A fall festival at Maxwell Arboretum from 4 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 will celebrate the bounty of the season with samples of apples, nuts, popcorn, cheese and ice cream, and its beauty with tours and displays at UNL’s East Campus.
“This is an event for the whole family,” said Ted Hartung, president of the Friends of Maxwell Arboretum.
Besides the displays and samples that relate to the state, the university and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, there will be kids’ activities and adult tours to highlight some of the beauties of this public garden.
Activities include free popcorn, ice cream from the Dairy Store, apples from Kimmel Orchards, various nuts from the Nebraska Nut Growers Association, a bee presentation by entomologist Marion Ellis, a tree-planting and a raffle for a special tree. The city of Lincoln, Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, ReTree and UNL Garden Friends will have displays throughout the garden.
The arboretum is named after Earl Maxwell, state extension forester at the university from 1934 until his retirement in 1952. Maxwell began planting trees on campus more than 70 years ago. Maxwell Arboretum was formally dedicated in 1969. A flagship site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, the Maxwell site has eight acres with a wide variety of trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous perennials, both as single specimens and in collections.
The fall festival is sponsored by the Friends of Maxwell, a group formed to help manage and develop the Maxwell Arboretum as a resource for education, research and outreach. Over the years, numerous individuals, academic departments and civic organizations have worked to ensure that Maxwell Arboretum provides the university community and visitors with an educational as well as an aesthetic experience.
Parking will be available west of the dental college. In the event of heavy rain, activities will move to the Great Plains room in the East Union.
More information on the festival and on UNL gardens, including a history and a “bloom chart,” is available at http://unlgardens.unl.edu/home.
For more information, contact Ted Hartung at 402-488-5568 or Justin Evertson at 402-472-5045.
