By Ashley McColgan, FHM Communications Intern, Curry College, Milton

Provisional members of the Milton Garden Club are completing a survey to identify the trees on the Forbes House Museum property. Through the guidance of MGC past president Sandy Downes, Ruth Culleton, Joan Faulkner, and Mary McLaughlin hope to identify the common name for each tree and its Latin name, species, and family. Some trees will wait until the spring bloom to be definitively identified. The MGC will purchase as a gift to the museum 15 identification tags which will be mounted this summer on trees of historical or horticultural significance. In the end, the Forbes House Museum will create a map featuring a self-guided tour of the museum’s trees and flowering shrubs.

The group has compiled research for their project through visits to the library at the Arnold Aboretum and meetings with local arborists.

Culleton, Faulkner and McLaughlin are drawn to the project because they hope to increase awareness for the Forbes House Museum and its grounds. They seek to educate the public about trees, and explore why decisions were made to put certain specimens on the property. The project is a way for the MGC to contribute to Milton’s 350th anniversary celebration, while focusing on one aspect of the town’s “green” history. The completion of the project and release of the map is scheduled for late spring 2012.

“This exercise may also shed light on current issues facing arborists today, such as climate change, invasive species, disease and pests,” says Ruth Culleton.

In 1994-95, trustees of the Forbes House Museum created an oasis on the property, a garden of tree plantings known as the “Island of Infinite Pleasantness.” Based on a design by Charles Webster, and spearheaded by trustee June Robinson and Sandy Downes, ten plants were part of an initial installation that included a star magnolia (Magnolia stellata), a kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and a Japanese tree lilac (Syringa amurensis).

The Milton Garden Club, founded in 1924, contributes their time, talent and supplies of greenery and flowers to a number of civic projects in Milton. They maintain the perennial garden in front of the main branch of the Milton Public Library and the Lily Corner located at the intersection of Brook Road and Canton Avenue. The members fill town planters and create flower arrangements for holiday celebrations at Milton Historical Society and Forbes House Museum. They have two important fundraising events each year, the Holiday Greens Sale and the spring Perennial Sale.

Their core mission is to promote gardening, educate, and service the increasingly busy environment.

For more information on the tree survey project call the Forbes House Museum at 617-696-1815 or e-mail us at info@forbeshousemuseum.org. Visit the museum’s website at www.forbeshousemuseum.org. For more information on the Milton Garden Club, please visit their website at www.miltongardenclub.org.

Photo (jpeg file) attached: Pictured from left to right, Provisional members, Mary McLaughlin, Joan Faulkner and Ruth Culleton with MGC past president, Sandy Downes.

For more information, contact:

Robin M. Tagliaferri
Executive Director
Forbes House Museum
215 Adams Street
Milton, MA 02186
617.696.1815(tele)
617.696.1907(fax)
r.tagliaferri@forbeshouse