Holidays At Boxerwood

BRRR!   It's Winter …. It's time to warm up at Boxerwood 

Gifts of Nature - December 7 -- 1:00 to 5 pm. 

.. Gather at Boxerwood to craft a feast for the birds and wildlife that winter in Rockbridge. Enjoy cider, cocoa and cookies in front of a wood fire inside Munger Lodge.
.. Drop in, stay as long as you like, and make as many projects as you like! You can weave honeysuckle wreaths and swag, string dried fruit icicles and cranberry garlands, dip pinecones in suet and seed; craft birdhouses out of dried gourds, and re-use greeting cards to make gift tags and garlands.

.. Boxerwood will provide vines, cones, berries and greenery harvested from the garden, as well as suet, raffia and other project supplies. Families, please contribute one type of wildlife food, such as seeds, nuts, dried fruit, popcorn, citrus or cranberries to share, and recycled holiday cards, if you have them.

The workshop is $5/family for Boxerwood members and $10/family for non-members.

Greens Workshop - December 8 – 2:00 to 5 pm  

2 to 5 pm - Design wreaths or swigs with Boxerwood boughs and berries.

The cost is  $20 for non-members and $15 for members.

Please contact faith@boxerwood.org to let her know that you'd like to attend.

Boxerwood's Winter Garden Notes

Read what's happening in our garden (and yours) in the attached PDF File (also on our website)

Membership

If your membership has expired, it's easy to renew!.  You can download a membership form or make a payment online on our website.

Boxerwood Nature Center & Woodland Garden

963 Ross Road, Lexington, VA  24450

www.boxerwood.org

www,boxerwoodblog.blogspot.com 

Tip From The Boxerwood November Garden Notes

Holiday Greenery: The holidays seems to call out for fresh greenery – wreaths, swags, garlands, and arrangements. To keep that greenery fresh, be sure to sure an anti-desiccant such as Wilt-Pruf . Spraying this on your greenery will seal the pores on the leaves and bark and helps the foliage retain moisture. Fresh greens usually last about two weeks inside, so plan accord-ingly; greens will last longer outside. It helps to mist the greens daily. If you are cutting branches from your own yard, it also helps to condition them by crushing the bottom of the stem and setting the stems in warm water for a couple of hours. 

My favorite type of Christmas tree is the Concolor Fir. Unfortu-nately, this is not a tree we have at Boxerwood, but I hope to rem-edy that in the spring. Ordinarily, firs do not do especially well in our hot summer climate, but this one, often called a White Fir, seems to thrive. The needles have a beautiful bluish tinge to them, a slight plastic feel and if you crush them in your fingers, they smell just like tangerines. The tree gets to be about 30’ high or so by 15’. The needles are about 2” long and the branches are open enough (but not too open) to hold lots of ornaments. On the whole, I prefer firs as Christmas trees. The needles hold on for a fairly long time, the branches are stiff, not flexible. 

Boxerwood Tea And Training November 14

On Thursday November 14 at 2pm there will be a Tea and Training at Boxerwood.  Phyllis Fevrier, Boxerwood Board member, will introduce the "Wonderful World of Pollinators".  I hope you can join us.  We are going to be offering our Tea and Training sessions monthly, so stay tuned. Refreshments will be served during the talk and then we will head outside if the weather cooperates for some garden work.

Reminder: Boxerwood Plant Sale This Saturday October 12

Stop by for Boxerwood's first annual Plant Sale, Saturday October 12 from 1pm to 4pm.  There is a variety of trees and shrubs, including Japanese Maples, Mahonia, Cornelian Cherry and others with most prices ranging from $3 to $25.  At 2pm

 that day, Faith Vosburgh, Boxerwood's horticulturist will be leading a walk through the garden highlighting Boxerwood's large collection of Japanese Maples. 

Bird Seed Sale To Benefit Boxerwood

 By late fall, birds migrating through Rockbridge and birds that spend the winter in our woods and mountains have a hard time finding food. Insects are no longer active, and nature’s own supply of seeds and berries is scarce. With winter on the way, birds are looking for another reliable source of food to give them the energy to stay warm. This is when they most need us to put out feeders and keep them filled. 

