement but has been assigned to the JCRA by Executive Director Keith Oakley. She will continue to work with our donors and benefactors as well as bring new friends into the fold. Anne has already proven her skills by jumping into the Gala preparations and by assisting tremendously with the logistics of the trip to California.
On a more somber note, I'm disappointed to report the theft of a very important part of the JCRA.....our 1998 F-250 pickup truck. I generally don't like to air out dirty laundry in this letter, but this offense hit hard. Apparently with some knowledge of our buildings, thieves broke into the staff office building and went directly for the concealed truck keys and the keys to open the road access gate. Nothing else was bothered and they apparently wore gloves.....how clever! Well, bottom line at this writing, we will now figure a way to replace the truck. Sure, it was insured, but not for full replacement value. I hope that by the time you're reading this newsletter, this situation will have been resolved!
And now for a complete 180-degree turn in news, I'd like to reiterate and confirm the great programming relationship we've struck with our friends at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. It is this simple.......we have agreed upon program reciprocity between our members; thus JCRA members may attend regular Duke Gardens educational programs at their members price, as may the members of Duke Gardens attend ours. Thank you Chris Glenn and Alice LeDuc (Duke Gardens) for coordinating this mutually beneficial relationship. Look for more JCRA member benefits being negotiated by Donna Walker to come in the future!
Finally, mark those calendars for our Grand Opening of the Ruby C. McSwain Education Center on September 20 & 21, 2002. The planning is going well and the program should be exceptional. Take a deep breath along with the rest of us and enjoy the open house festivities. You've all worked hard to get here!
Previous
Director's Letter | Arboretum
Trips | Horticulture
| Development |
People
Next
Formatted into HTML
by Christopher
Todd Glenn
Programs & Education Coordinator
JC Raulston Arboretum
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7609
© The JC Raulston Arboretum, May 2002