Salve Regina hosting Arboretum Week activities

The Arboretum at Salve Regina is hosting several public activities on campus beginning April 24 in conjunction with Newport Arboretum Week. The events call attention to the unique urban forest on campus and throughout Aquidneck Island, which is home to 26 accredited arboreta – more than any community in the world.
Activities on Salve’s campus – which is designated as a “Tree Campus USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation and an ArbNet Level II arboretum – and throughout the city are free and open to the public. For a full slate of Newport Arboretum Week activities, visit www.newportarboretumweek.org.
Presentation: Floriculture in Newport history
6 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, Bazarsky Lecture Hall, reserve tickets
Join John Tschirch, architectural historian and honorary member of the Garden Club of America, for this presentation on floriculture in Newport history. Welcome spring with a journey to Gilded Age Newport, when society beauties hosted floral extravaganzas with rose-draped garden follies and one of the most spectacular hydrangea laden parades of the era. Art, design and horticulture combined to make the city an extraordinary center of flower cultivation and display. The presentation will feature images and stories from Tschirch’s upcoming publication “America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes Through the Ages.”
Wakehurst tree walk
11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 25, Wakehurst, reserve tickets
The tree walk will guide visitors through a curated loop of distinct tree specimens in Salve Regina’s arboretum. The tour guides will include Michael Chester, Salve Regina’s superintendent of grounds, and arborist Christopher Fletcher of Bartlett Tree Experts. Participants should meet at the Wakehurst gates, located at the intersection of Ochre Point and Leroy avenues.
Arbor Day tree planting
1:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, McKillop Library
In recognition of Arbor Day, join Michael Chester, Jason Black and others representing the Arboretum at Salve Regina for an afternoon tree planting behind the McKillop Library as they welcome a new beech species to campus.