October - UT Gardens - The University of Tennessee

New Executive Director
The officers of the Friends of
the UT Gardens are pleased
to introduce Elizabeth
Burman as new executive
director, succeeding
Theresa Pepin. Elizabeth is
the first program coordinator
for the University’s Marco
Institute for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies. She furnished their offices
and classrooms, built their Web site and organized
and managed all publications, facilities,
scheduling, special events and conferences.
Before coming to UT, she worked at the international
headquarters (in Canada) of a non-profit
organization, where she edited their newsletters
and trained volunteers. Her professional writing
and editing experience includes the researching,
writing, editing and production of directories,
manuals, articles, newsletters, book-length manuscripts,
grant proposals, market surveys, budget
reports, and educational materials.
Elizabeth has led financial management seminars,
was a founding member of the Knoxville’s
Mother’s Center, and is a trained group facilitator.
She has also written and produced four plays.
She attended Smith College in Massachusetts and
Whitman College in Washington, where she graduated
with a B.A. with honors in English, with an
art minor. She is married to Thomas Burman,
Lindsay Young professor of history and interim
head of UT’s Department of History, where he
specializes in the history of Muslim/Jewish/
Christian relations in the Middle Ages. Her son,
David, is a high school senior with a passion for
history, German, and Tintin books; her 11-year
old daughter, Erin, reads books in trees and
recently took up the tuba.
The Friends enthusiastically welcome Elizabeth to
our organization.
From the UT Gardens Director
Dr. Susan Hamilton
Because of the new Friendship Plaza, we will
be able to add to our various collections in the
Gardens. I have designed a planting plan for the
new entrance with lots of input from Friends
members and professional horticulturists. I recently
was able to travel to the Pacific Northwest and visit
many of the notable nurseries, and as a result, I
was able to order numerous select plants that will
really bolster our collections—everything from ornamental
grasses and perennials to trees and shrubs.
The plan is to plant this new area of the Gardens
starting this month through November. Be sure to
check out the many new and exciting selections we
will be adding.
The UT semester and classes are in full swing and
because the UT Gardens serves as an outdoor classroom
and laboratory, the Gardens are abuzz with
students. You’ll see students in the woody tree
and shrub course and our herbaceous plant identification
course studying plants in our different
collections. You might see plants with flagging
tape indicating this is a class test plant. We also
Student from Greenway School in Knoxville drawing plants for their class lesson.
Student from Greenway School in Knoxville drawing plants for their class lesson.
have many school field trips visiting the Gardens.
A notable recent visit was one by the Knoxville
Greenway School, which teaches only sixth through
eighth grade. I found the adolescent students and
teachers from this school spread out all over the
Gardens as they each sketched drawings of different
plants and labeled the different plant parts. Then
the class was to get together and integrate various
academic disciplines into their garden lesson. Their
teacher indicated they would be discussing Latin
plant names, history, science, and math as part of
their garden visit and plant study. This plant-based
education is what school gardens are all about
and it thrilled me to see this unique middle-school
taking advantage of this valuable resource in our
community.
Speaking of education, I had a great learning experience
on a recent trip I took to visit one of our
alumni who is now the director of the Columbus
Botanical Garden in Columbus, Ga. Nicole Sanchez,
who graduated from UT in 2001, went to work at
Callaway Gardens as director of the butterfly conservatory
and then as interim director of the gardens.
Just this past spring, Nicole became the first
director of the new botanical garden in Columbus.
I met with several of Nicole’s board members and
learned about how they are preparing a master
plan for their 200-acre garden. Only two acres are
developed right now, but a wonderfully restored
turn-of-the-century farmhouse has been developed
as the visitor and education center. Nicole has
already grown membership to about 200 and has
developed a monthly newsletter and educational
programs for the year. It was rewarding to see how
well Nicole is doing and learn of the exciting plans
she has to grow their garden.
Nicole Sanchez , director of the Columbus GA Botanical Garden
We wrap up our summer annual plant evaluations
this month and look forward to sharing the results
of our 2007 trials with you in the March 2008 newsletter.
It was not an easy summer to be a plant
or a gardener. Despite the challenging heat and
drought, we still had numerous standout selections.
I commend all of our student interns, graduate
student Beth Willis and Betty Tipton for keeping
all of our plants growing and for collection of our
performance data.
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