SPRING 2022
SPRING 2022 , V6/ 2 Forests & Gardens is the member magazine for Holden Forests & Gardens, which includes the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland and the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Cleveland. MISSION: Holden Forests & Gardens connects people with the wonder, beauty, and value of trees and plants, to inspire action for healthy communities VISION: All communities transformed into vibrant places where trees, plants, and people thrive Creative Director: Jackie Klisuric Vice President of Public Relations & Marketing: Margaret Thresher Photography: Ian Adams, Margeaux Apple, Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, Lisa DeJong, Jackie Klisuric, Bob Perkoski B OA R D O F D I R EC T O R S Thomas D. Anderson, Chairman Robert R. Galloway, Secretary Constance N. Abbey Paul R. Abbey Victoria U. Broer Barbara Brown, PhD Andrew G. Coleman Jonathan E. Dick Paul E. DiCorleto Michael W. Dingeldein, MD Kate Faust Sarah L. Gries Joseph P. Keithley
Stephen J. Knerly, Jr. Joseph J. Mahovlic Michael C. Marino Roy D. Minoff Cynthia A. Moore-Hardy Ellen W. Jones Nordell Deidrea L. Otts Jane Q. Outcalt Gary W. Poth Erin Kennedy Ryan Robin D. Schachat Lynn C. Shiverick Ruth M. Stafford Joy K. Ward Charles F. Walton
Jill Koski, President and CEO Kathleen Heflin, Treasurer and CFO
Eliot and Linda Paine Rhododendron Discovery Garden at the Holden Arboretum.
FE ATURES PRESIDENT'S COLUMN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 OUR MEMBERS: PEOPLE FOR TREES Holden Forests & Gardens members share what trees they have planted already . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 BEHIND THE SCENES Get a first look at the Ron & Lydia Harrington Perennial Playspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 READY, SET, EXPLORE! Mission Botanica, an interactive maze, opens in late Spring at the Holden Arboretum .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 PLANT A DIFFERENCE THIS ARBOR DAY The 150th celebration of our nation’s tree-focused holiday is an ideal time make the People for Trees pledge.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A PLAN ROOTED IN COMMUNITY The HF&G master planning process engages neighborhoods and invites diverse voices to shape the future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 THE FOREST & GARDEN CONTINUUM How we can connect landscapes on campus and in hearts and minds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
DEPARTMENTS ©Holden Forests & Gardens Forests & Gardens (ISSN 2474-6371) is a class and events magazine published quarterly by Holden Forests & Gardens, 9500 Sperry Road, Kirtland, Ohio 44094-5172. Periodicals postage paid at Mentor, Ohio and additional offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Forests & Gardens Magazine Holden Forests & Gardens 9500 Sperry Road Kirtland, Ohio 44094-5172
DEVELOPMENT Arbor Day is a national holiday created to recognize the importance of trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 RESEARCH Exploring conservation in a changing world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 EDUCATION Camp experiences promote social development, sense of place and environmental stewardship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 BIRD BIO Meet the Baltimore Oriole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 PLANT PROFILE Learn more about native plants for Ohio Native Plant Month. . . . . 28 CLASSES & EVENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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On the Cover: Young visitor has fun in Buckeye Bud’s Adventure Woods at Holden Arboretum.
Hello Spring! PRESIDENT’S COLUMN We are celebrating the splendor of spring in big ways at The Cleveland Botanical Garden and Holden Arboretum campuses. The Ron and Lydia Harrington Perennial Playspace opens in March at the Botanical Garden. The Perennial Playspace is a groundbreaking gallery designed for children that focuses on the plants and trees in our biomes and throughout our region. Plus, you don’t want to miss the “Return of the Butterflies” to the Costa Rica Glasshouse and hundreds of brightly colored tulips on the Terrace calling out the arrival of spring.
People for Trees is in year two! Join more than 1,000 individuals who have committed to planting more than 4,500 trees already!
• In partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Old Brooklyn Development Corporation and the City of Cleveland, we will be planting three commemorative Jesse Owens Oak Trees propagated at Holden Arboretum. • People for Trees is in year two! Make your pledge to plant a tree today at holdenfg.org and join more than 1,000 individuals who have committed to planting more than 4,500 trees already! • Make a gift to the Arbor Day of Giving Campaign, and your gift will be doubled with the help of $30,000 in matching gifts. You will help us do even more to support the natural world in our community. Staff, board members and NEO community leaders have been working with a planning team led by landscape architectural firm Nelson Byrd Woltz on a new HF&G master plan. We look forward to sharing the plans with you soon and asking for your input. Watch for more information!
Sincerely, At the Holden Arboretum, Mission Botanica, an outdoor maze, will open in June and take visitors of all ages on a quest for native plants and trees both within the maze and throughout the Arboretum grounds. Designed specifically with the help of the plant experts at the Arboretum, it’s a must-see custom experience. This year marks the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, on Friday, April 29. Always a signature holiday at HF&G, we are excited to share our plans:
JILL KOSKI President and CEO P.S. Summer Camps are open for registration, along with many other engaging classes and programs for all ages. Plus, the ever-popular Kalberer Emergent Tower and Murch Canopy Walk opens for the season on April 1. Get out your planner and join us for the best spring yet!
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ME MB ER SHIP
Our Members:
People for Trees
We are 17,000 households strong across Northeast Ohio, and Holden Forests & Gardens members stand to make a BIG impact on the health of trees in our region. Here’s a look at some of the trees you have planted already.
Thomas Rousher Red Buckeye Tree
Joanne Westin Serviceberry and two Cherry Trees
Paul Abbey Basswood
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Barbara Furtner
Ten long needle white pines, two Autumn Sunset Maples, seven Sugar Maples, three short needle pines, and redbud seedling from Holden.
Stephanie Clark
Eastern Redbud
Andre Mitchell Apple and Peach
Ingrid Luders Cryptomeria
Please share your pictures and stories with us! We’d love to feature you in an upcoming issue! Send a picture of you with your tree to Ellen Vohsing at evohsing@holdenfg.org. SPRING 2022 5
C A MP US VISI TAT I O N
Behind the Scenes
Get a First Look at the Ron & Lydia Harrington Perennial Playspace at Cleveland Botanical Garden, opening March 19. By Jackie Klisuric, Creative Director
The team from Roto installing sensory panels and other hands-on features for the youngest vistors.
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The mural wall shows different types of local ecosystems.
Installing graphics on the botanical build structure, a unique hands-on building structure that features local flora.
The hive encourages gross motor skills while teaching about pollinators.
The Collaborative Tree Sculpture will allow children to contribute their own artwork.
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C A MP US VISI TAT I O N
Ready, Set, Explore! Discover and learn more about some of the most important plants and trees in our region while having fun at the Holden Arboretum. By Kristen Hampshire
L
ooking for an a-maze-ing way to explore plant life and the living treasures? Test your knowledge, exercise your curiosity and challenge your climbingrunning-jumping prowess at Mission Botanica, a life-sized interactive maze exhibit that opens June 11 and runs through summer.
