Snowfall at the Arboretum!

As we receive our first significant snowfall of the season, the beauty of the Arboretum’s winter landscape shines. With little wind, today’s gently falling snow seems to outline every branch, twig and nuance. During our winter months, the intrepid visitors to the Arboretum will find lots of opportunities to study the architecture and structure of our plant collections. Hikers, skiers, snowshoers and walkers will be rewarded with spectacular views of our winter landscapes -- along with plenty of opportunities to discover how plants and animals adapt to the cold. What a remarkable place and time to learn more about our winter world!

Encouraged to take a snowy walk at the Arboretum or through your own neighborhood? Stop by the Sterling Morton Library and peruse some of these resources to guide your winter quest:

• Bark : the formation, characteristics, and uses of bark around the world photographs by Kjell B. Sandved ; text by Ghillean Tolmie
• A guide to wildflowers in winter : herbaceous plants of northeastern North America by Carol Levine
• Life in the cold : an introduction to winter ecology by Peter Marchand
• Season of promise : wild plants in winter by June Carver Roberts
• Studies of trees in winter : a description of the deciduous trees of northeastern America by Annie Oakes Huntington ; with an introduction by Charles Sprague Sargent
• Tree bark : a color guide by Hugues Vaucher
• Trees in a winter landscape by Alice Upham Smith
• Trees in winter : their study and identification by Albert Francis Blakeslee and Chester Deacon Jarvis
• Weeds in winter written and illustrated by Lauren Brown
• Winter : an ecological handbook by James C. Halfpenny, Roy Douglas Ozanne
• Winter world : the ingenuity of animal survival by Bernd Heinrich

The Sterling Morton Library is open Tuesday through Friday from 9-5 and Saturday from 10-4.

Wearing the Snow

We’ve had lots and lots of snow this winter at the Arboretum. As I walked through the Conifer Collection today, I was delighted to see all of the amazing pines, spruces and firs frosted by our most recent snowstorm. This walk reminded me of an article written by May Theilgaard Watts describing and illustrating the way various plants wear the snow. Written in January of 1945, Watts in her inimitable style and with her keen observation skills shares how different plants hold the snow.

They Wear the Snow with a Difference

“Weather is the Master of Ceremonies under whose showmanship plants take their turns in the spotlight. Each changing mood points out a specialist. The best performer in the dew is probably a lupine leaf; in hoar frost, it is ironwood; and in sleet, the beaded curtain of weeping willow twigs. In the wind the best performer is the white pine; but in a breeze it is the trembling aspen, or silver poplar; while in the thirsty wind of summer drought it is cottonwood, making the sound of rain on the roof. The place on which prevailing westerlies write their permanent record most plainly is a row of willows. A slow spring train makes the best blue-gray setting for the pale yellow of hazel catkins, but a fall rain achieves its triumph when it blackens the trunks of red oak in contrast with the brilliance of fall foliage.
But these are passing moods of weather compared to snow. In this winter of much snow we realize that it is well to be surrounded by those good companions that meet the winter with charm, as well as those that offer spring, summer, or fall display.”

-- by May T. Watts
Bulletin of Popular Information, v. 20, no. 1
January 1945

63 years later, the words and drawings of May T. Watts still resonate with us! Before you head out for your next snowy adventure at the Arboretum, be sure to savor Watts' complete text and illustrations at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2056062/They-Wear-the-Snow-with-a-Difference. To view other issues of the Bulletin of Popular Information, stop by the Sterling Morton Library and peruse our collection!