News
Plantations part of grant for new interactive County trails map
The Tompkins County Tourism Bureau awarded Cornell Plantations, the Human Services Coalition and the Town of Ulysses $14,500 to create a digital interactive map to search and explore all county recreation trails. Read more in the May 2 ithaca.com article "Mapping the Trails."
Cornell Plantations’ Ringwood Natural Area Suffers Forest Fire
An alert neighbor called 911 and responders from eight different volunteer fire companies assisted in putting out the blaze. The local fire departments on hand were: Dryden, Varna, Freeville, McLean, Brooktondale, Cayuga Heights, Slaterville, and Etna with the Varna Fire Department leading the incident command under chief Vincent Monticello. The departments battled the fire using traditional trucks, off road UTV units, and hand equipment.“Their quick and effective response limited what could have been catastrophic damage to the natural area and local community,” state Todd Bittner, director of natural areas at Cornell Plantations. “As a result, no one was injured, no structures were lost and less than five acres were burned.”
Our heartfelt thanks goes out to all the responders for their efforts in putting this fire out. Please be aware that Ithaca and the surrounding areas are under a “Red Flag Warning,” and there is a “no open burn ban” until May 15, 2015. At this time the authorities are unsure of how the fire started. We ask all visitors to our natural areas, and all those in our community to be aware of your surroundings, and to not start unauthorized fires, or discard of lit cigarettes on the ground. Please remember that in these dry conditions a fire can be started and can be spread very quickly.
For more information about the Ringwood Natural Areas, click here.
Homegrown Peppers workshop on May 20
In this presentation you’ll learn about the natural and cultural history of peppers, the fascinating diversity of pepper varieties, and some tips and best practices for cultivating your own bountiful pepper harvest at home. Each participant will receive six different types of young pepper plants to take and grow at home. Presented by Irene Lekstutis, Plantations Landscape Designer, and Paul Cooper, L.H. Bailey Conservatory Grower. Pre-registration required.Date/time: Wednesday, May 20; 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Cost: $15 ($12 for Plantations members, volunteers and Cornell students)
Location: Nevin Welcome Center
Instructors:Irene Lekstutis, Plantations Landscape Designer, and Paul Cooper, L.H. Bailey Conservatory Grower
Click here to register.
2015 is the Year of the Pepper at Plantations! We are offering activities and events throughout the growing season to celebrate peppers including exhibits, a self-guided tour of dozens of varieties displayed in our gardens and a Plantations Pepper Party on September 20.
On display at the Nevin Welcome Center: A Floral Love Affair
During May and June, enjoy botanical paintings by Marcia Eames-Sheavly, horticulture educator at Cornell University. Marcia’s paintings reflect her deep fondness for this region, with its evocative, sensual and joyous flowers, as well as the gardens, hedgerows and lakes that abound here. Read more about her art in the May 13 Cornell Chronicle article, "Eames-Sheavley's botanical art classes teach how to 'see'."
Bird and wildflower walks every Friday and Sunday in May
In collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cayuga Bird Club, Cornell Plantations presents "Birds and Blossoms" -- a series of Friday morning bird walks in the Newman Arboretum, and Sunday afternoon wildflower walks in Sapsucker Woods. Walks will be held rain or shine. Pre-registration is not required.Bird walks will occur Friday mornings at 8:00 a.m. at Cornell Plantations from May 1 through May 29 (Meet by the Sculpture Garden, in the F. R. Newman Arboretum off Caldwell Road).
Wildflower walks will be held Sunday afternoons at 1:00 p.m. at Sapsucker Woods, from May 3 through May 31 (Meet at the Lab of Ornithology visitor center).
For more information, contact 255-2400 or [email protected].
Vandalism on the Cascadilla Gorge Trail
Just days before opening the Cascadilla Gorge trail after being closed for winter, someone spraypainted the concrete staircase and gorge wall under the Stewart Avenue bridge. Read more in an April 16 Ithaca voice article here.
Cascadilla Gorge trail is now open!
Cornell Plantations ranked 3rd of 50 best campus meditation spaces
Emotional and spiritual health are key to success in college. The Botanical Garden and F. R. Newman Arboretum of Plantations were recognized for providing "escape from the academic pressures" and a "balance between mind and spirit." Read the online article from bestcounselingschools.org here.
The F. R. Newman Arboretum is now open to vehicles
Another sign that spring is here! The daffodils are starting to emerge and our magnolias and flowering trees will soon follow. We invite you to observe the unraveling of spring with a walk through the arboretum any day, dawn to dusk.
Family event: Historical Family Fun at Cornell's Botanical Garden
Don't miss the Charter Day fun happening at Cornell's Botanical Garden!
Historical Family Fun on April 25 from 1 - 5 p.m.
On Saturday, April 25 from 1 - 5 p.m., we will be hosting a family event where you can discover what life was like in Ithaca at the time of Cornell’s Charter signing.
There will be lots of hands-on activities based on the diaries of local youth from the 1860's! Taste delicate cake, make a broom, play old-fashioned games, learn about Forest Home’s water mills and more. Sing and dance to old-time musician Dave Ruch!
This is a Judy’s Day Family Program presented in cooperation with The History Center in Tompkins County.
Date/time: Saturday, April 25; 1 - 5 p.m.
Cost: $5 per person/ $10 per family (free for members). Registration is not required
Location: Nevin Welcome Center in the Botanical Garden
Thank you for supporting Plantations on Cornell Giving Day!
Thank you for giving to Cornell Plantations!We reached our goal and raised over $25,000.
View a short video for a big THANK YOU from our director and staff, and Cornell students exactly how your support will keep us growing
Share the news at #CornellGivingDay and Facebook.
Cornell Plantations would like to say, "thank you!"
