Patron HRH The Prince of Wales		Autumn 2004 Web site: www.kewatch.co.uk Charity no. 1044931
From our Chairman, Sir Ron Cooke. Our trees have enjoyed their binge drinking during this wettest of summers. They continue to flourish, and our collection is constantly growing so that, for instance, we have added over 200 trees this year and now have much more seasonal colour. At the same time, we are making good progress in improving our facilities. We have recently added new sculptures, a grass maze, picnic tables and seats and a second lake, linked to the first by a new bridge and our labelling continues apace. Our visitors are delighted with our progress, which owes so much to the hard work of our wonderful team of staff and volunteers. As a completely independent trust, we have to be financially self-sustaining. Up to now we have continued to grow successfully from modest beginnings, through the support of many generous benefactors and sponsors, especially ‘Kew’ and ‘Castle Howard’; through the invaluable contributions of our volunteers; through the healthy increase in our membership and income from events; and through the increase in visitor numbers, which are doubling every second year. Hopefully such support will continue – but we have reached a crucial point in our development. We have a major and increasingly popular asset. In order properly to serve the increasing number of visitors, and to allow the number to grow so that we can become fully self-sustaining, it is essential to replace our ageing portakabin and single portaloo with a proper education and visitor centre. Much of our effort this year has been directed towards that end. We have a design for the centre, Castle Howard has generously provided space for the new car park (the Christmas tree plantation) and the new access to it will be from the ‘Obelisk Road’. At last, we have planning permission and we have raised about 40% of the capital we need, thanks especially to the help of Peter Marshall. Currently we are seeking matching funds through a bid to DEFRA. If we succeed, as we hope, we should have a new centre within 18 months. If we fail, we shall have to think again. Meanwhile, the trees seem blissfully ignorant of our efforts to bring their beauty and educational potential to a wider public. They continue to flourish for everyone to enjoy. .

Our Team Of Volunteers

Margaret Barber, Ruth Barker, Gill Batty, Les Dalton, Cindy Daniel, Joanna Douglas, Barbara Fuller, Mark & Ann Jones, Harry Kingman, Barbara Kinghorn, Vivienne Pope, Daphne Roberts, Elaine Taylor and Dennis & Dorothy Wilson all embarked on a new adventure when they volunteered to man the ticket desk for weekend duties
Eric and Marjorie Cowham went out on a limb when they volunteered to operate the ticket desk during the week, every week! Harry Kingman volunteered to become our official photographer (have you seen his cards) and now also manages our website www.kewatch.co.uk	Our four long standing ‘work force’ are Bill Townsend, Rod Taylor, Peter Barker and John Kinghorn, who contribute one day every week to mowing, maintenance, digging, building what ever is required. This very supportive team have just been joined by David Hughes and Tim Vines
Another hidden talent – Eric Cowham makes many of the wooden artefacts for sale in the cabin. His speciality, his unique walking sticks Peter Barker makes a massive contribution by printing all membership tickets, car passes and sundry leaflets for us every year	Jenny Roberts volunteered to fill the bird feeders several times a week, organises our winter and summer quiz, and is now lending a hand with tree labelling. Mark Jones a brilliant calligrapher, inscribes the entries in our Commemorative Tree Register

More Colour

	As we go to press (late October 2004), our volunteers are in the Arboretum planting 7,000 spring and autumn bulbs. These include camassia, triteleia, colchicum, leucojum, eranthis and crocus. Our thanks to Peter Marshall, our fundraiser and benefactor for this generous gift, we all look forward to seeing a wonderful display next spring and autumn.

