Kids Become Scientists at Blandy Summer Camp

Nature-Themed Activities Make Learning Fun

By Steve Carroll

Director of Public Programs

Summer may seem like a far-off fantasy, but plans are under way for our 2015 summer nature camp. As in years past, we will offer two camps for rising 2nd-4th graders, and a third, more investigative camp for rising 5th-8th graders. Each camp emphasizes outdoor activities, and each benefits from low camper-to-leader ratios and from participation by Blandy's resident undergraduate research students.

"Weird & Wacky Nature" (July 6-10, for rising 2nd-4th graders) kicks off our series. In this camp we will explore weird and wonderful aspects of nature: animals that glow in the dark, plants that eat animals, bolts of electricity that strike from the clouds, and lots more.

In "International Nature Camp" (July 13-17, for rising 2nd-4th graders), we will explore animals, plants, and cultures from around the globe. We will use Arboretum trees from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America as a jumping-off point for our travels. Fasten your seatbelt!

We end with "EcoExplorers" (July 20-24, for rising 5th-8th graders), an investigative experience in which participants identify an ecological question, then work in pairs to collect and analyze data in an attempt to answer this question. On the final day, campers present their results to other participants, staff, and parents.

We are developing a Facebook page for Blandy Summer Nature Camp, where we will be able to share details of the program and photos from our activities. Watch for that coming soon!

Registration for summer camp will begin in early March. Space is limited, so register early.

TREE Fund Project with Clarke County Public Schools

By Candace Lutzow-Felling

Director of Education

In the fall of 2014, FOSA received a grant from TREE Fund establishing a partnership between the Blandy Education Team and Clarke County Public School 3rd grade teachers for the duration of the 2014-2015 school year. 

This generous grant from TREE Fund provides funding for bus transportation to Blandy and for each participating teacher to purchase literacy, mathematics, and science investigation supplies.  Additional grant funds will be used to create interpretive signage and brochures about Blandy's Community Forest. Portions of a generous gift from the H.O Peet Foundation are also being used to support this innovative program.

Blandy Director of Education Candace Lutzow-Felling is leading the project while Environmental Educators Emily Ford, Lil Ledford, and Lindsay Cutchins develop the curriculum and team-teach with 3rd grade teachers at D.G. Cooley and Boyce Elementary Schools. Blandy's Education Team has developed six programs for Clarke County's 3rd grade students: three Blandy-based field investigations and three school-based.

Integrating science, mathematics, and language arts, the TREE Fund project kicked off in September with the planting of trees in Blandy's new Community Forest, contributing to the Arboretum's forest restoration plan. Throughout the unit, students observe, experiment, measure, calculate, graph, and read fiction and nonfiction books about trees, recording their data, observations, and experiences in personal tree journals.  

Third-graders have been thrilled to discover the wide variety of trees in Virginia, have become engrossed in investigating the roles of trees as important habitats to other organisms, and are eager to visit "their" trees in the community forest come April.  Plans are under way for a capstone tree planting project to take place in Berryville this May.

This collection of photographs provides a glimpse of the various tree investigations Clarke County third grade students have been conducting this school year.

Students learning how to properly plant a tree with Arborist Bob Arnold in Blandy's Community Forest, September 2014.

During Blandy's February visit to their schools, students learned how to use an identification guide to discover important and interesting information about Virginia trees.

D.G. Cooley Elementary School students proudly display the results of their "Trees as Habitat" investigation, December 2014.

Examining tree leaves using a microscope during a January visit to Blandy, students exclaimed: "It's like a miracle!" "The leaf is covered all over with things that look like crystals! I didn't notice those before!"

Blandy's Roots Spread Far and Wide

Leading Experts Helped Grow Arboretum Collection

By Chris Schmidt

Arboretum Assistant

During his tenure at Blandy Experimental Farm, Dr. Orland.E. White corresponded with, and obtained a large quantity of plant material from, his professional peers. Before he arrived at Blandy, he had been associated with several highly regarded horticulture institutions, including the Arnold Arboretum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This allowed Dr. White access to some of the world's leading botanists, plant collectors, and taxonomists. The following people are mentioned in our accession books and contributed to the development of the grounds at Blandy.

Alfred Rehder (1863-1943) worked at some of the best known gardens in Germany until he took a position with a German publishing company and traveled to the United States in 1898. His job was to research American horticulture and dendrology. In order to supplement his income and education, he took a job at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. The director, Charles Sargent, was so impressed with his horticulture knowledge that he convinced Rehder not to return to Germany and instead remain at the arboretum. Rehder became an expert on plant taxonomy, authoring at least 1,400 plant names, and was the curator of the Arnold Arboretum Herbarium. Dr. White consulted with Rehder on the identification of several specimens which were brought to Blandy. Rehder was also instrumental in formulating the original concept of plant hardiness zones.  At the same time, Dr. White was studying the relationship of a plant's genetic make-up and its tolerance for cold, and kept pages of records on what he termed his "winter testing." I would venture that these two scientists corresponded on the subject.

George M. Reed (1878-1956) attended college in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Dr. Reed taught at the University of Minnesota before working for the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1921, he joined the staff of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as the plant pathologist. He would remain there for 25 years, even serving as the acting director for a brief period. Although his research was diseases of cereal grains, he was also an expert on iris and was responsible for the identification of at least 2,000 varieties. Dr. Reed sent many iris specimens to Blandy Experimental  Farm and assisted with the identification of others sent to Blandy.

J. H. Beale (1885-1969) was an Englishman who studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, a leading horticulture institution in England. He traveled to the U.S. in 1925 and, after a short tenure at a nursery in New York, he became the superintendent at the Arboretum of the Boyce Thompson Institute in Yonkers, New York. He remained there for 28 years and is responsible for introducing, propagating, and distributing at least 3,000 plants to various research institutions for trial studies.  Blandy was the recipient of many of these introductions, including the Pachysandra planted near the Quarters, as well as the Fontanesia, and Evodia.

W.H. Judd (1888-1946) was another Englishman who also studied at Kew. He arrived in the U.S. in 1913 to become the assistant to the propagator at the Arnold Arboretum. He became the head propagator in 1916 and remained in that position for 33 years. Judd was considered an authority in his field. There are numerous mentions of him in the accession books including entries for Callicarpa, Viburnum, and the Hovenia, all of which are still on the Arboretum grounds.

There were many other colleagues of Dr. White who supplied plants, seeds, and expertise to the developing experimental farm, which was on an extremely tight budget. There is not room here to mention them all. Dr. White must have been very grateful to them for their generosity and he even made a special note in the accession books of the numerous specimens that arrived as "gifts." Today, many years later, visitors to the Arboretum can appreciate plants that represent the extraordinary fellowship to which these scientists belonged.