Become a natural areas steward: Join the Natural Areas Academy
NAA is offered twice annually—fall and spring. Each season
will focus on specific conservation strategies and a specific
restoration project within our natural areas. The management practices
learned and re-enforced through hands-on workshops and directed
stewardships aretransferable to restoration and land management at multiple scales. Enrollment in the fall program is $90/nonmembers and $80/members and students.
Spring 2015 workshops include creating a rain garden, invasive species control, native seed collection, site preparation and native plant identification. Click here for a full schedule.
The first NAA workshop will be a mandatory orientation, and will be held on Thursday, April 9 at 6:00 p.m.
To learn more and register, click here.
Make a Washi paper gourd vase on March 21
Get creative in this workshop and decorate a fully prepared gourd with colorful washi paper and other Asian-inspired embellishments such as beads, rattail cord, and imitation Chinese coins.Date/time: Saturday, March 21; 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Cost: $60; $54 for Plantations members
Location: Nevin Welcome Center
Instructor: Terri Noxel; President, New York State Gourd Society
Click here to learn more and register.
"Treman Willow" sculptures at the Nevin Welcome Center
On Display at the Nevin Welcome Center:"Five Uneasy Pieces: Reworking the Treman Willow"
These five pieces were once part of a living heritage tree located in the F. R. Newman Arboretum. It was known as the Treman Weeping Willow and was planted 80 years ago around the time of the garden’s founding. In 2011, the tree had to be cut back to its base, as it could no longer support itself, succumbing to age and carpenter ants. Rather than being chipped for mulch, the sculptor, Jack Elliott, asked that the tree segments be delivered to his studio at Cornell University. He did not have a preconception of the results but was intrigued by the burled surfaces and irregular forms. The objective was to rework the pieces to let them reveal their own significances. As the bark and rotted material were removed, judicious cuts were made, allowing various forms and narratives to emerge. Five separate but related pieces were produced, all expressing a sense of uneasiness or tension, characterized by an interplay of organic and planar forms and a contrast of blackened and natural surfaces.
Meet Jack Elliott at a reception on Thursday, March 19 from 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. in the Nevin Welcome Center lobby. Light refreshments will be provided.
Guides needed to explore spring wildflowers with third graders
Join a team of volunteer facilitators who engage 3rd graders and introduce them to their wildflower heritage! Our program—Wildflower Exploration: Learning about Plants through Native Wildflowers—is part of the Kids Discover the Trail program and includes both a class visit and field trip to the Mundy Wildflower Garden. No experience is needed as we offer a full training series and you shadow seasoned facilitators. Training starts on Feb 25th, 10:30 a.m. to noon and meets each Wednesday for six weeks; if interested or curious call Raylene Ludgate at (607) 255-2407, or email [email protected]. Artist reception this Saturday!
Local artist Laurie Snyder has her cyanotype botanical prints on display in the Nevin Welcome Center. The cyanotype process is one of the earliest photographic processes, introduced in England around 1840. The images are based on the light sensitivity of iron salts and are blue and white.Laurie Snyder is an Ithaca resident and former photography faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. Most of the images were made in Ithaca with plant material collected near her home and from Cornell Plantations.
Meet Laurie Snyder at a free reception on Saturday, February 7 from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the Nevin Welcome Center. This event is free and light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 607-255-2400.
Plantations’ founder Liberty Hyde Bailey catalogued much of his plant collections using Cyanotype prints. Some of Bailey’s prints are displayed as part of this exhibit. Also, you can take home a kit to create your own cyanotype prints on sale in our gift shop.
Rhoda Maurer named Director of Horticulture
Rhoda Maurer from Geneva, NY has been named Director of Horticulture at Cornell Plantations beginning February 2. Prior to joining Plantations, she managed the grounds and greenhouses of Cornell University’s NY State Agriculture Experiment Station in Geneva, NY.Before her tenure at Cornell, she was the Assistant Curator at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and has held other positions at The Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in Washington, and the Royal Horticulture Society’s Wisley Garden in the United Kingdom. Maurer holds degrees in Anthropology and Horticulture from the University of Washington, and will be completing her Masters in Science in a Changing World this May from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
“I’m delighted that Rhoda will be joining Plantations,” stated Dr. Christopher Dunn, the E. N. Wilds Director of Cornell Plantations. “Her experience, matched with her enthusiasm will only serve to help keep Cornell Plantations growing forward in the years to come. Everyone at Plantations is very excited for this new chapter in our 70-long year history.”
Ms. Maurer states, “Plantations will allow me to connect my affection for public horticulture, concern for our environment, and community engagement alongside a talented and eager staff in new and exciting ways. I’m excited to start an exploration of how Plantations might add value to people’s lives, inspiring collaborations to discover unforeseen possibilities for how we might connect our living collections with contemporary socio-economic-biological systems in our changing world.”
Maurer’s main responsibilities will be to direct the horticulture program at Plantations, curating more than 40,000 plants representing over 5,000 different taxa, setting a vision for the program with an eye towards conservation and sustainability and the management of Plantations horticulture staff including curators, gardeners, landscape architects, greenhouse staff and seasonal garden staff. She succeeds Mary Hirshfeld who served as Plantations’ Director of Horticulture for nearly 36 years.
Get to know more about Rhoda in this short video.
Winter survival tip: Treasure hunt for cones in the arboretum
Exploring cones of many shapes and sizes is yet another reason to visit Plantations this time of year. Click here to read about Sarah Nickerson's visit to explore cones with her toddler Leo on our tumblr page.
Amazing summer experiences for high school students
Calling all middle and high school students: You could spend six weeks of your summer getting your hands dirty while making a positive impact in the community through our PEEPS program (Plantations Envioronmental Education Program for Sustainability). We are accepting applications now through April. Click here to learn more.
Get a taste of what you can experience in this two-minute video: