Talking to the Trees: The Chesterfield Arboretum

In all of Virginia, there are nine accredited arboretums — botanical gardens of trees — listed in the official Morton Registry. Some of them you might figure, like Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond's Hollywood cemetery, but the newest one is in a strange place indeed. It's at the Chesterfield County government complex.

For the groundskeepers at this massive, multi-huilding campus, obtaining this official designation isn't  just about showing off all of the trees they've planted around the complex in recent years. "It was also to have some protection of the trees here from future construction,” says horticulturalist Lisa Ferrel, who led the initiative to turn the park into a tree sanctuary.

Read my feature article on this new venture -- which involves something called "Tree Diapers" -- by going to the Richmond Magazine website and clicking this spot. 

For more on the Chesterfield Arboretum, you can go here.

(Photo of Horticulture Shop Supervisor Tom Tuttle with horticulturalists Lisa Ferrel and Doug White by the mighty Jay Paul)