“The maze gives families and groups a mission, so they start at the beginning, spin a mission wheel and the fun begins!” says Eva Rodriguez, manager of interpretive services at Holden Forests & Gardens (HF&G). Every mission offers an opportunity to “meet” a dozen native plants and trees found within the Arboretum. “We are introducing and sharing the wild and wonderful world of plants with Northeast Ohio, and that is really exciting to us,” Rodriguez relates, noting that the maze missions include questions to answer that help you decide which direction to turn. “As you go through the pathways, you stop at these decision points — and if you get a wrong answer, you hit a dead end,” Rodriguez explains. “If you get the question right, you get to continue exploring.”
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The 20- to 30-minute experience for all ages is presented by Minotaur Mazes, which creates interactive worldwide traveling exhibitions at places like zoos and nature centers. This is the first time the exhibit is focusing on plants and trees that are native to our region. Inside the maze, which is open rain or shine, there are fun photo opportunities with selfie stations — and the rest is under wraps until you explore. “The really cool part is that the 12 plants are found all over our grounds, so we encourage everyone to search for these plants once they learn about them,” Rodriguez says.
Spending time in nature
can reduce anxiety and stress, and increase your attention span, your capacity for creativity and problem solving, and even help you better connect with people. Consider Holden Forests & Gardens for your next retreat, board meeting, or staff appreciation event and come see what nature can do for you.
For information contact Halle Scotese hscotese@holdenfg.org 216.707.2846
FE AT URE
Plant a Difference this Arbor Day The 150th celebration of our nation’s tree-focused holiday is an ideal time to make the People for Trees pledge. By Kristen Hampshire
Holden Forests & Gardens tree planting at Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority property.
M
eaningful change starts in our own back yards — our neighborhoods — and simple acts like planting and caring for a tree can help counter the impact of climate change, provide shade, clean the air of toxins and increase property value.
As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, Holden Forests & Gardens (HF&G) invites Northeast Ohio communities to embrace and join our campaign: People for Trees, the movement that highlights our work in tree care with a goal to plant more than 15,000 trees across the region by 2025. Already, more than 1,000 people committed to planting more than 4,500 trees. “The 150th anniversary of Arbor Day is cause for celebration, especially given the significant need for reforesting Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” says Jill Koski, president and CEO of HF&G. “The impacts of climate change are becoming even more challenging and pressing, and planting trees is so essential.” Arbor Day is a signature holiday in the arboretum world, Koski adds. “It’s so easy to take trees for granted, and it’s the one day a year where trees are really the focus.” Trees are always center stage for us, and conservation and research efforts to promote tree health are founding principles of the organization. The coinciding of Arbor Day’s sesquicentennial birthday and the People for Trees initiative calls attention to a vital need.
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“Trees on privately-owned land provide benefits for the entire community.”
— Sandra Albro
“Many of us don’t realize how important things are in everyday life until they go missing,” Koski says of a diminishing tree canopy. “People for Trees is about raising awareness every day, and through our deep membership and visitor base, individuals can make a difference and do something to make change,” she says. Holden Forests & Gardens community foresters planting trees in the community.
Growing a Positive Impact Not only does People for Trees empower people to plant and care for their own trees, it’s also a platform for science and conservation teams at HF&G to share more learning and cuttingedge discoveries with the community. “We are hoping for Arbor Day, people will take a pledge to plant a tree in their yard,” says Sandra Albro, HF&G’s director of community partnerships, sharing a goal of reaching 3,000 trees planted through the holiday.
Anyone Can Make a Pledge “Trees on privately-owned land provide benefits for the entire community,” Albro points out. “They help filter and cool the air, they absorb stormwater, and they help save on energy costs for homes nearby. So even though you may be using your own yard to plant the trees, the benefit to the community is far greater.” The tree communities with the greatest need are rural regions where forestland decreased by 300,000 acres and live trees decreased by 1 million from 2013 to 2018, according to the Cleveland Tree Plan 2020 Tree Canopy Progress Report produced by the Cleveland Tree Coalition. In Cleveland, the tree canopy declined by 5 percent from 2011 to 2017. “Our arborists, scientists, community foresters, horticulturists and educators work onsite at the Holden Arboretum and Cleveland Botanical Garden, and in our community to grow and care for trees each year,” Koski says. “But we can only plant so many.” To truly make a difference, People for Trees recruits individuals and families throughout the region to plant and care for a tree in their yards, places of business or neighborhoods. “We are inviting every member of our community to take notice of the trees around us,” Koski says.
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People for Trees is designed to grow an appreciation for trees, along with direction and education to guide individuals so they can succeed in caring for trees. Koski says, “We have been dedicated to tree care and preservation for nearly 100 years, and we have nationally and internationally recognized research programs in tree science and conservation, so this is an opportunity to share our deep knowledge and expertise outwardly to ensure the long-term preservation of our forests and tree canopies.”
Arbor Day, Every Day Arbor Day is an ideal time to kick off the planting season and celebrate all that trees give us. Pledge to plant a tree through the People for Trees campaign at holdenfg.org/people-for-trees, or you can donate to have a tree planted on your behalf. HF&G will provide the resources you need to be successful. “We’ll be giving saplings away at both campuses, along with information about tree species,” Albro says, relating that the website includes how-to-plant videos, maintenance advice, and tree care insights on topics including pruning, mulching and watering. “We also offer a tree species selection guide that allows you to pick a good tree based on the site characteristics and what you are looking for,” Albro says. “For example, do you want a flowering tree — or do you like fall color, or want a tree that will feed the birds.” People for Trees pledgees also receive a monthly newsletter, Albro adds. “We’re trying to spread the word about trees and encourage people to act in their own spheres — homes, churches, schools and places where they recreate.” While there will be a special push to promote People for Trees during Arbor Day, Koski points out, “We will continue to celebrate trees 365 days a year.”
Save the Date!
Mark your calendar for these spring events.
HOLDEN ARBORETUM Art Show - Margaret Stamm HOLDEN ARBORETUM March 1-May 1, Arboretum Hours Corning Visitor Center
Syrup on Tap
HOLDEN ARBORETUM March 19, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Enjoy a guided hike in Holden’s Sugar Maple Woods.
Canopy Walk Emergent Tower Opens HOLDEN ARBORETUM April 1, Arboretum Hours Enjoy the opening of the Emergent Tower and Canopy Walk.
Buckeye Bud’s
HOLDEN ARBORETUM May 1, Arboretum Hours Outdoor play area.
Wonder and Wellness
HOLDEN ARBORETUM May 14, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Discover wonder and wellness from holistic professionals who will be onsite sharing and demonstrating products from their practices.
Mission Botanica
HOLDEN ARBORETUM June 11-Sept. 5, Arboretum Hours Meander through a maze of plants and flowers in this outdoor educational exhibit.
Sounds of Summer Concert Series
HOLDEN ARBORETUM June 22 // July 13 & 27 // Aug 17, 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Settle into the sounds of summer during our outdoor concert series.
Woodland Twilight
HOLDEN ARBORETUM July 9, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Enjoy a picnic at the Arboretum. This family-friendly event will include live music and entertainment.