To help residents stock up on quality bird seed, the Rockbridge Bird Club is holding a seed sale. What’s more, the Club is donating the proceeds to Boxerwood to help us create more bird-friendly habitat. 

The sale begins October 9. Prepaid orders must be received by November 15 and will be available for pick-up at Boxerwood on Saturday and Sunday, December 7-8 from noon to 4 p.m. 

The seed sale will offer a variety of higher-quality products from BFG Supply in Harrisonburg, including black-oil sunflower seeds, thistle (nyjer), sunflower kernels, and gourmet mixes. Feeders that dispense various types of seed are also included in the sale. (Hint: A bird feeder and a sack of seed make a meaningful holiday gift!)

Check out the links below for Product and ordering information;

Bird Seed Sale Product Information

Bird Seed Order Form

Boxerwood Establishes Endowment Fund

The Board of Trustees at Boxerwood have been searching for ways to ensure the financial sustainability of our mission to educate and produce future stewards of the earth.  Today a major step in that direction took place with the establishment of an endowment through the Community Fund of Rockbridge, Bath and Allegheny.

A $5,000 anonymous challenge donation was matched by the membership allowing Boxerwood to get this account up and running.  "We at Boxerwood are once again honored and grateful to our supporters for stepping up and making this possible," said Managing Director Bruce Bytnar.

As this fund grows, the interest it produces will go toward keeping Boxerwood alive and growing.  This is the first step in plans to provide for the long term financial health of the Boxerwood Nature Center and Woodland Garden.

For more information on the Endowment Fund or to make a contribution, you can go to;

Community Fund of Rockbridge, Bath, and Allegheny

Plant A Bit Of Boxerwood In Your Garden

Have you admired (and coveted!) the beautiful Japanese Maple trees growing throughout Boxerwood Nature Center’s woodland garden? This weekend is your chance to view these trees at their peak of color and take home one of your very own at an affordable price – and at the same time help Boxerwood continue to maintain and grow its specimen collection.

This Saturday (October 12), the nature center will hold its first annual Tree Celebration and Plant Sale from 1-4 p.m.  Tour the garden with Boxerwood’s horticulturalist, Faith Vosburgh, to learn more about this varied and colorful species, then shop for one of the many cultivars that staff and volunteers have dug up and transplanted into containers for the sale.

In addition to 3’ high Japanese maples, the Boxerwood sale will offer other trees and shrubs, including Trident Maples, Mahonias, Katsuras, and hardy Figs.  Most prices range from $5 to $25. All proceeds go back into the garden.

Faith Vosburgh will lead a tree walk at 2 p.m. focusing on Boxerwood’s exceptional collection of Japanese Maples.  “At last count, there were over 120 cultivars of the species throughout the grounds,” reports the horticulturalist. “The small red dissected maples are probably the most common in cultivation, but there are a great many more varieties of all colors and sizes. The leaf coloration on many cultivars is the most brilliant in the fall, so this is the best time to come see them here at Boxerwood.”

The plant sale overlaps a bird seed sale sponsored by the Rockbridge Bird Club also to benefit Boxerwood. Bird Club members will have product information and order forms available at the plant sale.

Boxerwood is located at 963 Ross Road in Lexington. For more information, call 463-2697 or visit the nature center webpage: www.boxerwood.org.

Calendar item:  Saturday, October 12, 1-4pm, Boxerwood Nature Center and Woodland Garden, 963 Ross Rd., Lexington.  Plant Sale, 1-4pm.  Japanese Maple Walk, 2pm.

Plant Sale At Boxerwood October 12

Plant Sale at Boxerwood, Saturday, October 12, 1-4pm. We have been busy potting up lots of Japanese Maple saplings and a variety of other plants for what we hope will be our annual plant sale. 

Don’t miss the Japanese Maple tree walk at 2pm that day. Dr. Munger was especially fond of Japanese Maples. In fact, there are over 120 different cultivars of Japanese Maples here at Boxerwood – and all are especially beautiful in the fall. We’ll walk and our Horticulturalist Faith Voxburgh will talk – about the different varieties of maples, their style, leaf shape and coloration. 

