With a cemetery nearby and an inconspicuous location near Byrd Stadium, the small one-story building dubbed the Apiary may not appear to be the control center for this university’s nationally recognized arboretum.
While it used to host a swarm of bees and was home to the university’s beekeeping course, the buzz around the building shifted focus this March — now, it is all about the trees. Facilities Management refurbished the Apiary this spring to create the Arboretum Outreach Center, the university Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s hotspot for educational initiatives, and the presence of this home enabled new programs to be launched this summer.
“We would really like to have all of the students think of the campus as their own backyard, frontyard and to take ownership of the physical environment of their campus,” said Carin Celebuski, the volunteer coordinator for the Arboretum and Botanical Garden.
The American Public Gardens Association officially recognized the university as a national arboretum in 2008, and consequentially, the center was proposed in 2009. The Arboretum and Botanical Garden received permission to occupy the Apiary later that year.
“I really see the arboretum as that fabric that weaves us together,” said Karen Petroff, assistant director for Arboretum and Horticultural Services. “I would love the arboretum to be one of those things that unites all programs on [the] campus.”
And the programs that kicked off this summer aim to help students appreciate the campus’ beauty, Celebuski said.
Every Wednesday at 8 a.m. during the summer, the Center hosts guided tree walks that tour different botanical gardens on the campus, such as the Peace and Friendship Garden near university President Wallace Loh’s residence. The tours conclude with brown-bag lunches andspeakers, at which university faculty, staff and students have spoken about the campus’ horticulture and their work with botanical gardens overseas in Taiwan and Italy.
During the school year, these events will occur once a month.
“Everyone can relate to [the speakers] on some level,” Petroff said. “We all have plants in our lives, so it’s a very universal topic.”
Some students, such as senior mathematics major Dan Secrest, said they hadn’t heard of the Arboretum Outreach Center but would be willing to sample some of its offerings.
“I think everybody should be interested in trees,” said Secrest. “Trees provide a lot [for us], so we might as well know a lot about them.”
Additionally, the building will serve as a place for all the arboretum volunteers to congregate.
“We wanted a place where volunteers could go and find it more welcoming,” Celebuski said. “It just makes it a lot easier to accommodate our volunteers.”
Ongoing projects include the beautification of Hagerstown Woods — an outdoor picnic area between the Denton and Ellicott communities — and the Chesapeake Natives Sun Garden at the research greenhouses located behind Comcast Center. Additionally, the St. Mary’s Garden Club, South Campus’ rooftop garden and the public health school garden plan to coordinate projects with the center this year, according to Celebuski.
“We’re hoping the Arboretum Outreach Center becomes an umbrella organization for all those kinds of activities,” Celebuski said.
Jonathan Lin, the university arborist’s assistant, said he hopes the center will reach students across all fields of study.
“The whole arboretum is basically a part of the school,” said Lin, a senior urban forestry major. “Students walk across the school everyday, they see part of it everyday. … [It’s] become a part of campus life.”
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