By Andy Schmitz, Director of Horticulture and General manager

This article was originally published in The Brenton Arboretum’s Autumn 2016 newsletter.

Back in 2008, The Brenton Arboretum made a long-term goal to have a Nationally Accredited Plant Collection™ through the American Public Gardens Association’s Plant Collection Network, to  put us among a prominent group of arboreta and gardens in the country.

This goal began our extensive wild-collected Kentucky coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioicus. The first seed collection was made at Ledges State Park in Boone County, Iowa in May of 2008 and now eight years later, having     traveled over 20,000 miles in 16 different states and planting out 111 wild seed collections of this species, our goal has been achieved. We have over 120 accessioned Kentucky coffeetrees including the wild-collected ones and cultivars in the collection. Most are small trees planted in the past few years, and they are located in three different areas of the Arboretum. About twenty are along the main road before you reach Lake Homestead, about 20 are within Eddy Glen, and the other 60 are located outside the fence on land owned by Brenton Bros. in the northeast corner of the Arboretum.

In March of this year, a lengthy application was submitted to the American Public Gardens Association detailing our collection. In early September, Kris Bachtell, vice president of collections and facilities at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois spent a day conducting a site review of our record keeping, facilities, and collections, all the while talking to staff and board members about our commitment to this collection. In his final report, Mr. Bachtell said, “This collection is already the most diverse collection site representation of the species in North American and very likely in the world.”

Our efforts with this collection were made possible by our collaboration with the USDA North   Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, Iowa, where the collected Kentucky coffeetree seed is stored for long term preservation and with the funding from the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm  System Plant Exploration/Exchange Office which has funded five seed collecting trips.

With this collection, we are committed to plant preservation, high standards of collection care and record keeping, along with allowing the collection to be available to researchers. The Kentucky coffeetrees are always here for your viewing, so definitely come out to see and watch them grow.

To learn more about the other collections within the Plant Collection Network, visit:                https://publicgardens.org/programs/plant-collections-network/plant-collections