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News, Events and Interesting Tidbits from the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens
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Director’s Update
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Before becoming the Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens I spent 17 years teaching undergraduate students the finer points of horticulture at the University of Minnesota and Central Piedmont Community College. Since then I haven’t spent much time in the classroom, but that’s about to change this spring. Starting this month, I’ll be teaching Horticulture for the UNC Charlotte Biology Department. Horticulture is defined as the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants and I’ll be touching on all of the different facets including propagation, fertilization, irrigation, and even segments on GMOs and organic production methods. This is the discipline I was trained in and it’s hard to express how excited I am to get back into the classroom and interacting with students again on a regular basis. But classes have been using the gardens even while I haven’t been teaching. Our Associate Director Paula Gross’ class Field Botany has used it for years, but so do a large collection of other classes. This year at various times we had German classes, abstract art classes, English classes, biology classes, and many others. It is a rare thing for a University to have a Botanical Garden on campus and it is wonderfully rewarding for all of us here to have these Gardens used so well by our faculty and staff.
This winter we have a number of opportunities to interact with the Gardens, but there are two in particular that I want to make you aware of. The first is our annual Valentine’s Orchid Sale . Why give a poor sad cut rose to someone special in your life when you can give a live orchid? The sale will run from February 11 until the 14th. The second is our annual Winter Garden Guided Tour. Come and see why winter should be an exciting time in your garden!
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Art in the Gardens
Thomas Schmidt’s 3D art class installed some truly amazing works in our Greenhouses this past December. Some has been removed, but much still remains. One of the most notable pieces was an amazing orchid cut from a block of wood. Other sculptures included miniature rock climbers scaling volcanic rock in the succulent room and an artificial human rib cage hanging from an orchid in our orchid room. The beauty and creativity displayed in these structures is truly incredible and we are proud to display the work of these amazing young artists.
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Wintersweet
Over the winter months most plants go dormant and wait until spring to produce growth, but a few take advantage of the season to show their stuff. Paperbush and Daphne both provide beautiful flowers and a pleasant fragrance, but the greatest winter plant of them all is wintersweet or Chimonanthus praecox. When wintersweet is in bloom, usually in January, you can smell it from yards away. It thoroughly inundates an area with a sweet, engaging fragrance that is hard to forget. This is one of the most amazing large shrubs out there and I recommend it to anyone looking for some winter interest.
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