Art Show - Charlotte Lees HOLDEN ARBORETUM July 19-September 11, Arboretum Hours Corning Visitor Center CLEVELAND
BOTANICAL GARDEN
House Plants Display
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN March 19-May 22, Garden Hours Happiness is having a house plant.
Art Show - Lea Gray
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN March 19-May 1, Garden Hours Eppig Gallery
Art Show - Emily Katzin
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN March 19-June 26, Garden Hours Guren Gallery
Ron and Lydia Harrington Perennial Play Space CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN March 19, Garden Hours Explore our new permanent exhibit overlooking the towering plants and trees in the Glasshouses.
Midwest Cactus & Succulent Society Show and Sale CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN March 26 & 27, Garden Hours Secure your succulents at this highly anticipated sale of the year.
Spring Egg Hunt
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN April 16, 10 a.m.- Noon Out with the plastic and in with the planted — seeds that is. Our annual egg hunt will feature sustainable seed bombs shaped like eggs.
Mother’s Day Brunch
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN May 8, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Feast on flowers and foods at this year’s Mother’s Day Brunch.
Art Show - Amy Mothersbaugh
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN May 10-June 26, Garden Hours Eppig Gallery
Ikebana
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN May 26, Garden Hours Indulge in Ikebana — an exhibit that showcases the beauty of nature and art.
* Mark your calendar for the opening of the Hershey Children's Garden on April 16.
Gourmets in the Garden
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN Dig into this chef-led series inspired by the cultures of Cleveland.
Rachael Hayes Exhibit
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN June 25-Fall, Garden Hours Outdoor textile exhibit throughout the Gardens
Art Show - Joe Dill
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN June 28-Aug. 7, Garden Hours Eppig Gallery
Art Show - Charmaine Spencer
CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN Aug. 9-Sept. 25, Garden Hours Eppig Gallery
BOTH CAMPUSES Arbor Day
BOTH CAMPUSES April 29, Arboretum Hours A celebration of trees.
Online Plant Sale Begins
BOTH CAMPUSES April 28 Secure your new favorite flower at our online plant sale. Pickup time to be announced.
FE AT URE
A Plan
Guests enjoy the Butterfly Garden at the Holden Arboretum.
Rooted
in Community The HF&G master planning process engages neighborhoods and invites diverse voices to shape the future. By Kristen Hampshire Inspiring connections and collaborating with the communities we serve is a focus for Holden Forests & Gardens (HF&G) as we drive forward with our 2022-2024 strategic plan, complete with a new mission, vision and five-year institutional goals. “The master plan is the physical manifestation of the institution’s mission, vision and strategic plan and how we will serve the community at both of our campuses in the years to come,” says Jill Koski, HF&G president and CEO. The plan advances the idea of a public garden and arboretum as world-class demonstration sites where people can engage and connect with nature,” adds Koski. HF&G engaged a team led by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and GWWO Architects to create a landscape plan that will guide our evolution. HF&G also enlisted ThirdSpace Action Lab, a grassroots Cleveland-based research, strategy and design cooperative that is centered on inclusion and creative solutions to realize racial equity. ThirdSpace helped develop an external steering committee and walked us through the process of envisioning how its campuses can be meaningful to all communities it serves. The external stakeholder piece has been crucial and involved multiple workshops and listening sessions.
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Also involved in the planning process are partners James Lima Planning + Development, ETM Associations and OHM Advisors. Beyond physical structures, “it’s about raising up the rich natural assets we have,” and at the botanical garden “we are building around this centerpiece of the Erie Gorge and raising that up along with the natural landscape,” Koski says. “The botanical garden and arboretum are living museums and we will highlight this from the moment you enter either campus,” she notes, emphasizing that HF&G also hopes to introduce its story to those in the region who have never happened upon either campus. Ultimately, the master plan will outline strategies to achieve our forward-thinking goals: •Presence: building an engaged, connected, collaborative community presence •Experience: delivering a visitor experience that inspires wonder, and highlights the beauty and value of trees and plants •Stewardship: catalyzing action and model solutions for environmental stewardship •Equity: increasing diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusiveness at every level •Financial responsibility: achieving sustainable financial results that enable growth and ongoing capital investment “We are highlighting the role and importance of public gardens at each of our destinations, and we want our campuses to be integral parts of the communities and neighborhoods that we serve,” Koski says. This year, we will move into “testing phase” and a public feasibility process to gauge philanthropic support and try out ideas with a broader community. “We want the community to have a voice because, as a nonprofit, we are of service to the community through trees, plants and nature,” Koski says.
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The Woodland Garden at Cleveland Botanical Garden.
Already, HF&G is earning recognition for its community-centered initiatives, rich ecosystem of experiences, outreach and engaging educational programs. We recently received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the highest honor rewarding museums’ commitment to public service, professional standards and educational excellence. It’s the museum field’s mark of distinction since 1971. The master plan is underway. We welcome your support, and invite you to share your experiences, perspective and thoughtful insight about the special role HF&G delivers to the region, as well as how we can evolve, educate and grow together. “The most important piece of the planning process is engaging the community from the start and ensuring all voices are heard,” Koski says.
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D E VELO PMEN T
Arbor Day of Giving
APRIL
29
Arbor Day is a national holiday created to recognize the importance of trees. While communities around the globe gather every year to celebrate trees and the important role that they play in our environment, Holden Forests & Gardens has made Arbor Day our Day of Giving to encourage people to donate and support the mission and programs we provide on behalf of trees in Northeast Ohio and beyond.
This year’s goal is set at $65,000. Intern Madeline Bednar conducts an experiment at the Long Science Center
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Ways to Support HF&G Arbor Day of Giving • Visit www.holdenfg.org - give a gift on Arbor Day of Giving, April 29, 2022. • Support our Arbor Day of Giving by creating your own fundraising page. Your individual fundraising page will allow you to share what HF&G means to you and set a goal. • Open our emails and share social media posts throughout the day.
In 2021, Day of Giving donations helped to: • Plant trees at the Holden Arboretum and in communities around Northeast Ohio. • Fund research at the Long Science Center that aims to create disease resistant trees that can be planted throughout the Great Lakes region. • Train future generations of arborists through our Tree Corps program. Benefit of trees and tree canopies: • Remove pollution from the atmosphere and improve air quality by providing oxygenrich air. • Help reduce the effects of climate change. • Improve water quality. • Offer health benefits and relieve stress To help us along, HF&G supporter and Board Member Roy Minoff has offered to match gifts up to $25,000, and an anonymous board member will match gifts up to $5,000 for a total match of $30,000. By supporting Arbor Day of Giving, you are doubling the impact of your donation.
To help us along, HF&G supporter and Board Member Roy Minoff has offered to match gifts up to $25,000, and an anonymous board member will match gifts up to $5,000 for a total match of $30,000.
Holden Forests & Gardens has nearly a century of expertise in plants and trees in Northeast Ohio and beyond. This accomplishment is made possible through the support of our members and donors, which is why we embrace and celebrate Arbor Day as our Day of Giving. We encourage YOU to celebrate trees and the environment and GIVE BACK to our efforts to support urban greening and forestry initiatives, mission-oriented research, conservation and horticultural work, educational programming, and world-class visitor experiences. We will celebrate YOU by offering free admission to both campuses and will be distributing free tree seedlings to visitors, along with information about their proper planting and care.
