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Brenton Arboretum Director of Horticulture, Andy Schmitz, has recently been published in a distinguished horticultural journal. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Boston, MA, considered by most people in the public horticulture industry to be one of the top botanical institutions in the world, publishes The Arnoldia, a quarterly periodical distributed to thousands of subscribers here and abroad.

Being included in this outstanding publication is quite a badge of honor for Andy and co-author, Jeffrey Carstens, horticulturist at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, IA.

The article, entitled "Exploring the Native Range of the Kentucky Coffeetree," details Andy's and Jeff's adventures and experiences in their travels to hunt down the Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) deep in the wilds of North America's woodlands.

The Brenton Arboretum and the National Plant Germplasm System have been collaborating on this research since 2008. And the collecting trips have resulted in nearly 100 thriving trees planted into the landscape at the Arboretum and thousands of seeds banked in a long-term seed storage repository for wild plant genetics.

Trekking around the woods sounds like a fun way to make a living, right? But you might be asking, why do they do it and who cares? Well, environmental changes - urbanization, global warming, devastation from invasive species, pests and diseases - are constantly threatening our native woodlands. This collection of seeds ensures the stability and the genetic diversity of the species for the future, come what may.

And there's another great benefit of this remarkable project. This collection and research provides a model for ex situ conservation that other researchers around the globe can implement to help save the native wild species in their own neck of the woods!

Read Andy's and Jeff's informative and enjoyable article here: Exploring the Native Range of Kentucky Coffeetree

Written by The Perry News
March 18, 2016

The Brenton Arboretum near Dallas Center recently bought a new John Deere Gator with help from a $2,500 grant from the Dallas County Foundation.

The electric-powered Gator is outfitted with extra seats so students with limited mobility can fully participate in the educational experience of field trips that are led by arboretum staff members.

Brenton Arboretum Executive Director Melissa Burdick said the new equipment is a boon to the organization’s outreach programs, and she thanked the Dallas County Foundation for their generosity.

“Our Knee-high Naturalist field trip programs reached more than 1,000 local Iowa school children last year,” Burdick said, “and our goal is to reach as many or more in 2016. This vehicle will ensure that every child has the best possible experience during their visit to the Arboretum.”

The Brenton Arboretum offers free guided field trips to all non-profit schools. To schedule a field trip, contact Education and Outreach Director Beth Wingert at beth@thebrentonarboretum.org or call 515-992-4211.

The Brenton Arboretum is located at 25141 260th St. in Dallas Center. It is free and open to the public daily from 9 a.m. to sunset. Dogs are welcome with a $5 day pass for non-members. For more information visit the Brenton Arboretum website.

The Quad City Times

Written by Alma Gaul

February 14, 2016

With all the pest problems affecting many of our common trees, you may wonder what is safe to plant.

Horticulturist Andy Schmitz has an emphatic answer: the Kentucky coffeetree.

It's a native, though relatively rare, tree that typically grows 60 to 80 feet tall and about 40 to 50 feet around. It has no pests, is adaptable to urban settings, tolerates drought and occasional flooding, is fast growing when young, thrives in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8, and can be considered "tough." It also lives a long time, from 100 to 150 years.

With all these fine attributes, you may wonder why you've never heard of it, or why it isn't more widely used in the landscape industry.

The reason is its rarity. But Schmitz, horticulture director at the 141-acre Brenton Arboretum just west of Des Moines, is out to change that.

He'll tell you more about why he loves this tree on Saturday, March 5, when he will be one of six speakers at the annual Horticulture in the Heartland event at Clinton Community College.

Other topics include pruning, honey bees, insects, sempervivums, container gardens, perennials and herbs.

The Kentucky coffeetree - so named because its seeds can be roasted and used as a substitute for coffee - is rare precisely because of its seeds. Their coats are so hard it's believed only hugh creatures such as the now extinct mastodon could break them, thus allowing them to sprout and grow.

Without creatures to disperse the seeds, the only chance for regeneration is if the seed coat is broken down by natural processes. This takes a long time and because seedlings are intolerant of shade, most don't grow.

But Schmitz knows where many of them are. For the past eight years, he and an employee of the USDA have traveled to 14 different states - Minnesota to Oklahoma - to collect seeds of the Kentucky coffeetree and propagate them at the arboretum.

He finds the trees through internet searches, contacting Midwestern universities about their herbariums (plant collections) and networking with people who work in state parks and departments of natural resources.

Schmitz' goal is to develop a collection of coffeetrees at the arboretum with various characteristics depending on where they are growing.

A specific collection of plants is as important for an arboretum - an outdoor museum of plants - as a specific collection of paintings is for an art museum.

Many arborists build reputations based on their specialties; the Bickelhaupt in Clinton, for example, is known for its conifers and Rieman Gardens, in Ames, is known for its Buck roses, hardy varieties developed by a professor named Griffith Buck.

Arboretum collections are beautiful to look at and students or scientists can use them for research.

Now that you've heard all these good things about coffeetrees, you may wonder how you can get one.

Schmitz said they can be found at nurseries, or at least ordered through a nursery. Don't look for them at mass-marketer, big box stores.

In addition, Schmitz will bring a sack of seeds to his talk in Clinton and will give them away, along with instructions on how to prepare them for planting.

One caution: The seeds of the female tree are contained in rather large pods. If you are the kind of person who doesn't like the looks of pods, or cleaning them up from the ground, you should be sure to get a male tree.

Schmitz, though, loves the pods. "Horticulturally, they are just georgous," he said. He also likes the coffeetree's coarse structure in the winter and its leaves in the summer. The tree produces what is called a doubly compounded leaf, meaning lots of little leaves regarded as one big leaf. At 24 inches long, it is the largest leaf of any tree in North America.