Photo Courtesy Natalie Placek
Hofstra first planted the Katsura around the turn of the century, when he was building his summer home, now Hofstra Hall. Also Soviero’s favorite tree on campus, the Katsura is thought to be between 125 to 130 years old and is the third largest on Long Island. The Chinese Quince tree, outside of Roosevelt Hall, was moved from Thomastown, saving it from being cut down to build a driveway. With help from fundraising, which included selling Quince jam, the University paid $16,000 to root, prune and move the tree on campus. This rare Chinese Quince is 60-years-old and one of only three in the Northeast. Although an arboretum focuses primarily on trees and woody plants, no garden is complete without flowers and other scenery. Soviero said that while the trees are the foundation of the campus, there is more to any garden than just woody plants. There are two major flower displays on campus, consisting of 85,000 tulips and 25,000 annuals each year, including marigolds and patience. Sometimes it is what students notice at their feet rather than towering above their heads that impresses them the most. An even more unique and interesting aspect of the campus is the bird sanctuary, situated on two acres of land behind the David S. Mack University Club. First opened in 1992, the sanctuary was built to make use out of one of 2,400 sumps, or groundwater source wells, in Nassau County that slowly recycle rainwater back into the ground to be used as Long Island’s drinking water. Soviero and his retired co-chair decided it would be practical to turn the space into a sanctuary when they noticed how many birds were flocking to the area. During the first summer the sanctuary was open, 53 different species of birds were documented, including Blue Herring, Kingfishers, Egrets and various ducks. Long Island is along the migratory path of most birds, bringing a lot of species to the sanctuary that are not native to the area. While it is intended to be wild and is not kept up like the rest of the campus, there is a waterfall, a gazebo and a boardwalk that are all fenced within the sanctuary. Recently, Soviero had
most of the overgrown plants taken out and replaced with native grasses or shrubs. For eight to 10 years, Soviero ran the entire campus on his own, picking out the different plants, designing the landscape and managing the entire staff. However, 12 years ago he hired a landscape designer, Patrice Dimino, to assist him with the duties of maintaining the campus and bird sanctuary. Dimino designs everything from renovation work to new building construction, working closely with an in-house architect on the planning. “We look from a point of view of functionality,” explained Dimino. “There is a phrase that a lot of designers go by: form follows function.” When she approaches something, Dimino has to take into account the practicality of the campus: how students walk, how they interact, their need, their safety and so forth. When Soviero began working at the University, he started to make a map of every tree, shrub and woody plants. While he still keeps an inventory of every plant, Soviero no longer has an updated map as it became overwhelming to do. His first job is making sure the campus looks good as a university, and then he focuses on the arboretum. Currently, around 50 percent of the campus is mapped. For Dimino, that is her job, to make sure the students and faculty are happy and comfortable in their surroundings and their environment. “When I design something, I sit back and I watch the whole Hofstra community walk through it,” said Dimino. “I just watch their emotional reactions to walking through the space.” She knows her job is
done when people are happy in their surroundings. At the end of the day, the plant department and the school just want to make sure that all of the campus is part of the arboretum and is part of the students’ education. “It shouldn’t just start and end inside the classroom with teachers and books,” said Soviero. “When you’re walking between your classroom and your dorm, or the cafeteria and your gym class, you are in the arboretum and a part of that beauty.” Most students never truly notice that beauty. Between classes most are found on their Blackberries, talking to friends or running to Bits n’ Bytes for a salad, passing by the scenery that surrounds them. “I’ve been here for three years and even though I know we are an arboretum, I never stop to look at a tree or a plant,” said Emily Cohen, a junior at the University. Like Cohen, very few students know that when they walk out of Breslin Hall, the 30-foot, vase-shaped trees in the parking lot are Washington American Elms or that the large trees along Hempstead Turnpike are Red Oaks, native to Long Island.
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