A Year in the Arboretum

March 2004 saw the construction of a new bridge. Built by Neil Batty with our team of volunteers, Peter Barker, John Kinghorn, Rod Taylor and Bill Townsend. The bridge gives access to the lower lake development and was sponsored by Peter Barker in memory of his parents. ________________________________________________ The following professional groups all enjoyed conducted tours of the Arboretum this year – The Forestry Commission, The Forestry Commission Conservancy Group, Wild About Ryedale, The City of Leeds Tree Wardens The Greater Yorkshire Tree Officers The Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens ________________________________________________ In June Tyne Tees Television came to film an episode of The Dales Diary with Luke Casey. They return in the spring to film some further footage and this will be transmitted in June 2005 in the Yorkshire and Tyne/Tees areas. ________________________________________________ As part of our educational programme the Arboretum is involved on several projects with Malton School. One of these projects with A level and GCSE art students this year, was the construction and presentation of a conceptual piece Baucis and Philomen. Staff were invited to the performance during the school art exhibition and the sculpture, constructed in oak and lime from the arboretum, is now on show in the Arboretum.

We were delighted to welcome the International Dendrologist Society on 7^th May A total of 74 members, (many from abroad) toured the Arboretum with John Simmons, Tony Kirkham and Neil Batty to learn about the ‘Management of a Modern Arboretum’. Following a picnic lunch the group toured the collection in Ray Wood. Subsequently one of the members, Vicomte Philippe de Spoelberch, made a generous donation towards the work of re-labelling Ray Wood. ________________________________________________ In June staff attended at Gresgarth Hall, Lancashire – home of one of our Trustees, Lady Lennox-Boyd. The gardens were open to the public on that day and Lady Lennox-Boyd kindly donated the income from the day to our appeal fund for the visitor and education centre. Our thanks to Lady Lennox-Boyd. The gardens of Gresgarth Hall, Caton, Lancashire are open on 10th April, 8th May, 12th June, 10th July, 14th August, 11th September and 9th October 2005 and a visit is highly recommended See the web site www.arabellalennoxboyd.com Gresgarth Hall ________________________________________________ The Arboretum Trust Annual Lecture 2004 on 12 May was well attended with guests enjoying the talk by Ursula Buchan on the famous plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward (1885-1958). Among our guests were Sue Seddon, Editor of Kew Friends Magazine and Judy Cheney Administrator of Plantnet. After the talk guests toured Ray Wood looking particularly at the many rhododendrons originally collected by Kingdon-Ward. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________ Our outdoor event in July was The Oddsocks Theatre Company with their wacky production of The Legend of Robin Hood. A very enjoyable evening for all. We have re-booked them for Sunday July 24^th 2005 for a performance of ‘The Tempest’.

York College final year students studying furniture design, restoration and conservation made and presented this stunning seat for the Arboretum. Directed by their course tutor, John Apps - Nigel Summersgill and Tim Jarvis designed the seat to encompass ‘trees’ and the result is an eight foot long english oak seat in four parts, each part the leaf of the whitebeam tree. The central pinnacle, the work of James Morris, architectural blacksmith of Terrington, mirrors the stalks of the leaves. Neil with John Apps and Nigel Summersgill

2005 Open dates

Members Opening	1^st February to 30^th November - every day
Public Opening	1^stMarch to 30^th October - every day except Mondays but including Bank Holidays

Graded Membership Scheme

Standard Members	Adult - £19.00
	Child - £11.00
Members renewing before the end of January will receive a discount of £2.00
Members Benefits
Access to the arboretum for two additional months – February and November	Longer opening hours per day 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
Late opening until 8.00 p.m. on Wednesdays during June, July and August 2005	4 vouchers per year for access to Ray Wood, the Grounds & Gardens of Castle Howard
Discount on Events	Annual Newsletter
Free admission to Bedgebury Pinetum, Westonbirt Arboretum and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Why not increase your level of membership to one of the following?
Premier Member £50.00 per person per year All standard benefits plus 8 tickets per member to bring your friends to the Arboretum	Life Member £400 per person Gives access to member and a guest, discount on events plus the annual newsletter
Sponsoring Member £300 per year All standard benefits plus Sponsorship of a selected tree with commemorating/ sponsorship plaque. Invitation to our Patron’s Day 8 tickets per member to bring your friends to the Arboretum	Benefactor Member Donations of £750+ per year All standard benefits plus Recognition of donations by sponsorship of a tree. Invitation to our annual Patron’s Day. Facility to book the Arboretum as an evening venue for your private event.

