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New Year, New You: Ring in the New Year at the Arboretum
Every New Year, millions of people look at themselves in the mirror and decide to make a change. But, we've also experienced that moment where the excitement and newness of the year wears off and our resolve falters: Life happens. We get busy. We return to the comfort...
Homegrown Holiday Trees
This season, I’ll be decorating a Real Christmas Tree along with 25-30 million other people in the United States. The title, Real Christmas Tree, is an official one, adopted by the National Christmas Tree Association and the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association....
Top Five Favorites for Thanksgiving Weekend in Asheville and Western North Carolina
Thanksgiving is just around the corner (tomorrow, actually!) and there is so much to be thankful for this year. In Western North Carolina, the fall season shined brightly with beautiful, colorful foliage, and Asheville kicked off the holiday season last weekend with...
Paula Entin’s Fibersong: The Beauty and Whimsy of Nature
Award-winning artist Paula Entin would be the first to tell you that she’s not an ordinary quilter: “From the very beginning, I gravitated towards strong colors, textures and odd shapes," she recalled. Entin first encountered non-traditional quilts in Middlebury,...
Scarlet Sourwoods Contribute to The North Carolina Arboretum’s Abundant Autumn
It is not the largest tree in the forest, but that doesn’t mean the sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) doesn’t stand out in a crowd of hardwoods and pines. This time of the year, these medium-sized trees are easy to spot along The North Carolina Arboretum’s approach road,...
September is Monarch Month at the Arboretum
Every fall, as the air turns cooler and the leaves begin to look like they are ready for a change, the sky is dotted with monarch butterflies. For as long as anyone can remember, they have been making this trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains, taking advantage of...
ecoEXPLORE’s July Journey of Discovery: 10 State Parks in 10 Days
It was a whirlwind adventure for The North Carolina Arboretum’s ecoEXPLORE team: visiting 10 state parks in 10 days. They began with animal encounters at Chimney Rock State Park and a salamander meander at nearby Rumbling Bald. From there they and their...
Celebrating Colorful Cosmos
Fifty years ago this month, Apollo 11’s trip into space produced Neil Armstrong’s July 20, 1969, walk on the moon, along with historic awe-inspiring photographs of the moon, earth and the surrounding cosmos. In 1980, astrophysicist Carl Sagan brought the story of our...
A Floral Approach to Memorial Day
As Memorial Day approaches, we can think of many activities, traditions and events that will take place over the three-day weekend. A retreat to the lake, a family cookout, the opening of the community pool, these are just some of the memories that come to my mind...
Ready, Set, Snap: WNC to Compete in the 2019 City Nature Challenge
Calling all nature (smart phone) lovers! Do you love Western North Carolina and all of its natural beauty? Do you find yourself taking photos of plants or animals that you encounter on your hikes? Do you love to WIN competitions while also supporting scientific...