Spring Plant Sale by Sue Wyndham, Land Stewardship Coordinator

Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, marked the Arboretum’s kick-off event for its season-long sale of native plants. It was a great success, complete with beautiful sunny days, and over 700 happy shoppers.

In addition to offering horticultural books, and a wide variety of plants for native gardens and natural areas, the Arboretum also participated as a vendor for the state of Maryland’s Marylanders Plant Trees Program, a grant funded project that seeks to enhance Maryland’s canopy coverage by 50,000 native trees in 2009. The Arboretum’s selection of large native trees flew out the door, ready for their new Maryland homes.

New to the sale area this year were display gardens featuring a hedgerow, a pond garden and a children’s garden illustrating uses and value of native plants in the landscape. To help everyone water their newly planted gardens, rain barrels were available to purchase or to order, and like

the plants, will be available throughout the summer. Plant sales help support the Arboretum’s educational programs and outreach initiatives, and are an effective way to inspire enthusiasm for native plants.

Many thanks to our volunteers, members and shoppers for their support, and for making the plant sales possible and successful.

Happy Gardening!

Exhibit: Nature of Things: Transformations Within Nature Photographs by Denee Barr at Adkins Arboretum

Denee Barr greets guests at her photo exhibit reception at Adkins Arboretum on Maryland's Eastern Shore on Saturday, April 18, 2009.

Guided Walk-5/2, by Bev Gemmill, volunteer

Saturday was not the best day, it was cloudy and overcast, threatening rain at any minute. But it was a great tour. What made it great was the 5 interested visitors from the Simplicity Circle from Silver Springs.

Jennifer DeMooy assisted with this tour and she did a terrific job. We did spring ephemerals again. They are here for such a short time, and each week there are new plants blooming. Juliana spoke glowingly about the sassafras so I was hopeful we would still be able to admire them, but instead we saw the petite green mitten-like leaves.

Thankfully, my favorite flower, spring beauty, is still blooming. We talked about the pink pollen on the stamens and the bee lines that leads to nectar.

The lady slippers near the research plot are blooming , there were many and  fully pink.

There were many questions as we described the research. Jennifer had heard the University of Maryland professor speak and she was very helpful as we answered questions.  Along the Creekside trail, Mayapples are blooming everywhere though they are starting to go past and there is deer damage.  Jack and the Pulpit is fully expanded and is always an interesting story to describe about its ability to change sex.  The wild geranium is blooming on both sides of the path and we talked about its seed pod that shoots out the seeds. We also saw a blood root leaf without flower or seed. We suggested an ant cut the seed off and took it to its nest and fed the eliasome to its young. The paw paw were blooming everywhere; we will have a great crop this fall if all goes well. Dirr may think the bloom is lurid but we all agreed they were beautiful. The last walk I did, the golden groundsel (ragwort) was not blooming but now, it brightens up the area below the first bridge like a million candles.

Black Knot Fungus-photo submitted by Arboretum visitor, Melissa Sallade

Black knot fungus attacks cherry and plum trees causing galls to form.  The galls are particularly noticeable in winter and spring when trees are leafless.  Since the fungus can kill smaller trees and weaken larger trees, people who grow cherry and plum trees at home should monitor their trees carefully pruning out any knots that form in winter.