Curator’s Diary

Though aware of the steady development of many fine trees in the arboretum, I am always encouraged by positive comments on our progress from professional visitors, like the International Dendrologists who visited in May and had not seen the arboretum since the 90’s or earlier. Recently a 1990 addition to the sand banks, a young, vigorous, and rare Pinus remorata, caught the attention of both the Curator and Botanist from the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens who visited in September. The plant came to us via Lord Howick, and it was raised from seed collected by the University of California’s botanic garden. This species occurs only on the islands of Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa that are off of the coast of southern California, and our plant emanates from the former island. Related to the fast growing (to 30m) Bishop Pine (which also grows on barren acid sand) we can expect it to form a large tree. Though several of its sister seedlings were lost when young to winter frost, this plant is now well established, and has thus become another ‘first time grown in Yorkshire’ and a further addition to the list of plants from exotic places that are thriving in the arboretum.

One of our founding Trustees, Sir Richard Storey, who hosted the Hillier visit and is Chairman of that arboretum’s management committee, has been intrigued by the value of mycorrhiza, (literally fungus root) to trees. Most Members will be familiar with the pathogenic effects on trees of fungi, like honey fungus, but less aware of the beneficial effects of other fungi. A great many plants have symbiotic relationships with fungi that are to the advantage of both fungi and hosts, and their presence can visibly improve tree growth on poor soils. Such fungi are now routinely added to nursery stock beds, and, since 1998, Kew has been using a soil injection treatment to add beneficial mycorrhizae to its mature trees. Professor Alistair Fitter of the University of York has been sampling roots of maples in the arboretum to look for fungi (maples have an endotrophic mycorrhiza that lives within the root cells) and this triggers the separate thought that another reason for the more recent good growth of trees in the arboretum might well be due to a natural spread of mycorrhizae.

Many parts of the arboretum have a heavy wet soil. Over time the trees and grasses have slowly improved the soil, but generally, in the wetter areas, growth is slower, even for trees that can grow in bogs. There is a grove of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, near the south end of the Furniture Makers Vista that were planted in 1982. Though they normally grow well on wet soil, these seed raised trees have struggled for years on this cold wet site, but are now beginning to grow away.

One of only five deciduous conifer species, metasequoias can be confused with swamp cypresses (Taxodium) but the metasequoias have shoots in opposite pairs. Discovered in China in 1941, and known previously just from fossils, it was introduced to Britain in 1948 from the small, relict population in southwest Hubei and adjacent eastern Sichuan. In the 56 years since its introduction some of the original plantings have made large trees, one in Leonardslee Gardens (Sussex) measured 31m high and 71cm in diameter in 1996. As our trees grow we can expect them soon to exhibit their lovely russet to pink autumn tints. Perhaps too we can encourage them by adding a ‘pinch of soil’ (and thus introducing mycorrhiza) from a more mature plant - that is taking the advice given to Sir Richard by a colleague, to see if it works!

Can you help?

Our Wish List For Future Volunteers
An occasional office assistant	A Friends’ Group Organiser	Man/woman power to assist with events	Guide for school groups
A walker to walk the boundary fence once a week – noting any problems	An exhibitions assistant for our new education and visitor centre	A fixer – to help with the maintenance of labels in Ray Wood	A marketing assistant to distribute promotional literature and posters

Deli-iciuos Farm Shop & Cafe

Castle Howard officially opened a NEW Farm Shop, Café and Chocolate Shop in November 2004.

These outlets will showcase the best foods the region has to offer. Situated in the Stable Courtyard all outlets and the existing retail outlets are open throughout the year.