Imagine if you will a world without trees. Virtually no trees. What would it look like? Feel like?
Vast. Spare. Hot. Cold. Windswept.
Desert landscapes, grassland prairies and plains come to my mind. In their own way these almost tree-less landscapes are majestic – hauntingly lovely, evocative and home to some fascinating plants – but still: tree-less.
Imagine then growing up in a place where there were no trees per se and then as an adult being transported to the banks of the Sacramento River with its lush, tree-rich riparian corridor habitat. Tall graceful sycamores, sheltering oaks, gnarled and sculptural manzanitas. The texture and color and sounds of leaves… and berries… and buds…and the birds and creatures that come with them….and so much more.
We here in the North State and spoiled with trees. So much so that perhaps we hardly even see them – I mean really see them – anymore.
The Tree Goddess is here to help. Because this tree-less youth followed by tree-rich adulthood is, in part, the story of Marie Stadther – aka The Tree Goddess. After an almost tree-less youth in the Coachella Valley of Southern California, Marie moved to the Redding area nine years ago. As the Lead Gardener for the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay, her “whole goal is to help people see trees. Appreciate them. Value them. Understand and care for them. They are after all living beings,” she points out, and she for one is “grateful to be surrounded by trees. To be able to feel them and to feel connected to them.”
A dark-haired beauty with an open smile and a profound affinity for trees, Marie was hired at age 14 to work in a nursery owned by the father of one her friends. “I would water all the plants for him because he was allergic to bees. I was hooked on plants – trees especially – from then on.”
She has seen “plenty of injustice done to trees – starting with my grandmother’s pollarded Mulberry trees,” she tells me laughing and shaking her head. (Pollarding, wherein all the branches on a tree are cut back to the main trunk every year – is not her favorite pruning technique. The branchless trunk looks like an angry fist up in the sky and, come spring, an unnatural-looking number of pliable shoots pop out of the top of the trunk like a chia pet). And preventing what injuries to trees is one of the inspirations behind Marie’s work.
Part of helping people to “see” trees, is teaching people how trees work and how to take proper care of each one as a result. “Each kind of tree is different – from branching habit, to canopy shape, to feeding needs. Individual trees are just like people – each has its own personality and as you begin to understand them, you will be able to care for their structural integrity and aesthetic integrity all the better.” Marie speaks of the trees in her care as friends and acquaintances – soothingly, she speaks to them, and refers me to their habits and natures. While she cares for all trees, Marie does admit a particular affection for Valley oaks (Quercus lobata), to the aged beauty of mature olive (Olea spp.) trees, and the epic beauty of redwoods (Sequoia spp.).
“One of the great things about working with the varied tree specimens at the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is that my work and this collection demonstrates first-hand how various kinds of trees will grow in the Valley – how big, how wide, how heat tolerant, and, because the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens are in a relatively cold low spot, people can even see how frost tolerant different varieties of trees are.” Marie says this as she points out one frost damage on plants in the garden that were burnt by the hard frost we had in mid-December last year – but new growth is popping out. “Visitors also see see first-hand how the gardeners here take care of the various trees – at the seasonally appropriate times.”
As Lead Gardener, Marie has two part-time gardeners as well as between 40 and 50 volunteers who work with her and Horticultural Manager Lisa Endicott on the maintenance and educational programs at the botanical gardens year-round. This year the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens added a new educational series dedicated to trees. “We hold all of the classes in the series during the months when home gardeners should be working with their trees,” Marie noted. “The hot dry months of the North State summer is not when you should be planting or pruning if you can possibly help it!”
The first class in the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens Tree Series was “an extensive pruning class that lasted four hours” held in January and taught by the Tree Goddess herself; a February class led by regional garden designer Karen McGrath focused on different trees in the landscape; a March class, again taught by Marie, was on tree care for home gardeners; and a planting workshop is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2010 at 9:30 am. The Tree Series will continue next year as well, so look for announcements on the On-line Calendar of Gardening Events or the Turtle Bay website later in the year. Marie is also working on introducing even more tree and tree care signage throughout the botanical gardens and a larger selection of trees that thrive in our region to be available for sale at the arboretum’s excellent plant nursery.
