Ablevision Visits The Arnold Arboretum

(music) (music) (music) (music) (music) What you do here at the arboretum? I work in the education department with visitors at the arboretum so we run a visitor's center and we have tours and other programs for people who come here to enjoy the landscape. What do you do here? I'm a guide here. I just take groups around. Jason:Why do you stay here? Chris:Because I came on a tour here twenty-five years ago and I enjoyed it so much that I became a guide myself. (music) We love to recommend that people come and stop in the visitor's center because there's a great exhibition in there and an amazing model of the arboretum so you can't walk around and see the whole thing you can see it in miniature in a model form and we also have a wonderful library and if you can't actually come to the arboretum we have a great website so a lot of people like to visit our website and you kind of get a virtual view of the arboretum. People love to visit the bonsai they're are very popular destination we get to see the oldest tree in the arboretum even though it's only about this big it's actually the oldest one from 1737. This is a tag that indentifies this particular plant and every plant in the arboretum that we put here has one of these tags for over 15,000 different plants here and every single of one of those has one of these copper-colored tags. Amanda: What do you do here? I'm a greenhouse and nursery manager and basically I grow plants for the arboretum all the plants that go on the arboretum I grow them from seed. What do you like best about your job? I guess really it's just growing plants and being involved with people. Amanda:What's your favorite plant? Oree:I don't have a favorite plant, actually I like them all. Tom: Do you have a favorite kind of tree or plant? In the summer I think my favorite is probably this Metasequoia here it's called the Dawn-Redwood. And it was a tree that was thought to be extinct for a while it only existed as fossils and this tree though is discovered in China and in 1948 we planted a seed that turned into this amazing tree. (music) How do you do about the stakes over there? The stakes? That's a great question. So you see that stake in the background, we put stakes next to plants that are new in the arboretum. We probably been growing that plant in our greenhouse for several years but we put that stake next to it when we put it out in the landscape and that helps our gardeners to know that it needs extra care. I'm a gardener here at the arboretum and I take care of this huge garden right here. How do you take care of all this? Well, there is a whole lot to take care of here! I do a lot of pruning and in the springtime all of these beds behind you we mulched them all, put a new layer of mulch down, and we do soil testing to make sure the soils are healthy and we check for pests and diseases. Do you work out here in the cold weather too in the winter? We work out here in the cold weather in the snow and in the wintertime we plow actually the snow. (music) (music) (music) Why is the arboretum important to the community? Well, because the arboretums' here in Boston it's one of the biggest parks in Boston so it's a great place for people to come and just enjoy walking around outdoors, walking their dogs, just sitting and enjoying nature. The fact that there's this incredible 265 acre open space that anyone can come to dawn to dust that's an incredible resource for this city of Boston. We're completely free arboretum, we're open seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we have trees, shrubs, and vines from all over the world growing here so you can come and learn about trees not just from North America but also from all over Asia and Europe and really get a chance to travel the globe right here in Boston. (music) (music) (music) This is three seeds. (music) (music) (music) (music)