Building a Garden in the Sky

 
As the Urban Forestry intern, I recently had the opportunity to see the construction of the green roof atop the 11 story parking deck at the Cira Center South in Philadelphia. Jason Lubar, a Morris Arboretum Urban Forestry Consultant, was asked by the project’s green roof designer Roofmeadow, to assess the support systems for the planted trees.  As the green roof is 11 stories up, the wind dynamics are more intense than at street level, and the trees need a flexible, but sturdy support system to properly establish.

Green roofs have come a long way, and are no longer just moss and sedums. Roofmeadow created a beautiful design at Cira that includes:

• A grassy lawn with a small hill  
• A meadow with tall grass such as prairie dropseed, reed grass, big bluestem and perennials such as liatris, veronica, pinks, beards tongue and alliums
• Several trees including honey locusts, swamp white oaks and redbuds
• Walkways and plaza of permeable paving
• A rainwater storage system that will direct rainwater into the lawns and gardens and will mitigate the first couple of inches of rain.

The project will be completed soon, and will provide a beautiful garden and event space for the tenants of the adjacent 40 and 50-storied towers to visit and view from above.   Along with the aesthetic benefits, the garden will increase biodiversity, remove pollutants and mitigate stormwater discharge.  The green roof garden is a wonderful example of Philadelphia’s green infrastructure.

Article contributed by Trish Kemper, the Martha S. Miller Urban Forestry Intern

Spring 'Yard Work'

by Jessamine Finch, Hay Honey Farm Endowed Natural Lands Intern

About once a month or so, the horticulture staff unites for a morning to undertake a large job made much more manageable - and enjoyable - when tackled as a group. This past Tuesday was a “project day” in the natural lands area, under the guidance of Natural Lands Horticulturist, Tracy Beerley. Having labored diligently over the winter months to remove invasive plants from Penn’s Woods and along Paper Mill Run, Tracy was able to select native tree and shrub species to fill these newly emptied spaces. The planting list included sugar maple, red maple, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and winterberry holly. The beautiful weather made for a wonderful day, and we look forward to seeing these plantings thrive and mature in the years to come.  

All work...

....and some fun, too!

Checking on our young ones...

by Jamie Berlin, Alice & J. Liddon Pennock, Jr. Endowed Horticulture Intern

After trees have shed their leaves and the cold weather moves in, the Arboretum begins to move at a slower pace. During these months, the Arboretum staff has time to check on younger plantings and newer transplants. By visiting these plants individually, staff can evaluate health and initiate proper management practices. Younger trees are more vulnerable to the elements, so checking on them annually can help reduce problems in the future.

After checking that all accessioned plants are alive and accounted for, staff can focus on:

• Minor pruning - cutting off branches that are rubbing one another or that might be a problem in the future.
• Staking - protecting the young plants from buck rub (the practice of male deer rubbing their antlers on the stems of small trees to remove the velvet from their antlers).
• Trunk protection - using netting around the base of the trunk to stop animals, such as groundhogs, from eating the bark.
• Insect damage - taking note of the insect causing the damage, evaluating if it will cause a major problem to the plant, and taking the necessary management steps, such as pruning or spraying.
• Labeling issues - accessioned plants within the Arboretum are assigned a specific number so they can be tracked over the years. If tags fall off, or are missing, this needs to be dealt with right away.

Deer damage

Staking around young trees

Trunk protection

Click here to learn more about Arboriculture at Morris Arboretum.

Integrated Pest Management Training

by Stephen Pyne, Martha J. Wallace Plant Propagation Intern

One of the benefits of being an intern at Morris Arboretum is the opportunity to take some of the amazing classes that the arboretum offers. I just finished taking an especially good one: The School of Arboriculture’s Integrated Pest Management Training. This three day class was taught by two entomologists from the University of Maryland; Dr. Michael J. Raupp, and Dr. Paula Shrewsbury. Three days is a lot of time to spend in the classroom, but the presenters made sure that we were never bored. It was obvious that Dr. Raupp and Dr. Shrewsbury both love their work, and their enthusiasm was infectious. Their presentations were full of interesting anecdotes and stories, and yet they always steered the class back to real life and practical information that I thought would be very applicable in my work as a horticulturalist.

During the breaks we were able to look at the professors’ extensive collections of bugs and see examples of specific insect damage. Breaks also were a great time to talk to the other people taking the class -- a diverse and interesting group of horticultural professionals.

At the end of each day we had some lab time. On the first day we walked out into the arboretum grounds where we looked at plants, identified their problems and the pest causing those problems, and came up with ideas for a remedy. The second day had us dissecting bagworm bags to find eggs, signs of parasitism, and other clues to help form a plan of treatment. We also looked at scale and several other examples of problem insects. Finally on the last day our tasks were feeding and observing beneficial insects. The young praying mantises were not all that hungry (they had just eaten a bunch of fruit flies), but the lacewing larvae chowed down on the aphids we provided.

I think you can tell from the photos, we all had a great time, and learned a lot.


Learn more about upcoming classes by visiting:
http://online.morrisarboretum.org/Classes

Urban Forestry and Philadelphia Navy Yard

by Rebekah Armstrong, Martha S. Miller Endowed Urban Forestry Intern

The Morris Arboretum Urban Forestry Consultants have been spending a lot of hours at the opposite end of Philadelphia recently. We’ve been inventorying, assessing, and mapping 2,000 trees in the Philadelphia Navy Yard (PNY), at the southernmost end of Broad Street. PNY was the first naval shipyard in the country and the U.S. Navy still operates some facilities there. Aker, a shipbuilding company, now manufactures commercial ships at PNY. Then there are companies like Urban Outfitters that have reused the old Navy buildings for their headquarters. Point being, it’s a very cool place to spend time in: giant old ships and abandoned structures next to an active shipyard, constant renovation, and new construction.

During our inventory and assessment, we saw beautiful examples of big healthy spreading trees in lawns and then some sad cases: new trees battered by construction equipment and rubbed to death by deer, e.g.

In general, when we do field work, the urban forestry consultants look for hazardous trees – trees with branches that might fall, trees that are splitting – and then look at the overall health of the trees. We also measure the trunk and canopy, records the species, and map the trees’ locations. We then make recommendations for our clients and provide them with a complete map and inventory of their trees to help them manage their portion of the urban forest. To learn more about the Morris Arboretum Urban Forestry Consultants visit: http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/arboriculture.shtml