Besides her horticultural and educational work at the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Marie also writes a Tree Goddess column for this site, ANewsCafe.com, in which she discusses (and often demonstrates with photos) the beauty and wonder of trees from sources as varied as technical manuals and ancient folktales.
Marie is available for tree pruning and care consultations and she is happy to recommend an arborist to complete any extensive work she might recommend. Contact her by email with questions: mstadther@Turtlebay.org
Two of Marie’s favorite books are “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein and “The Lorax,” by Dr. Seuss. She also recommends “The Forest in Folklore and Mythology” by Alexander Porteous. For something more technical, “How to Prune Fruit Trees” by R. Sanford Martin she says is a great guide for homeowners, and Ed Gilman’s website is great for those that want more up-to-date technical info. She uses a lot of his info for her classes, “although I have to alter it for California since he’s in Florida,” she points out.
Look for Marie at the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens upcoming Festa Botanica!:
Turtle Bay Member Party Presale
Friday, April 30, 2010, 4 – 8 p.m.
(Memberships available at the gate)
General public sale
Saturday, May 1, 2010, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Spring into the gardening season at Festa Botanica, April 30th and May 1st at Turtle Bay’s Plant Nursery! You’ll experience a festive twist to our annual Spring Plant Sale as the Nursery is transformed into a garden marketplace. Food, beer and beverages, music, garden art and antiques, craft and gift vendors – it’s all here, your one-stop, garden-shopping experience. We encourage visitors to bring a wagon to fill with our popular heirloom vegetables, drought-tolerant plants, and hard-to-find perennials, shrubs, and trees. Pick up some California native plants and choose from a wide variety of ornamental grasses. Everything is propagated and grown here in our Nursery and acclimated to Redding’s challenging climatic conditions. Get your garden going and have fun doing it at this unique spring fundraising event. No admission charge. For more information, call (530) 242-3169.
TRANSFORM YOUR GARDEN!
Ornamental & Vegetable Plants
Garden Art and Antiques, Craft & Gift Vendors
Plant Experts – California Native Plant Society, Shasta County Master Gardeners and our Horticultural Staff and Volunteers
Food, Beer and Beverage garden by Turtle Bay Cafe’s Joe and Joni Catanio
Botanical Garden Tours
Free Admission to Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
20% discount on Turtle Bay’s Nursery plants to Turtle Bay members
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, April 30 – TURTLE BAY MEMBER PARTY & PRESALE
4:00 PM – Gate opens (Memberships available for purchase)
4:00 PM – Hosted wine bar sponsored by Karen McGrath Design and Jewellgarden.com
4:00 PM – Silent auction for professional garden design consultations, custom-framed botanical prints, and a bountiful Garden Gift Basket
4:00 PM – Live music by The Swing Cats
5:00 PM – Free tour of Botanical Gardens
7:30 PM – Silent auction ends
7:45 PM – Silent auction winners announced
Saturday, May 1 – GENERAL PUBLIC SALE
9:00 AM – Gate opens (Memberships available for purchase)
9:00 AM – Free children’s arts & crafts and garden activities all day
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM – Charlie Rabbit at children’s activities area
9:30 AM – Free tour of Botanical Gardens
LOCATION – TURTLE BAY’S McCONNELL ARBORETUM AND BOTANICAL GARDEN NURSERY
1100 ARBORETUM DRIVE
REDDING, CALIFORNIA
DIRECTIONS
Take North Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive (Dutch Bros. Coffee on the corner) Take right fork on Arboretum Drive. Parking lot on the left. Enter through Nursery Gate from parking lot.
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In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California and made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum – Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico. In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here.
