Grafting our Legacy

Since the time of planting between 1860 and 1870 until today, the Painter era Cedar of Lebanon lived a glorious life -- witnessing the transformation of a home farm to a place where a community of people would come to celebrate nature after a pandemic. Yet, sadly, our historic Cedar of Lebanon is coming to the end of its life. Whether it is the stress created by climate change with hotter summers, severe storms and higher than usual winds or it’s natural lifespan of 150 to 300 years, our staff, volunteers and visitors have seen the slow changes in the last few years of this majestic tree. Even though we have a grove of Cedar of Lebanon in our Pinetum, none will be as special as this one.
However, we will have a chance to see this exact tree growing again at Tyler Arboretum again - though it may look a little different at first. As the hard decision was made to take this tree down, we also made plans on propagating it so that it’s genetics may return to Tyler and perhaps, other public gardens. On December 16th 2020, on a cold overcast day, a community of arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts and horticulturists came to Tyler to help us assess and rescue our cedar of Lebanon. The tree needed to be in dormancy as cuttings from a dormant tree would have the highest success rate. Chuck Feld, a longtime Tyler supporter and professional plantsmen & arborist, was present, eagerly watching the arborists scale the giant. They would end up at the top where viable branches can be identified and harvested. These precious branches were sent to Longwood Gardens, Morris Arboretum, JG Akerboom nursery and to a local nursery owned by Chuck Feld, Birmingham Gardens.
Tylerarboretum.org/connect