2018

Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum is offering an opportunity to donate either a beautiful hand-hewn bench by artist David Robinson or a contemporary teak bench. There are 11 spots in the arboretum where a bench would be a welcome addition. The style and size of bench has been chosen to fit each location.

At its annual meeting, Members of Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum elected the Board of Director and officers for a two-year term, beginning January 1, 2019. The meeting also featured a year-in-review slide presentation by Ruth Hayden. Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum celebrated its 15th anniversary this year.

Once again, Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum volunteers are decorating the main entrance and grand staircase at historic Skylands Manor for the annual Holiday Open House, sponsored by the New Jersey Botanical Garden. This year’s theme, “A Country Manor Holiday,” is a tribute to the many festive celebrations held there when Skylands was a private estate.

Two students from William Paterson University in Wayne have been working as interns, supporting the work of the Plant Collection Management Committee and earning course credits. “Our interns devoted many hours to the painstaking tasks of identifying trees and shrubs, recording their location and navigating the arboretum to tag the plant material.”

On October 5, the McHutchison Horticultural Group of Wayne returned to Laurelwood Arboretum for a third time this year. The y planted Dusty Miller, Artemisia, blue fescue, Russian sage, Lamb’s Ear, ‘Purple Sensation’ allium, lavender, sage and Bluebeard. They then mulched the plant beds.

Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum is sponsoring a very special program, “The Art of Ikebana,” on Sunday, October 14. Ikebana translates as “Giving life to flowers.” It has been practiced in Japan for hundreds of years, and there are several thousand schools or styles of Ikebana worldwide.