Thank you for your continuing support to protect the trees and plants of Northeast Ohio! For more information please contact Lynne Robie at lrobie@holdenfg.org or 216-707-2852.
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RE SE A R CH
Conservation in a Changing World How to help oak trees, soil fungi and international collaborations By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, M.S., Research Specialist
A
s an accredited museum, one aspect of Holden Forests & Gardens’ essential mission is to collect and preserve plant species for conservation, educational and scientific exploration.
Today, the conservation and study of plant species is of growing concern due to global change and the accelerated extinction of plant species. Although conserving plants in their natural habitat is the best approach, often plants need to be housed in botanical gardens and arboreta, to preserve the species and provide an insurance policy against extinction in the wild. But how to best conserve plant species in gardens so that they thrive is often an open question. If “the first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces” as the biologist Paul Ehrlich once said, then the question becomes what essential pieces are needed to preserve plant species in collections such as those at Holden. Plants interact with many other organisms needed for their survival, such as pollinators. One underappreciated group essential for plant survival and growth are the mycorrhizal fungi that colonize plant roots and help plants acquire nutrients and resist disease. Mycorrhizal fungi live in soil and form mutually beneficial relationships with 90% of all plant species, including tree species such as the oaks (genus Quercus). Oaks as a group are of international conservation concern. Based on work from Morton Arboretum, 41% of all oak species are of conservation concern and many current efforts are underway to preserve oak species throughout the world. But the success of oaks within 20 FORESTS & GARDENS
Biologists from the United States and from Armenia after a long day of hiking and collecting soil, roots, lichen, and mushrooms.
collections, and even within efforts to restore species to their native environment, may depend on having the right mycorrhizal fungi colonizing the root system. Our understanding of oak and mycorrhizal fungi relationships is still poor and more research in this area is needed. In July of 2021, Holden research graduate student Claudia BashianVictoroff began an international collaboration to study oak trees and their mycorrhizal partners with researchers in the United States and Armenia. This collaboration stemmed from an earlier effort in October 2020 by Claudia and other mycologists of Armenian descent to found the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists (ICAM). The mission of the group is to build science capacity in Armenia by:
1 collaborating with the nation’s already successful scientists through shared research projects
2 providing scientific mentorship to Armenian youth and 3 gathering biological data that can be used in the protection of land and life
Work began by reaching out to fungal and plant biologists at Armenian institutions, including the scientists at the Yerevan Botanical Garden, located in Armenia’s capital city. After months of video conferencing and planning with Armenian scientists, Claudia and other researchers traveled to Armenia to formalize the
Artavan, Vayots’ Dzor province, Armenia. To travel towards southern Armenia the group followed the path of the ancient silk road and stopped at a structure used by travelers up until 1400 C.E. This structure overlooked the Vayots’ Dzor province (shown here), which is relatively dry and extremely mountainous. While the whole country of Armenia is about a quarter the square-mileage of Ohio, the mountainous landscape makes for extremely variable climates between the northern and southern parts of the country.
Dilijan, Tavush province, Armenia. Located in the northern half of the country, Dilijan is lush, humid, and very green. Moisture is great for fungi, so the group found a broad diversity of mushroom and lichen on their long hike through the forests of Dilijan.
newfound relationships and collect biological samples for research. The scientific expedition to Armenia included botanists, who identified the native plants of Armenia; mycologists, who collected and identified mushrooms and other fungi; lichenologists, who collected lichens of off trees, branches, and rocks; plant pathologists, who could spot and identify plant diseases; a paleobotanist, who knew the geological history of Armenia like the back of his hand, and two fungal ecologists (including Claudia), who collected soil and roots to study the connections between plants and soil fungi. Most days included long hikes through mountainous forests, past ancient monasteries and monuments, followed by large traditional Armenian dinners usually including lavash (Armenian flatbread), tomatoes, eggplants, and kabab. One of the best aspects of the trip was working in the Yerevan Botanical Garden. The scientists at the garden were generous with their time and knowledge, and Claudia was able to collect root fragments from species of oak trees represented in their collections. By collecting roots, we will be able to identify the species of fungi growing in the soil. Collected roots included oak species from in the botanical garden and in natural areas around the country. This collection is paired with root fragments from oak trees in the collections here at Holden. One aim of the project is to
Front gates of the Yerevan Botanical Garden, Yerevan, Armenia. Here, Claudia and Sona sampled small root fragments from oak trees both native and exotic to Armenia.
compare the soil fungi living on oak roots in Ohio and Armenia using fungal DNA extracted from the collected roots. Another aim is to begin an ongoing, international collaboration between scientists at the Holden Arboretum and at the Yerevan Botanical Garden. Claudia is now collaborating with Sona Galstyan, a botanist at Yerevan Botanical Garden to identify the fungal species on the roots that were collected from both gardens. Since the collection trip, the focus has turned to collaborating with our Armenian colleagues to host online workshops in Armenian, and to collaborate on grant applications to further the research. You can learn more about the trip through Holden’s recent blog post on holdenfg.org.
MEET THE STAFF Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, M.S. is a research specialist in the Burke Lab at the Holden Arboretum. Her research focuses on ectomycorrhizal fungi in forest ecosystems, and tree pathology and infestation. Claudia is a founder of the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists and serves on the Mycological Society of America Students and Postdoc executive board. Claudia received her masters from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
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ED U C AT I O N
Planting the Seeds at Summer Camp Camp experiences promote social development, sense of place and environmental stewardship. By Jen Graham, Public Programs Coordinator
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From a social perspective, summer camps present an excellent opportunity for children to practice making new friends and developing relationships.
ummer is a season of plenty. Life proliferates under logs and inside tree cavities. Prairies and gardens burst into color, and native pollinators enjoy a buffet of sweet nectars. The low rumble of bullfrogs ripples through murky ponds; the cheerful whistle of migratory birds hangs on the wind; and the rustling of chipmunks and garter snakes in the leaf litter causes us to pause and listen. With all its sensory wonders, summer is the perfect season for children to explore, and there is no better way for young nature lovers to get to know their environment than through a summer camp experience.
