Cherry Trees are Blooming at the Japanese Tea Garden

What's Growing - March 6, 2023

Interpretive Volunteer Updates

Dear Volunteers,

The cherry trees have begun blossoming at the Japanese Tea Garden and it feels as if spring is just around the corner. Most of the trees are still a few weeks away from blooming, but cherry blossom season has officially begun! Our wonderful partners at City Guides lead public and private tours at the Japanese Tea Garden. I recommend that you stop by for a tour if you can - you may even see some familiar faces leading their tours! In addition, I'm happy to share that you can now see Botanical Garden Public Tours posted here. Thank you to all of our volunteers who registered through this new process. I look forward to hearing how your tours go this March.

Thank you to Donna for inviting Library Director Brandy Kuhl to speak to our volunteer community on Friday, February 24. It was an insightful talk as Brandy shared new acquisitions, programs, events, and more about our eBooks and the Library Cards that members - which includes any active volunteer - have access to. If you are an active volunteer who would like to access our Pay-What-You Can Membership benefit, please complete this form. This benefit is available to all active and registered Gardens of Golden Gate Park volunteers. I hope that this informative session will inspire more frequent visits to the Library and help us remember to connect our visitors to this wonderful space.

Read on to learn about upcoming events this month!

Magnolia Conservation

Engagement Manager Sarah Sawtelle continues the conversation from our previous What's Growing newsletter.

As a follow-up to last week’s focus on the challenges Magnolias face in the wild, this week we’ll focus on more encouraging news of Magnolia Conservation efforts at the SFBG and beyond.

What is being done at the Botanical Garden to help conserve Magnolias?

Research and conservation efforts are underway across the world to better understand and protect threatened Magnolia species. The Magnolia Conservation Consortium, of which SFBG is a member, is part of this effort. Founded in 2020, “The goal of the Global Conservation Consortium for Magnolia is to mobilise a coordinated network of institutions and experts who work collaboratively to develop and implement a comprehensive conservation strategy to prevent the extinction of the world’s Magnolia species.”

The importance of Magnolias in Garden Collections:

As Gao Chen and Weibang Sun share in The role of botanical gardens in scientific research, conservation, and citizen science, harboring Magnolia species ex situ (outside of their natural range) in botanical garden collections is an important part of conservation efforts. These specimens can serve as an “assurance population” that would persist even if a Magnolia species were to become extinct in the wild. A presence in a botanical collection cannot substitute for wild individuals and the ecological roles they play. However, ex situ collections would be essential if there were an effort to repopulate or reintroduce a species into its natural range, especially if it were to become extinct in the wild. To learn more about SFBG’s Magnolia collection: see SFBG’s Magnolias by the Numbers 2023.

Magnolia Grafting Project

Some species of Magnolias are uncommon in botanical collections. Propagating magnolias and adding more individuals to collections across the world is a way of protecting ex situ populations of Magnolias. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) notes that, “By developing protocols for grafting wild threatened Magnolia species and with gardens across the United States working together to propagate these, the hope is that the trees will be added to each gardens’ collection, boosting their numbers and diversity and increasing their chances of survival. If successful, the teams involved will have established a model that could be extended across more gardens within the region, providing a high impact, low risk programme for preventing the extinction of these beautiful trees.”

Interpretive Volunteer Registration and Resources

Botanical Garden:

Register for volunteer spots at the Botanical Garden through your unique Volunteer Portal.
Magnificent Magnolias Volunteer Guide - Revisit our December 5 training video and access additional training materials. Including our checklist of which ones are in bloom.

Conservatory of Flowers:

The Potted Plants gallery's glass has been replaced but scaffolding remains in place while work is completed. The closure area is now smaller.

Sign Up for School Visit Volunteer Assignments
Gallery Updates
Sign Up for Interpretive Volunteer - Greeting/Roving/Station
Volunteer Assignment Calendar - View all currently booked assignments.

Japanese Tea Garden:

There are no volunteer opportunities but learn more about the Japanese Tea Garden with these resources:

Enrichment Opportunities and Events

Pi(e) Day Potluck at the Botanical Garden

Tuesday, March 14

Outdoors by the Botanical Garden Bookstore; 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Join us for a most irrational and transcendental celebration of all things round as we host a convivial gathering at the Botanical Garden. RSVP here so that you can be notified in the event we must postpone or move the event to a different location.

**Book Discussion Group: Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard**

Thursday, March 16

Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture; 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Participants will meet to discuss Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard. RSVPs should be emailed to Nina Moore at nina.moore@yahoo.com.

Technology at the Botanical Garden: Modeling Our Environment

Wednesday, March 22

Recreation Room in the County Fair Building; 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Since the inception of the San Francisco Botanical Garden in 1940, plant records have been an important element of the work at SFBG. As of 2010, Steve Gensler’s role as G.I.S. Manager (Geographic Information System) has been not only to document our collections, but to enhance that documentation. During this presentation, he will give a brief history of the work in Plant Collections at SFBG and provide a glimpse into the future.

Nature Journaling

Typically second and fourth Mondays of the month at noon

Join our Nature Journaling Group! If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive updates on their next session or if you have any questions, please contact Mira Sinick at msinick@gmail.com.

Save the Date!

April 21, 2023 - Meet the Trees Walk from 10 am - 12 noon at the Botanical Garden.

I hope that we'll se you at the Gardens this month!

Best wishes,

Crystal

Crystal Lee Stone | Volunteer Program Manager
__________________________________________
Gardens of Golden Gate Park
P (415) 661-1316 Ext. 400

9am-5pm, M-F
clstone@sfbg.org

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