Keele University Arboretum

2017

August 4th

Our most well-known and loved oak lost a major limb. I guess heavy rain and strong winds were too much for the massive horizontal branch.

July 18th

Dave Emley led a group up to the Sustainability Hub and then to the ponds on Phase 3 to look for wild flowers and dragonflies. Of the latter we had good views of an Emperor Dragonfly hawking of the first two ponds; an impressive sight. There were plenty of flowers to see too including Greater Burnet and Burnet Saxifrage which only occur here at Keele. Thanks to Tom Maurice for the photo.

May

Journalists from Japan's Kateigaho magazine (the equivalent of our Country Life) visited Keele earlier this month. They interviewed people associated with the National Collection of Cherries at Keele, including Dr Peter Thomas and Chris Sanders VMH. They will be publishing a feature on cherry collections in the UK with a major emphasis on Keele.

Also (pictured right), Dr Takaaki Oohara from the Botanic Gardens of Toyama, Japan, and Dr Junko Oikawa, a consultant in horticulture and plant conservation based in Germany, came to view Keele's cherry collection recently. Dr Oohara is investigating the DNA of very old cherry cultivars to establish their original parentage, and also the reintroduction of some of the cherries in our collection back into Japan where they are currently extinct.

April 22nd

Dave Emley led a group from Shropshire Wildlife Trust around the grounds.

April 20th