Although schoolbooks will be returned to the library and binders will be stored away, children never stop learning. For over a century, summer camps have invited children to connect to a world outside their familiar homes and schools and “build character” through challenging activities and fun outdoor games. Campers often return home feeling refreshed and confident, brimming with tales of wild adventure. However, the many benefits of these camps were largely anecdotal, passed down through smiling faces in photographs and nostalgic stories. It wasn’t until 2005, when the American Camp Association (ACA) conducted a study of summer camps across the United States, that significant statistical evidence arose to support summer camps as spaces of social and intellectual development. Indeed, the ACA study found that children who participated in just one session of summer camp saw substantial growth in a variety of areas, including self-esteem, independence, social skills, risk assessment, decision making, sense of place and personal
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friends, children grow more comfortable taking risks and take pride in their achievements, leaving with more confidence in themselves and their social networks.
values. Notably, this growth was often reported to persist beyond camp and into children’s daily lives. This data corroborates the long-held understanding that summer camps provide unique learning experiences, tailored to support social-emotional growth. Under the guidance of dedicated camp counselors in beautiful natural settings, campers develop important tools to help them succeed, even after they return to their regular routines. From a social perspective, summer camps present an excellent opportunity for children to practice making new friends and developing relationships. The goofy games, silly songs and creative crafts of camp foster an environment where children can feel safe to experiment, relax, open up and be themselves. When everyone is learning a new skill together, campers are encouraged to work as a team, manage disagreements, share successes and persist through disappointments. With the care and support of respected camp counselors and new
Additionally, because most summer camps offer a unique outdoor experience with counselors serving as stewardship role models, children also show significant growth in their ability to appreciate, connect to and care for the environment. Free from the constant demands of technology and screens, campers begin to exercise their imaginations and pursue new interests. Their senses activate their learning, making the lessons deep and impactful. They absorb facts about nature, not because they must, but because they are hungry to learn more. Fresh air and sunshine promote calm and focus. Exploring the outdoors through structured and unstructured play is essential to developing a sense of wonder and comfort in nature. At Holden Forests & Gardens, stewardship is a top priority in our camp experiences. Not only will campers forge friendships with each other, they’ll also forge friendships with box turtles and pine needles, with roly-polies and milkweed. Indeed, summer camps are an invitation for children to emerge and engage
Cleveland Botanical Garden Summer Camps:
Holden Arboretum Summer Camps:
Habitat Hunters
Trail Blazers Survivor Camp
Explore the incredible and diverse habitats of the Ohio woodlands, the Madagascar Spiny Forest, and the Costa Rica Cloud Rainforest all in one week! Date: Time: Price:
June 13 – 17: Rising grades 1 – 3 August 1 – 5: Rising grades 1 – 3 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $300 members/$325 nonmembers
EcoArts Camp
Come be inspired by nature! Let your creativity and imagination flourish in this week-long camp, designed to explore our biosphere through the eyes of an artist.
with nature. The sun on their skin serves as permission to sing with the cicadas, to touch the sparkling waters and admire the abundance our planet offers. Whether beneath the trees at Holden Arboretum or amongst the flowers at Cleveland Botanical Garden, campers will learn to view nature as a wonderous and joyful part of their lives. By exploring all aspects of the natural world through science, storytelling, adventure and art, summer camps at Holden Forests & Gardens seek to cultivate in campers a strong sense of themselves as part of the planet — as habitat heroes, planting the seeds for the future.
Date: Time: Price:
Summer camps have a long history of providing essential learning experiences for youth in nature, and the camps at Holden Forests & Gardens are no exception. With experiences that range from full-week camps to one-day “microcamps,” we invite your children to join us for a summer that will excite their creativity, pique their curiosity and help them feel at home in their habitat. The season of plenty is right around the corner, and the earth is calling. It’s time to get up and grow.
Greatest Hits Microcamp
“Directions: Youth Development Outcomes of the Camp Experience.” 2005. American Camp Association. https:// www.acacamps.org/resource-library/research/directionsyouth-development-outcomes-camp-experience.
June 27 – July 1: Rising grades 3 – 5 July 18 – 22: Rising grades 3 – 5 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $300 members/$325 nonmembers
Little Naturalists Intergenerational Camp
Parents, come adventure with your preschooler as they blossom into little naturalists at Cleveland Botanical Garden! During this three-day, intergenerational camp, your little one will learn all about the plants and animals that call our gardens home. Date: Time: Price:
Pre-K Session 1: June 21, 23, 25 Session 2: July 11, 13, 15 9:30 a.m. – Noon $165 member/$190 nonmember Price Includes 1 Child + 1 Adult, $40/Additional Child
Whether you’re new to Cleveland Botanical Garden or our biggest fan, you’ll love this one-day summer camp sampler that explores all the Garden’s greatest hits. Date: Time: Price:
June 8: Rising grades 3 – 5 July 28: Rising grades 1 – 2 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $60 members/$65 nonmembers
Secret Garden Sleuths Microcamp
Solve puzzles and take on new challenges in this day-long microcamp designed to test your brain power and teamwork skills. Date: Time: Price:
June 20: Rising grades 1 – 2 July 8: Rising grades 3 – 5 9 a.m – 3 p.m. $60 members/$65 nonmembers
Do you have what it takes to survive in the wild? Meet us in the woods for a fun week of challenges and activities designed to test your knowledge, teach new skills, and help you feel at home amongst the trees.
Date: Time: Price:
June 20 – 24: Rising grades 3 – 5 July 25 – 29: Rising grades 5 – 7 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $325 members/$350 nonmembers
Canopy Camp
Explore like never before from above the treetops! Campers will experience life from a new, lofty perspective as they learn to climb trees using ropes like tree industry professionals, experience the view from the top of the Emergent Tower, practice tree identification, and explore the Arboretum’s neighboring Red Oak Camp throughout the week for select activities. Date: Time: Price:
July 18 – 22: Rising grades 4 – 6 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $325 members/$350 nonmembers
Wild and Wonderful Woods
How many plants and animals can you find in one week? Join us for a whirlwind of exploration in Holden Arboretum as we hit the trails on the hunt for creepy crawlies, beautiful birds, tall trees, and fantastic flowers! Date: Time: Price:
June 6 – 10: Rising grades 1 – 3 July 11 – 15: Rising grades 1 – 3 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $300 members/$325 nonmembers
Greatest Hits Microcamp
Whether you’re new to Holden Arboretum or our biggest fan, you’ll love this one-day summer camp sampler that explores all the Arboretum’s greatest hits. Date: Time: Price:
June 16: Rising grades 3 – 5 July 7: Rising grades 1 – 2 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $60 members/$65 nonmembers
Pond Pals Microcamp
Calling all frog friends and aqua adventurers! This one-day camp will bring you up close and personal with the wet and wonderful habitats at Holden Arboretum. Date: Time: Cost:
July 1: Rising grades 3 – 5 August 2: Rising grades 1 – 2 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. $60 members/$65 nonmembers
MEET THE STAFF
Jen Graham is the Public Programs Coordinator at Holden Forests & Gardens. She studied women’s history at Oberlin College, where she also developed a passion for plants, herpetology and connecting people to place. Before coming to HF&G, Graham worked as an educator at an outdoor education center, various local history museums and a park nature center. She enjoys helping communities celebrate their stories and grow in relationship to the environment. Her favorite moments teaching are when a student exclaims, “Wow, I never knew that!”
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FE AT URE
The Forest & Garden Continuum How we can conne ct landscap e s on campus and in hear ts and minds . By Caroline Tait, Vice President, Horticulture & Collections
O
n walking the grounds at Holden Arboretum one is amazed by the range of plants in the highly designed cultivated gardens. HF&G’s Living Collection is displayed in representation of a green living museum. However, we host and care for many additional plants of native and natural occurrence throughout the Arboretum Core. These are visible in a series of forested areas, which connect the cultivated gardens. In a much broader scale one can recognize this in our residential landscapes, too — gardens connected by wild, often lightly forested, spaces.
