Stormy Weather Fall 2011

Hurricane Irene just exacerbated the considerable damage to the Arboretum wrought by the violent July 29 storm that brought tor-rential rain, quarter-sized hail, and �“microbursts�” of tree-toppling wind to Croton. That storm felled about a dozen trees and tore off countless branches in the Arboretum. The course superinten-dant at Hudson National Golf Course witnessed the storm and saw gusts of wind move diagonally through the Arboretum.

The National Weather Service determined that the damage in our area was caused by a �“wet microburst,�” a very localized column of sinking air, producing damage similar to, but distinguishable from, a tornado.

�“Storm damage was terrible,�” said Arboretum President Karen Jescavage-Bernard. �“In addition to heartbreaking damage to some of our most treasured trees, many of the large black birch trees that have been weakened by disease were broken off at their roots or pulled out of the ground. Three huge legacy trees

near the entrance had limbs twisted off the trunks. Thankfully Danny Ferguson immediately cleared the loop trail con-necting the parking lot with the gazebo,�” and Mark Sofranko and Scott Wangler of Conserve-a-Tree came quickly to remove a number of dangerous �“hangers�” (partially severed limbs). Special thanks go to this skilled and dedicated trio, who together keep our trails open and safe.

Irene�’s main contribution was much too much water in a short time, caused ponding and flooded trails, and taking down at least one more tree. For the most part, the brush and deadfalls have been removed from the trails, but there is more work to be done. Irene also took some shingles off the roof of the gazebo and damaged stonework in several places, including stream crossings and the stepping stones behind High Oaks.

This tree, like many others in Croton, suc-cumbed to the combination of very high winds and months of saturated ground.

High winds snapped many trees at the base, like this one, and left dan-gerous branches hanging from oth-ers.

The larger the island of knowledge, The longer the shoreline of wonder. �—Ralph W. Sockman

Barry Keegan Returns for a Four-Day Workshop on Native American Culture in the Hudson Valley The Arboretum and the Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School PTA will co-sponsor a workshop on Native American culture by Barry Keegan Oc-tober 12-15. His program will be for CET fourth-grade classes for the first three days, and the public is invited to participate on Saturday, October 15. Keegan is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of the Native Americans of the Hudson Valley.

This will be Keegan�’s second visit to Croton; the Arboretum and the Village sponsored a Keegan demonstration as part of the Hudson River Quadricenten-nial celebration in 2009. He used au-thentic replicas of Eastern North Ameri-can Indian canoes, tools, weapons, clothing, and ceramics to illustrate the technology and life ways of the people Henry Hudson found living on our shores. He also demonstrated using a bow to create friction to ignite a fire and shaping fluted stone points.

Keegan�’s program this year will feature a Lenape dwelling, which he will build on site in the Arboretum beforehand. He will demonstrate a variety of tool-making and other technology used by

Barry Keegan at work, shaping a stone,.

the Lenape People, and the CET stu-dents will have an opportunity to try their hands at some of these skills. He will again bring artifacts of Native American life along the Hudson (or rep-licas of them) and will share history and stories of these peoples.

Among the highlights of the garden tour plant sale were Trifoliate Orange seedlings, direct de-scendants of trees imported from Asia to Rhode Island in the 1700s by the Brown family (of Brown University fame). At the time there was no citrus grown in North America. Although its fruit was small and bitter, it was winter-hardy, and in the 1800s, it was used as root stock for the sub-tropical sweet orange and became the foundation of our citrus industry.

A native of China and Korea,Trifoliate Orange is a deciduous shrub. It can grow 10 to 20 feet tall outside or be kept as a potted plant.

Our thanks to Rhoda Stephens, who donated seeds from her 45-year-old tree, which she grew from a seed from the Brown family trees.

