While outdoor gardening chores are suspended for the winter months, a dedicated group of 12 volunteers is hard at work in the greenhouses. From left in the photo are Jean Reynolds, Jeanne Pisatowski, Carol Huber and Tina Califano, all Passaic County Master Gardeners and members of Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum (FOLA). Jeanne is holding a scented geranium, one of many that the group has been propagating to plant around the Knippenberg Memorial Gazebo in the spring to repelinsects.

Each fall the volunteers bring “mother” plants into the greenhouses and take cuttings for future use in the Arboretum. “This cost-saving practice produces many annual plants for the gardens. We also grow many annuals from seed,” said Carol Huber. “In the fall, we bring in a number of Laurelwood’s valuable plants that can’t survive the winter and then replant them when the weather warms.”

To learn more about Laurelwood Arboretum’s activities year round, browse this website, send an email to info@laurelwoodarboretum.org or visit us on Facebook.