Saturday, April 26, 2-4 p.m.
An Arbor Day celebration welcomes guests to Mapleton Preserve, the former home of Princeton Nurseries, on Saturday, April 26th, from 2 – 4 p.m. William Flemer IV (a member of the Flemer family that founded the legendary Princeton Nurseries) will present a demonstration of the grafting techniques used by the Nursery. This will be followed by the planting of a specimen tree in the Flemer Arboretum. As in past years, those who worked at the Princeton Nurseries Kingston site have been invited back to share stories and memories with the public. All guests will receive a seedling tree to bring home and plant. This event, sponsored by Friends of Princeton Nursery Lands, will be held at the Headquarters of the D&R Canal State Park, located at 145 Mapleton Road in Kingston, 08540. For more information and directions, call 609-514-2416 (weekdays) or 609-683-0483 (evenings and weekends). Registration is NOT required, all are welcome and admission is FREE! Master Gardeners will receive 1 CE unit for attending this event.
BACKGROUND
William Flemer IV has trees in his blood. He is a member of the family that founded the Princeton Nurseries, a legendary wholesale tree nursery that was headquartered for 82 years in Kingston, NJ, and was operated by four generations of the Flemer family.
Princeton Nurseries (now located in Allentown, NJ) has provided a specimen tree to be planted for the 2008 Arbor Day Celebration. This continues their tradition of donating specimens for the Flemer Arboretum. The arboretum is named for legendary plantsman William Flemer, III and his brother, the late Dr. John Flemer. William Flemer III (who passed away last spring) developed some of the best loved plants in American horticulture, including the Princeton Sentry® Gingko, ‘Snow Queen’ Hydrangea, and the October Glory® Maple.
This year's tree is a Maackia amurensis 'Starburst', and was developed by William Flemer III at Princeton Nurseries. A small deciduous tree with exotic, rich-green leaves and reptilian-like copper-colored ornamental bark on younger trees, this urban-tolerant die-hard has a nice display of spiky white flowers in mid to late summer. Amur Maackia is tolerant of poor soil and pollution.
About Mapleton Preserve
Mapleton Preserve contains the historical heart of the Princeton Nurseries lands. This wholesale tree nursery knew global renown for the beauty, quality and longevity of its cultivars. In the 20th century, the property covered well over a thousand Kingston acres, and hundreds of splendid trees remain in Kingston -- as showpiece specimens and towering windrows, one of the key characteristics of the site. Princeton Nurseries now operates on three thousand acres of fertile farmland in Allentown, New Jersey, but they announced last June that they plan to cease operations by the spring of 2010.
In 2005, the 53-acre property now known as Mapleton Preserve was jointly purchased as open space, by the New Jersey Green Acres program and South Brunswick Township. The restored main office for Princeton Nurseries’ Kingston site has now become the D & R Canal State Park Headquarters. Several other historic buildings dot the grounds, including eight greenhouses.
If suitable funding can be obtained, they will be restored and put to nature-related use within the next ten years. Significant progress has been made to this end.
South Brunswick Township Historic Preservation Commission received funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission and South Brunswick Township to nominate the Princeton Nurseries Kingston Site to the NJ State and National Registers of Historic Places. That application was reviewed this February by the NJ State Historic Sites Council. By unanimous decision, it was determined that the site is of both local and national significance. After approval at the State level, the nomination will be forwarded to the Federal Government. National Register status, when attained, will allow application for federal grants for historic preservation.
The South Brunswick Township (SBT) Historic Preservation Commission also obtained a grant from Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund to prepare a Cultural Landscape Report for the Princeton Nurseries Kingston Site. The grant, which was highly competitive, will help document current conditions, formulate a landscape preservation treatment plan and help to guide future restoration at Mapleton Preserve, when funds are released from the State. Additional matching funds will be provided by South Brunswick Township.
Finally, South Brunswick Township Historic Preservation Commission recently received a grant from Middlesex County to prepare a preservation plan and architectural drawings for future stabilization and restoration of three key nursery buildings.
In addition, Friends of Princeton Nursery Lands, a “friends” group for the property, has received 501(c)(3) tax exempt status from the IRS. Tax exempt status is extremely important, as they can now directly solicit donations for preservation and restoration activities at the Princeton Nurseries Kingston site.
DIRECTIONS:
D & R Canal State Park, 145 Mapleton Road, Kingston 08540
From Route 1: Exit at Ridge Road heading towards the town of Kingston for approximately 1 mile. Follow Ridge (previously Division St) when it turns left. At the stop sign turn left onto Academy Street (Academy St. becomes Mapleton Rd). The park office and Mapleton Preserve are located 0.2 miles on the left side of the road.
From Route 27: Turn onto Academy Street at the traffic light in Kingston (across from the Kingston Cemetery). Academy Street becomes Mapleton Road as it heads towards Route 1. The park office and Mapleton Preserve are located 0.3 miles on the left side of the road.
Arbor Day History:
In the 1800’s, J. Sterling
Morton, journalist, moved to the generally treeless state of Nebraska from wooded Michigan. Soon becoming editor of Nebraska’s first newspaper, Morton set about diligently spreading agricultural information, particularly his enthusiasm for trees to fellow pioneers. All seriously missed trees, --not only aesthetically, but to serve as windbreaks to keep plains soil in place, for fuel and building materials, and for shade from the hot sun.
On January 4, 1872, J. Sterling Morton successfully proposed a tree-planting holiday to be called “Arbor Day” at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, and one million trees were planted on its first observance. During the 1870s, other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day. The tradition spread through schools nationwide. Today the most common date for the state observances is the last Friday in April, also known as National Arbor Day.
Male baltimore oriole photo courtesy of Mdf (Wikipedia)