Some the plants waiting to go home with you from Boxerwood

Boxerwood Fall Family Festival Postponed to Sunday Sept 22nd

This morning it appears that the weather forecast for Saturday the 21st has deteriorated further.  Differing sites are calling for 80 to 90% chance of thunderstorms and additionally predicting that these will come in the form of a front that will approach earlier in the afternoon.

Based on this latest forecast, we have decided to postpone the Fall Family Festival until the next day, Sunday September 22 from 1pm to 5pm.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope that every one that intended to come will still be able to join us.  This is just one of the challenges of working in nature.

Final Music In The Garden Event Friday Sept. 13

Boxerwood will be hosting its final edition of "Music In The Garden" this Friday at the Meadow Stage.  This free event will feature the Coprolite Band which is made up of a group of "Jurassic Rocking" VMI professors.  They play a lot of older rock music that is just fun to dance to.

The fun begins around 5:30pm and ends before 8pm.  So bring a packed dinner and a blanket or chairs to join us for one last blast of summer.

The Coprolite Band

Fall Family Festival On September 21

Get Down ‘n Dirty at Boxerwood’s Fall Family Festival on September 21

Celebrate the turning of the seasons next Saturday afternoon, September 21, at Boxerwood’s 14^th annual Fall Family Festival from 1-5. The nature center will host a variety of fun, educational activities, including an archaeology field station and a ukulele jam on the meadow stage.

Washington and Lee Archaeology Program will set up an outdoor lab where kids can dig and sift soil to recover genuine artifacts from a local dig site, then wash and identify them. The material comes from a midden, or trash pile, from the 1800’s discovered behind the old Robinson Hall dormitory during recent construction.

Other hands-dirty activities include a watershed mini-quest, traversing Boxerwood in search of clues to where water has been and what it has done; digging in a Worm World; and making clay pinch pots and beads.  Festival activities will also include traditional favorites, like pressing apples and weaving honeysuckle head-wreaths.

At 3pm, members of the RCHS Ukulele Club will perform on the meadow stage. Children and adults who play the ukulele are invited to bring theirs and join the club for a jam session.

For festival-goers who work up an appetite, fresh cider and donuts will be available for purchase throughout the day and members of the Lexington Moms Club are baking desserts to help support Boxerwood’s environmental education programs. The SPCA will also be on site, bringing pets in need of families to adopt them.

Admission to the Fall Family Festival is free for Boxerwood members and $5 per carload for non-members (refunded for families that join Boxerwood the day of the festival). All activities and the ukulele performance are free.  Entrance fees will help cover festival costs; any extra proceeds will go to support Boxerwood’s education programs for the local schools and upkeep of the garden.

In the event of bad weather, the rain date for this all-outdoor event is Sunday, September 22.  More information about the Fall Family Festival can be found at www.boxerwood.org and on Boxerwood’s Facebook page.

Music In The Garden August 9th

More “Music in the Garden” at Boxerwood

RW & Friends, an acoustic rock group hailing from Montebello – “the other side of the mountain” – will perform  Friday evening, August 9 at Boxerwood on the meadow stage. The free outdoor concert is the third of four “Music in the Garden” events sponsored by the nature center.  The band will play from 6:30 pm until dusk (about 8pm). In the event of rain, the concert will move into the lodge.

Music-goers are invited to arrive early to picnic and socialize before the concert begins. Folks should bring their own food, drinks, chairs and blankets.  

RW & Friends includes Richard Smith on guitar, bass and vocals, Joe Dinardo on bass, guitar and vocals, and Sherrie Smith on vocals, joined by Steve Parent on mandolin, guitar and vocals. The band plays acoustic rock from the 60’s and 70’s.

A final concert on Friday, September 13 will feature The Coprolite Band, a group of VMI professors who play electric “Jurassic Rock” from the 70’s through the 90’s.

Admission to each of the concerts is free, with hat-passing for voluntary contributions to support Boxerwood. All the bands that have and will play Music in the Garden have generously donated their performances.

Boxerwood is located at 963 Ross Road in Lexington. Free parking is available in the meadow, a short walk from the stage. For more information, visit Boxerwood on Facebook or the Web (www.boxerwood.org) or call 463-2697.