Friends of the Arboretum Newsletter
Spring 2009 – Volume 13, Number 1
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Words from the Director
It's a Beginning
By Ted Bilderback, Interim Director
In January 1977, about 18 months after J. C. Raulston's arrival, I joined the Horticultural Science faculty at NC State. J. C. was definitely my mentor through the early years. J. C. taught HS 411–Nursery Management in the four-year curriculum and I was hired to teach HS 051–Nursery Production in the Agricultural Institute curriculum. I audited a nursery course during graduate school, but J. C. taught me how to teach nursery classes. During the first year, I sat in on J. C.'s lectures and labs. A suitable textbook was not available, so written CliffNotes style lecture notes and articles from nursery magazines were handed out. Later, they were combined into a very thick course pak which students purchased at the bookstore. The nursery labs were taught at "Method" (it was not an arboretum yet) in the ground-floor room that served as the office for John Scott, the Unit 4 Farm supervisor. The classroom always needed sweeping, the chalk board cleaned, and tables and chairs set up and arranged. It reminded me of my early days in education, where a teacher was the custodian and maintenance supervisor, too. (I started first grade in a country one-room schoolhouse for grades 1–8 in eastern Kansas. If you are interested, check out this Web site: http://www.kansasheritage.org/orsh/library/bolton.htm).
J. C.'s vision for the area designated to be the new arboretum included moving some large plants out and installing new plantings. In 1979, J. C. assigned my spring HS 471–Arboriculture class a big job. Five of the Lagerstroemia fauriei (Japanese crape myrtles), whose crowns were becoming crowded, were growing in a row in what's now the West Arboretum. J. C. wanted to move one. The class dug the one in the middle of the row. The root ball weighed approximately 5,000 pounds. The soilball was burlapped, pinned, laced, and lifted with a crane onto a truck bound for the Horticulture Club's exhibition garden at the Southern Living Show in Charlotte. After the show, the crape myrtle was planted in a park in Charlotte. The Arboriculture class moved the red lace-leafed Japanese maple (Acer palmatum Dissectum Atropurpureum Group) donated by Carl and Nancy Ward that occupies a prominent space in the Klein-Pringle White Garden in 1980. The Japanese maple had approximately a 2,000-pound root ball. The planting of the Nellie Stevens holly hedge that separates the JC Raulston Arboretum from the Horticulture Field Lab was also accomplished by students over a period of several semesters. The field nursery was located on the lower south side of HFL where the Horticulture Greenhouses are now. Most of the soil from the field was excavated for construction of the adjacent beltline so the soil in the nursery was actually sub-soil and digging was disagreeable. Nevertheless, students learned the art of B&B, moving, and replanting large trees in the row along the Arboretum's border.
One of my visions while interim director is to involve more students in projects in the JCRA. I also have co-conspirators among the teaching faculty in the Department of Horticultural Science who are as convinced as I am that friendships for life are begun at the end of a round-nose shovel. Many fond memories held by our alums exist due to these experiences.
It is a great pleasure and honor to serve as the interim director of the JC Raulston Arboretum. I look forward to becoming acquainted with the Friends of the Arboretum. All of us at the JCRA thank you for your support.
Words from the Director | Horticulture | Development | Annual Report | Volunteering
Formatted into HTML by Christopher
Todd Glenn
Programs and Education Coordinator
JC Raulston Arboretum
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7522
© The JC Raulston Arboretum, March 2009