It became apparent that we have an opportunity to offer HF&G guests a close-up introduction to the options available to manage this type of space. If an interest is piqued, then the Working Woods program can teach larger scale action in woodlands for aesthetic and economic benefits. Ensuring that any program within a department utilizes the best of knowledge from across HF&G teams means our guests receive the best of current management understanding, and our horticulture teams can implement our scientist’s research. Science and Horticulture are points on a continuum of understanding the land.
Public Gardens as Sentinels of Invasive Plants By Tom Arbour, Curator of Living Collections
I stepped into the role of Curator of Living Collections last September following a career focused on natives, invasives and land management across Ohio, and am excited to curate our Living Collection of more than 20,000 accessioned plants and trees. My key responsibility is to ensure the Living Collection reflects HF&G’s mission to, ultimately, inspire action for healthy communities. As I begin developing collections plans for each of the individual genera — Quercus, Malus, Rhododendron etc., it is critically important that plants chosen for ex-situ conservation, i.e. conserved on campus outside of their native range, stay in our gardens and do not spread into our natural areas or the communities we serve. HF&G has taken a lead in recognizing invasive plant species across cultivated and natural landscapes. Norway maple, Japanese barberry, winter creeper and Callery pear are among the dozens of plant taxa that have been removed from our Living Collection
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although it can take longer for the commercial industry to take these steps. In recent years, Horticulture & Collections staff have collaborated with other public gardens to help sound the alarm about plants that are escaping cultivation locally. This network, known as Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plants, provides both monitoring protocols and an online database for public gardens to submit information about these plants that ‘may “go wild.” Plants are categorized as‘‘watchlist,’ ‘potentially ‘invasive’ and ‘invasive’ based on a number of criteria, including information collected by Holden’s staff about the number of plants that have escaped cultivation and how far they have spread from the parent plant. The PGSIP guidance will be implemented throughout the Arboretum Core across gardens and connecting forest fragments.
The Holden Arboretum has a wide variety of greenspaces, creating a continuum from highly designed gardens in the core all the way to our conserved natural areas. The areas on opposite sides of the spectrum are managed very differently and by completely different departments, but sometimes our work overlaps: In the natural areas in the core, our horticulture and conservation disciplines collide, allowing the space to act as a bridge between gardens and natural areas.
Core Natural Areas Recent History By Ann Rzepka, Director of Horticulture
One of the many reasons HF&G is unique is that one membership affords a matrix of high quality natural and cultivated landscape experiences across multiple campuses. These experiences are the product of time, geologic conditions, evolutionary biology and the foresight of our founders to preserve them. They are held to integrity through planned land management conducted by our boots-on-the ground team of conservationists, horticulturists and scientists in their respective departments. Traditionally, Science & Conservation department efforts at the Arboretum focused on the natural lands that comprise over 3,000 acres of the Arboretum’s property in Lake and Geauga counties. These natural areas preserve the botanical heritage of Northeast Ohio and provide scientists an opportunity to explore and understand the attributes that contribute to the richness and diversity of these high-quality natural areas and, thus, inform management strategies. The Horticulture & Collections department at the Arboretum has concentrated efforts toward the care and maintenance of an expanding Living Collection, cultivated for conservation, education and the sheer beauty within the 232-acre core of the Arboretum. Contained by the deer fence, the Arboretum Core comprises a gradient of landscapes ranging from highly designed and curated gardens to managed meadows and forest fragments.
In 2020, the departments convened to explore how these spaces could be leveraged in support of the HF&G mission. Staff identified the fragmented forests within the core that were highly visible to guests and began to inventory the species diversity within the existing plant communities. A little over 30 acres of fragmented forests were identified in these initial assessments ranging in size from a half acre to 7 acres — now referred to as the Core Natural Areas. This is significant within the context of the greater forested land in Ohio because small, fragmented forests represent over 1 million acres of the forested land within the state of Ohio, and 85% of these forests are privately owned. (USDA, Ohio Forests Resource Bulletin, NRS -118) Initial plant inventories revealed an array of invasive exotic woody species, including Frangula alnus (glossy buckthorn), Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose) and Ampelopsis glandulosa var. brevipedunculata (porcelain berry). These invasive species quickly alter the area they invade — changing the availability of water, light and nutrients, and forming dense monocultures, which reduce native plant regeneration and diminish habitat quality (Pimentel et al. 2005). These findings were also significant within the broader context of Ohio’s forested land as the state has a higher percentage of plots with one or more invasive plant species (96%) than surrounding states. (Widmann et al. 2014)
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FE AT URE Image courtesy of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio’s Statewide Forest Action Plan, Natural Resource Assessment.
With in-house knowledge and skills we are uniquely equi85pped to marry our horticulture and conservation practices to better understand the dynamics and to implement management strategies within these fragmented forests. These management strategies will help improve the overall aesthetic experience in the Arboretum Core, creating visually appealing transitions between highly cultivated gardens and natural lands. They will also have the potential to demonstrate how private landowners can improve their own forests, thus impacting forest health broadly throughout our communities.
A total of 85% (6,778,000 acres) of forest land in Ohio is privately-owned. The other 15% is owned by governments or in public holding. Most of that privately-owned forest is in the hands of individuals or families, and small, privately-owned woodlands less than 10 acres in size account for approximately 1.15 million acres in Ohio. The takeaway? Private landowners hold most of our state’s wooded land and thus most forest stewardship rests in their hands. Increasingly, Ohio forests are being fragmented and owned in smaller and smaller units. Research has shown that separated and discontinuous forest units reduce animal and plant diversity and make areas more vulnerable to environmental threats. This makes small woodland owners more important than ever for the future of Ohio’s woodlands.
Economical & Sustainable Clean-up By Rob Maganja, Horticulturist
On the ground we’ve encountered less-than-ideal weather, pandemic challenges and have had to coax the woodchipper into action. These hurdles serve to grow collaborative relationships, and over more than a year of action we’re really getting into a groove. We’re currently working on the Core Natural Area due east of the 2-acre Butterfly Garden. Especially in October and early November, when the temperatures were a little warmer, the effort to drag brush hundreds of feet and even up elevated and sometimes muddy inclines was impressive. Probably the most delicate aspect of the operation is the disposal strategy for all the waste material we generate. We all agree that the most important disposal strategy is one where we’re spreading the invasives as little as possible. While there are legitimate options to leave or remove the waste material for disposal elsewhere, for now we’re leaving the waste material on-site. Work is ongoing in that Core Natural Area, the most inundated of the sites. Once that is complete, we’ll have a nice template for how to do every future site in as economical and sustainable of a way as possible.
