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As fall approaches, Spartanburg Community College is preparing to hold its annual
Arboretum Adventures fundraiser that supports the college s horticulture program. This year s event, which is a lecture
followed by a dinner, will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Tracy Gaines Auditorium
on campus. Each year, the community college invites area residents on campus to take
part in its annual event, which raises money to fund the award-winning horticulture
program at SCC.
This year s speaker will be Mark Weathington, director of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum
at North Carolina State University. It s an honor to have Weathington here in Spartanburg,
as the arboretum at which he works is one of the finest in the country. His presentation,
Planning a Better World, will highlight the 40-year legacy of the arboretum s mission
to collect, evaluate and promote plants.
Weathington is passionate about his work and connects people with plants and lives
by the motto, Life is too short for boring plants. After dinner, he will have his
book, Gardening in the South, available for purchase.
Weathington takes a common sense approach to gardening and adds a little humor. He
makes gardening accessible for any level of gardening. Having traveled all over the
world to places such as Europe, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Japan, Ecuador and New Zealand,
Weathington has previously served as director of horticulture and facilities at the
Norfolk (Va.) Botanical Garden and as a horticulturalist at the Atlanta Botanical
Garden.
Weathington loves to use the J. C. Raulston Arboretum as a testing ground for all
plants that he likes to recommend. He brings plants home to the arboretum from his
travels and believes if he can make them live in its climate they are safe to recommend
to any home gardener. His goal is to free the homeowners from killing plants. He will
do that for you in this garden. When he recommends a plant to a homeowner, he is confident
that it will grow here. That takes the pressure off of the home gardener.
Arboretum Adventures tickets can be purchased by calling 864-592-4624 and are also
available online at www.sccsc.edu/arborevents. The cost is $30 per person or $50 per
couple. There is an opportunity to give $10 additionally to support a seedling or
student to attend the evening event. The people who support SCC believe that students
should attend the evening lectures so that they, too, can learn.
The Sustainable Agriculture Building (better known as The Big Red Barn) will also
be on display during Arboretum Adventures.
We are proud to be called the School of Horticulture, and we have earned that name,
said Jason Bagwell. The instructors here believe that if you hear about it, then you
have to see it. Arboretum Adventures is all about learning from the best of the best,
and bringing them here to teach us. In that light, we like making it available to
our community so we can all learn together.
The teachers are enjoying their new sustainable agriculture program. They have a student
who is from Union County and is currently learning about the production of food and
will use this information at his family s nursery business when he graduates.
Additionally, SCC will hold its annual fall plant sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct.
5 and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 6. Spartanburg Community College raises most of the
plants sold and uses the funds raised for its programs. The Spartanburg Men s Garden
Club will also be on hand, selling shrubs and trees.
Fall is a major time to plant perennials, evergreens, trees and ornamental shrubs.
The plants spend all winter laying down roots and getting settled into their space
in the soil. Come springtime they are ready to grow. The funds from the plant sales
are put to good use. As an example, this year, $1,000 scholarships were award to 10
students, which makes everyone s efforts worth a lot.
Linda Cobb is a master gardener who lectures, teaches and does garden design in South
Carolina. She can be reached at 864-574-8493 or email her at lindacobb@charter.net. Visit her website at www.mygardenersguide.com.