Archive for June 2009
Friday, June 12th, 2009
This week with severe thunderstorms, spontaneous downpours, and overflowing storm drains, it has reinforced the importance of storm water management. It is important to prevent as much runoff from storm water on your property as possible to allow for the replenishment of ground water and prevent erosion of local streambeds.
Rain water runoff carries not only topsoil, but fertilizers, pesticides, oils, and other pollutants into the surrounding creeks and streams. Once in our waterways, these contaminants cloud the water, stress aquatic life, and disrupt stream habitats.
Digging the trench for the cistern. photo credit: R. Robert
The Scott Arboretum and Swarthmore College’s latest…
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Thursday, June 4th, 2009
The answer is Rhododendron. In 1834 confronted with conundrum of evergreen azaleas, botanist George Don abolished Linnaeus’s genus Azalea and lumped it into Rhododendron. Since then botanists have officially discontinued the use of Azalea. While the botanists officially no longer use azalea, gardeners continue to use azalea as a common name.
There are several distinctions made by gardeners to recognize an azalea from a rhododendron.
- Rhododendrons are usually evergreen while azaleas are deciduous, although there are evergreen azaleas.
- Rhododendrons have ten or more stamens, while azaleas have five.
- Rhododendrons have large, paddle-shaped leaves and large, bell- or funnel-shaped flowers borne in terminal trusses. Azaleas have…
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Monday, June 1st, 2009
Over the past several months, staff, volunteers, and visitor have been able to watch the construction progress on the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse. During the winter months we observed how large concrete truck delivered 8,038 lbs of concrete to form the foundation walls, piers, and slabs. As part of our effort to receive silver LEED certification, this concrete contained 3% fly ash.
Fly ash is a fine, glass-like powder recovered from gases created by coal-fired electric power generation. U.S. power plants produce millions of tons of fly ash annually, which is usually dumped in landfills. The use of this bi-product…
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