We will share this with our guests and community homeowners to consider for their own backyard fragmented forest habitat. Based on joint experience, we need about two years to manage invasives and their seedbanks before restoration planting can occur. At that point, we aim to introduce many native plants that can hold their own or repress aggressive invasives. Agroforestry elements will start to creep into the design palette; both native and non-aggressive exotic edible plants will be favored; maybe even hearken to our rural surroundings and explore how livestock and perennial plantings can go hand-in-hand; plant windbreaks to create microclimates for plants more suited for a slightly-warmer growing zone; include nearly-forgotten practices like coppicing and pollarding; use plants that can adapt to our changing climate. The list of possibilities goes on. In short, the Core Natural Areas act as bridges between our cultivated garden and high-quality forest communities to demonstrate an ecosystem continuum on which private lands throughout the state can be modeled on.
MEET THE STAFF Caroline Tait is the Vice President of Horticulture and Collections. Caroline began her career propagating perennials at Coton Manor Gardens in Northamptonshire, England, voted the UK’s favorite garden in 2019. Designing gardens for shows and clients took her all over the the UK, until 2018 when she was selected from a global pool of candidates for the yearlong residential Fellows Leadership Program at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia.
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B IRD B I O
Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula
By Rebecca Thompson, Manager of Academic Programs
B
altimore orioles have adapted to human settlement. The vibrant orange color of the males makes them easy to spot in open woodlands like parks, orchards and backyards. Their clear, flute-like whistled songs are commonly heard high in leafy deciduous trees.
Baltimore orioles are acrobatic feeders hanging upside down on tree branches searching for insects, nectar and fruit. They can also snatch flying insects in midair. Their diet consists mainly of invertebrates, including beetles, grasshoppers, moths, flies, spiders and snails. Unlike most birds, they even eat hairy pest caterpillars. They forage on a variety of berries and sometimes cultivated fruit. Unlike other fruit-eating birds, Baltimore orioles prefer only ripe, dark-colored fruit. Both males and females frequently visit bird feeders supplied with fruit (orange halves), jelly (grape) or nectar (sugar-water) in spring, late summer and early fall.
SIZE: 6.7-8 inches WINGSPAN: 9-11.5 inches DESCRIPTION: Adult males bright orange breast, solid-black head, and black with one white bar on their black wings. Females and immature males dull yelloworange breast and rump, faint black-gray head and back; two white wing bars.
During the courtship in spring, males hop around the females, bowing forward and spreading their wings. The female responds by fanning her tail, fluttering, lowering her wings and making a chattering call. Once females choose the males and nesting sites, male Baltimore orioles defend small areas only around their nests. Baltimore orioles prefer Elm trees but build their nest in other trees such as cottonwoods and maples. Sock-like hanging nests are constructed mainly by the female in four to eight days. Pouches are firmly attached to the fork of branches 25 to 30 feet high. Nests are three to six inches deep and are woven out of slender plant fibers, including barks, grapevine and grass. The nests can even include synthetic yarn and string. Nests are lined with fine grass, plant down and animal hair. Females will often recycle plant fibers from an old nest to build a new one. Females lay four to five pale gray to white or bluish-white eggs. Eggs are speckled with black and bluish-purple markings, mostly at larger ends. Females incubate the eggs from 12 to 14 days. Young leave the
nest 12 to 14 days after hatching. Both parents feed the nestlings. Baltimore orioles are widespread and common. However, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, their populations are declining. Canada has experienced the most significant loss, with 3% per year since 1966. Baltimore orioles, like other birds, are vulnerable to deforestation and habitat loss. Habitat loss in both breeding and wintering grounds is one of the top reasons for bird population decline.
RANGE: Breeding Nearctic, Canadian Prairies and eastern Montana in the northwest; eastward through southern Ontario, south through the eastern United States to central Mississippi and Alabama and northern Georgia. Winters predominantly in Central America and northern South America VOICE CALL: Both male and female rapid chatter Song: slow, loud, flute-like two notes repeated two to seven times BEST LOCATION TO VIEW: Arboretum: Display Garden Garden: Topiary and Hershey Children’s Garden
MEET THE STAFF
Rebecca Thompson is the Academic Programs Manager at Holden Forests & Gardens and has dedicated her career (1999 – present) to school-aged children and life-long learners. Her enthusiasm for the natural world has kindled a sense of exploration, discovery and a deeper appreciation for the environment. Her passion for bird watching drove her to become a self-taught local bird expert. She has served as President on local boards, including Blackbrook Audubon Society and Cleveland Regional Council of Science Teachers.
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PL A N T PR O FIL E
April is Ohio Native Plant Month Take time to celebrate our f lora this month. By Margeaux Apple, Plant Recorder
T
hink of the riot of vegetation across our state: the appealing bark of beech trees in HF&G natural areas; the state nature preserves peppered with Virginia bluebells in May. Picture the windswept grasses on the dunes of Lake Erie; the bogs sweetened by blueberry bushes in summer. These are but few examples of the nearly 1,800 vascular plants native to the state of Ohio.1
plants. Here you can find great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) rescued from land slated for development in Medina. You will find large tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipifera) estimated to be over 100 years old and a grove of sassafras (Sassafras albidum) that add a sorbet swirl to the fall canopy.3
WHAT IS A NATIVE PLANT? We interpret native plants as the plants that grew here free from human intervention. They are plants believed to have made their homes here before our European predecessors arrived and brought plants from other places.
“There is a lot of potential to build more intention in this space; to showcase native plants in a natural yet cultivated way,” Horticulturist Stefanie Verish shares. “The soils are sandy and alkaline. This means opportunity to provide habitat for Lake Plain species and to experiment with using native shrubs to combat erosion. It’s about choosing the right plants for our situation.”
Over time, people influence the land. Non-native plants are introduced, purposefully or accidentally. The geographic ranges of native plants are extended or truncated. All this to say, our definition is not so black and white. And although we celebrate Ohio Native Plant Month (ONPM), limiting the pretext of native to state boundaries can be a gray area. “Take a plant like bottlebrush buckeye,” suggests Nancy Linz, president of OHPM and founder of National Native Plant Month. “Bottlebrush buckeye is not native to the state of Ohio — its range is more southern. But you cannot look at a bottlebrush in my Cincinnati garden covered in pollinators in July and tell me that it is not a great plant.” “The important thing is that people decide for themselves how to define a native plant,” says Linz. And that may be the best way to celebrate OHPM; to invite conversation on the topic and allow for many shades of interpretation. For some, native may be defined by state boundaries. For others the definition may include all eastern North American flora. For all, there is a plethora of native trees, shrubs, forbs, ferns and grasses to admire and help flourish.
