Arboretum News

July 21, 2010

American University won the Perennial Plant Association Landscape Design Merit Award for Battelle-Thompkins planting.

June 8, 2010

American University has been featured on the spring 2010 issue of the Washington Gardener. The magazine covered that "AU has gone green from its lawns to its roofs." Kate Pinkerton, an Environmental Studies alumn was also interviewed regarding the community garden.

April 20, 2010

AU has been chosen for 3 awards in the 2010 Graphic Design USA Inhouse Design Competition. Designed by Wendy Beckerman from University Publications, the Arboretum brochure won one of these awards. To check out our brochure, click the related link on the side.

Arboretum Events

This July, AU hosted the annual Green Industry Professional Field Day and Trade Show. This Field day featured industry exhibitors with all the latest products and equipment and held presentations on Trees, Landscape Design/Architecture, and Landscape Maintenance. There was also a Hispanic track for those more comfortable with Spanish. For more information, visit: www.greenindustryseminar.org

On May 27, 2010, AU hosted the sixteenth annual Volunteer Appreciation Day presented by the Horticultural Consortium of the Greater Washington Area. Listed below is a general program schedule that followed during the event.  

• Optional early bird tour of the AU Campus arboretum and the green building led by AU staff
• Welcome address by President Neil Kerwin
• Keynote address by Michael Mastrota, AU's landscape architect,
   "The Development of AU as an Arboretum"
• Keynote address by Jeff Kirwan, "Remarkable Tress of Virginia"
• Concurrent Sessions
• Door prizes and goody bag giveaway

AU and the Smithsonian Institution attended the annual Garden Fest in the Enid A. Haupt Garden. This year's festival was a celebration of local public gardens.

This April, we hosted our first Annual Plant Sale on the quad. Grasses, perennials, annuals, hanging flower baskets, and herbs were sold to fundraise money for the Arboretum. We also had a free "how to" demonstration on container gardening.  

Every year, faculty, staff, and students gather together to enhance AU's Arboretum and Public Gardens. On April 6, 2010, Facilities Management volunteers worked together on the following activities:

• Planting of 50 trees which we – and five other campuses nationwide – received as a gift from the Tree Campus USA program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. 
• Rain garden installation/planting on the new KOGOD landscape
• Invasive plant (English Ivy) eradication at several locations throughout campus
• Mulching as a natural weed-preventative and moisture conservation measure
• Planting - always a "green initiative"
• ECOSENSE coordination of sustainable educational activities at the Child Development Center and Horace Mann School