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Arboreta as Outdoor Classrooms
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Source: Rae Dickson Chambers
The rhododendron is widely used to enhance both residential and commercial landscapes because of the size and delicate beauty of its flowers. |
The creation of an arboretum at Penn
State will place a wonderful educational
resource at the fingertips of students of
urban forestry and horticulture. Jason
M. Veil, an undergraduate student at
Penn State, has shared with us some of
the academic benefits of having an
arboretum near campus. Jason's
experiences have included study visits
to Longwood Gardens and the Scott
Arboretum at Swarthmore College (both
in suburban Philadelphia) and an
internship last summer at The Holden
Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio.
According to Jason, one of the benefits
of using an arboretum as a classroom
is the opportunity for first-hand
experience with a wide variety of
species and the ways in which they can
be used in the landscape. Spending
three months at Holden deepened
Jason's appreciation of horticultural
diversity as a management tool:
"Diversity not only adds aesthetic
appeal, but it also eliminates the risks
of catastrophic insect and disease
problems that typically accompany
monocultures and low-diversity
systems."
At the Holden Arboretum, Jason
especially enjoyed their collection of
the many native azaleas found in the
eastern United States. These include
handsome shrubs such as flame azalea
(Rhododendron calendulaceum),
swamp azalea (R. viscosum), plumleaf
azalea (R. prunifolium), and dwarf
azalea (R. atlanticum). Flame azalea
offers bright yellow to orange flowers
in early summer, while plumleaf azalea
has rich, orange-red flowers much later
in the summer when the flowering
season has all but ended for most
species. Jason also enjoyed seeing in
one place the surprising flower variety
of Kalmia latifolia, the native
mountain-laurel that is the state flower
of Pennsylvania. The flowers of
cultivated varieties of this species range
in shade from white to pink and may be
conspicuously banded in deep red or
maroon.
Jason believes that one of the most
important functions of arboreta is to
serve as laboratories for the evaluation
of new plants that may be pest-resistant
or have unusual ornamental merit. In
this category, Jason became acquainted
with elm hybrids that boast disease
resistance and classic American elm
characteristics, including the cultivars
'Pioneer' and 'Frontier,' and several
exotic hemlock species such as
Japanese hemlock (Tsuga diversifolia)
and Chinese hemlock (T. chinensis).
He notes that the latter may become
more widely used as the impact of the
hemlock woolly adelgid on our native
eastern hemlock (T. canadensis)
becomes more serious. Jason also
observed at Holden a collection of
many crabapple cultivars that are being
monitored to determine their relative
susceptibility to disease. Crabapples
tend to be very susceptible to
pathogens such as fireblight, apple
scab, and rust. (Penn State also has a
rather famous test plot of crabapple
cultivars at its Rock Springs research
facility.)
Similarly, being in an arboretum has
enabled Jason to acquire practical
experience in planning urban
landscapes, specifically through the
evaluation of certain species for use in
lawns and along streets. A few of the
species that he believes deserve wider
use because of their growth habit,
appearance, and general vigor in our
region are shantung maple (Acer
truncatum), Turkish filbert (Corylus
colurna), and the native swamp white
oak (Quercus bicolor).
Jason believes that the "working
knowledge" he acquired at Holden was
an extremely valuable complement to his
Penn State coursework, and the
internship there helped him to define his
career interests. Is he supportive of The
Arboretum at Penn State?
"Absolutely!" says Jason. "Students
in forestry, horticulture, and related
majors would benefit tremendously
from the concentrated exposure to
living plant collections that is only
possible in an arboretum."
The rest of the Summer 2001 newsletter is available as a pdf file.
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