At Holden Arboretum, the iconic Myrtle S. Holden Wildflower Garden has been a haven for native plants, common and rare, since 1968. Initially proposed to offer guests an opportunity to get familiar with the flora of Pierson Creek Valley, this 5-acre garden has evolved into over a dozen thoughtfully crafted habitats, including woodland, floodplain, bogs, prairies and rockeries. Today, over 300 varieties of plants from 35 Ohio counties call the Wildflower Garden home. HF&G Horticulture & Collections staff obtain permission and appropriate permits from local, state and/or federal entities in order to collect these propagules. HF&G is supported in this custodial role by the Center for Plant Conservation. “What’s often overlooked is the potential this garden has to act as a gene repository for rare and endangered plants,” says Ann Rzepka, director of Arboretum Horticulture. This garden currently holds populations of 61, or approximately 10%, of the 619 vascular
NATIVE PLANTS AT HF&G If a wildflower is a plant growing in its natural habitat by its own volition, then the concept of a wildflower garden may be an oxymoron. As it were, this may be true. But the value of a wildflower garden supersedes the parsing out of phrases. Over the years, the institutions that make up Holden Forests & Gardens — the Cleveland Botanical Garden and Holden Arboretum — have contributed to the protection and promotion of Ohio native flora through wildflower gardens. At the Botanical Garden, this work is exemplified in the Woodland Garden. This corridor of woodland mingles native with introduced
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Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) at CBG in April
plants listed on ODNR’s Rare Native Ohio Plants 2020-21 Status List.4 “By creating habitats for these plants, we display and conserve them as a ‘‘back-up’ for wild populations.” Some of the plants in the Wildflower Garden were collected from plant species now extirpated from the state. With continued care and relationships with landowners, we can propagate and reintroduce these plants to their natural habitats.
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), Myrtle S. Holden Wildflower Garden prairie in July
NATIVE PLANTS IN YOUR GARDEN In 2021, HF&G became one of four inaugural Learning Centers for OHPM, together with Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens, Dawes Arboretum and Metroparks Toledo. The primary goals are to share knowledge to better grow and protect native plants, collaborate to showcase and promote native plants for residential and landscape gardeners and advocate for those potentially overlooked native plants. HF&G is currently supporting OHPM’s bipartisan Senate resolution to designate April 2022 as National Native Plant Month. You may be inspired to seek out native plants for your own garden, a move that pays homage to the land and benefits local ecosystems. To do so with success, consider your garden’s setting. How much sun does an area get? Are there deer in your neighborhood? Is your soil thick and sticky clay, quick-draining and gritty sand, smooth and soapy loam or somewhere in between? There are native plants for every situation. A good place to procure them is at Holden’s Plant Sale, which occurs twice a year in spring and fall. Many local nurseries also offer native plant selections. Inquire at retail stores or talk to your landscaper about their wholesale suppliers. Please refrain from digging plants from natural areas. To find out more about Ohio native plants visit ohionativeplantmonth.org. The goal of Ohio Native Plant Month is to promote the value of native plants and to offer opportunities for all to relish in the beauty of native plants; what was here and what remains.
References 1. Cooperrider, Tom S. Seventh Catalog of the Vascular Plants of Ohio. Ohio State University Press, 2001. 2. Linz, Nancy. “Personal Interview.” 24 Jan. 2022. 3. Moore, Eryn. Tree-Ring Dating at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. Cleveland Botanical Garden, 2011.
ODNR-listed birdfoot violet (Viola pedata), Myrtle S. Holden Wildflower Garden in May
4. Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Natural Areas & Preserves. Rare Native Ohio Plants 2020-21 Status List. 2021. 5. Rzepka, Ann. “Personal Interview.” 19 Jan. 2022. 6. Verish, Stefanie. “Personal Interview.” 26 Jan. 2022.
MEET THE STAFF Margeaux Apple is the Plant Recorder for Holden Forests & Gardens. In this position, she works closely with other members of the Collections and Horticulture teams to ensure the quality of the plant collection and the records kept on it. Margeaux began her involvement with HF&G in 2017 as a volunteer in the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse. Prior to involvement with the institution, Margeaux graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Environment and Natural Resources.
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Classes&Experiences For Adults
WHAT’S THE (COMPOST) TEA?
BREWING AND APPLYING COMPOST TEA FOR THE HOME GARDENER Date: Wednesday, April 20 Time: 10:30 a.m. - Noon Location: Holden Arboretum Instructors: Rob Manganja & Courtney Keinath,Horticulturalists
In this lecture style program, participants are provided with the basic information and history of compost tea and the benefits of microorganizsms on soil health. Other topics covered include exploring the pros and cons of various compost tea brewing methods and identifying the tools needed to create a small-scale brewing process at home.
MOTHER’S DAY TEAPOT FLORAL ARRANGEMENT Date: Friday, May 6 Location: Holden Arboretum Instructors: Lorinda Laughlin & Hilary Wright, Horticulturalists
Celebrate the mother in your life by creating a floral arrangement in a unique tea pot from the Lantern Court collection. Participants will learn basic floral arranging techniques. A teapot and an array of floral choice are provided.
UNDER UTILIZED PLANTS FOR THE HOME GARDENS Date: Wednesday, May 11 Time: 6 p.m. Location: Cleveland Botanical Garden Instructor: Rob Dzurec, Horticulturalist
In this lecture style program, Rob Dzurec will provide dozens of suggestions of plants that deserve a spot in your garden with inspiration from HF&G’s own collections.
Visit holdenfg.org for registration and pricing information.
ROSES IN WATERCOLOR Date: Saturday, June 18 Time: 9:30 a.m. – Noon Location: Cleveland Botanical Garden Instructor: Stefanie Verish, Horticulturalist
Capture the beauty of roses in bloom in watercolor. Our classroom will be the Swetland Rose Garden, where you’ll be guided through the process step-by-step to create your own watercolor rose painting. Participants will learn the basics of the medium as well as discuss the plants in our surroundings. Clipboards and paper are provided; a supply list will be available upon registration. Please dress appropriately for the weather. Registration cutoff is June 10.
For the Kids:
Cleveland Botanical Garden Hershey Children’s Garden Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Hershey Children’s Garden will be open Saturday, April 16 through October 31, during CBG’s regular hours of operation. This spring we are excited to bring back our Saturday and Sunday programming! Come and do a drop-in craft or activity from 1 to 2 p.m. In late May, our box turtles will be back in the garden from 3 to 4 p.m. Our Pot-a-Seed Gardeners will again be stopping in on a mystery schedule throughout the week. Storytime is also back! Outside programming is weather permitting. Holden Arboretum Buckeye Bud’s Adventure Woods opening day is Saturday, May 7 and is open through October 31. Come visit our natural play space at the Arboretum filled with self-guided activities, two new ziplines and free drop-in programs on Saturday and Sunday afternoons through the open season. This play space is open during the Arboretum’s regular hours of operation.
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9500 Sperry Road Kirtland, Ohio 44094 holdenfg.org
Save the Date Members Only Online Plant Sale
Summer Benefit Twilight at Holden Arboretum
Coming in April 2022.
Saturday, July 9 5:30 - 8:30 PM
Visit holdenfg.org for details @cbgarden @holdenarb
@cbgarden @holdenarboretum
@clegarden
Newsletter
holdenfg.org
Forests & Gardens is the member magazine for Holden Forests & Gardens, which includes the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland and the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Cleveland. MISSION: Holden Forests & Gardens connects people with the wonder, beauty, and value of trees and plants, to inspire action for healthy communities VISION: All communities transformed into vibrant places where trees, plants, and people thrive ©Holden Forests & Gardens “Holden Forests & Gardens” and the related logo is a trademark owned by The Holden Arboretum.
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PRICING Free for members, $16 adults, $12 children (3 - 12) For updates, visit holdenfg.org