2011 Garden Tour a Sell-Out Hit The annual Arboretum garden tour�—our 15th�—was a grand success on all fronts, with perfect weather, all 200 tickets sold, a great plant sale, and record pro-ceeds of just over $5,000. The popular plant sale accounted for a record $835 of this amount (see picture, page 2). The tour is the primary fundraiser for the Arboretum, and allows us to maintain and improve our trails and park.

Ticket sales took off after the Journal News ran a feature article on the tour, highlighting the garden of Marilyn and Arnold Miller with photos and history. The property is a series of interconnected gar-dened areas, with a freeform pool fed by a waterfall over a large rock face, a barn, a tree house, a chicken coop and an orchard. The article reached a wide audience and brought garden enthusi-asts from Rockland, Putnam, and New Jersey.

The Miller garden was only the first of six to get rave reviews. The tour also included a historic property on Mt. Airy Road which Stephanie and John Pisciotta have been restoring and developing, three Village gardens, and the thriving Croton Community garden. Village gardens included Francine and Jeffrey Kadish�’s lovely property on Upper North Highland, where they have gradually opened up new areas to an ever-expanding collection of plants. In fact, they have helped beautify the entire area by establishing a neighborhood plant exchange.

Donna Lassiter, who is a Cornell Master Gardener, began her garden six years ago when she moved to Croton. In that short time she has created multiple gardens on a lot that is small but seems very spacious, including a sunny meadow, a perennial garden, a shady woodland on a rocky hill, and areas for herbs, native plants, vegetables and fruit.

Dana and Tad Holland�’s home on Ob-servatory Drive features an English garden at the front which acquires a Mediterranean flavor at the rear. It in-

Above: Alana Mittleman waters a plot planted and main-tained by Girl Scout Troop 2149 in the Croton Community Garden. The Girl Scouts donate all they grow to the Cro-ton Food Bank. Right: Some of the delectable produce.

One of many intriguing old structures on the Pisciotta property.

(continued on page 4)

Then a sentimen-tal passion Of a vegetable fashion Must excite your languid spleen. �—W.S. Gilbert

Who�’s Whooooo . . . The summer garden tour is the pri-mary source of funds for Arboretum projects and programs. We thank all the dedicated and generous volun-teers who made the 2011 tour such a suc-cess:

Co-chairs Laura Seitz and Jill Mader;

Garden hosts Croton Community Garden, Dana and Tad Holland, Francine and Jeffrey Kadish, Donna Lassiter, Marilyn and Arnold Miller, and Stephanie and John Pisciotta;

Docents Fran Allen, Celeste Baxter, Marion Callis, Lisa Cohen, members of the Community Garden, Doris Kinney, Mary Lally, Ann Lindau, Pat Mackin, Diana McGhie, Jean Rivlin, Pat Tetlow, Lotti Tobler, and Sally West;

Ticket sellers Cathy Klein-Scheer, Lois Haibt, Laurie Salzberg, Carol Shanesy and Jane Shumsky;

Plant sale organizer Karen Jescav-age-Bernard and her team of donors and diggers: Lisa Cohen, Laura Seitz, Dianna Smith, Rhoda Stephens, and ToyKen Yee;

Laura Isele, who provided delicious

Garden Tour (from page 3)

. . . the Board to Maria Slippen, who discovered the Arboretum as a gem practically in her back yard. She be-came one of its most regular visitors and liked it so much that she volun-teered to help us maintain and ex-pand our mission there. Welcome, Maria!

Welcome Aboard . . .

cludes both informal and formal areas and clearly shows the influence of the artist owner.

The Croton Community Garden, lo-cated at Silver Lake, is just two years old but literally bursting with success. The Village brought in water and in-stalled a fence that protects the gar-den from woodchucks, deer and other uninvited diners. Member gar-deners built the beds and maintain the area, including compost. Twenty-three of these gardeners, chosen by lot, have plots this year.

refreshments in the great Isele tradi-tion; Dianna Smith, for her excellent photography; Marc Cheshire, Doris Kinney, the Journal News and News staffer Bill Cary for terrific pub-licity; and Candix Corporation, for sharing their parking lot.