2017.10.8. Rare, Threatened and Unusual Conifers - a guided tour at Hoyt

10/8, Sunday. 12:50-2pm. More sun now. The tour started at noon. I was ~35 minute late when I walked into Hoyt Arboretum's visitor center. Could be sooner, if the Wildwood trail were fixed at the Japanese Garden. This time, to avoid scrambling, I detoured into residential area on concrete, and still wasn't sure where the connection is (didn't find any sign). Using my phone's GPS, I eventually was on track. Since my last visit on 4/30, I've been thinking of joining another tour. I enjoyed this walk too. The lady at the visitor center gave me a map, and told me that the group ought to be on the other side of the road. That narrowed down the search by half. It took me over 20 minutes to find the group. The arboretum is very pleasant to walk about, so I wasn't too bored looking for the group.

We were shown various trees, one has separate male and female cones. What I remembered are Monkey Puzzle, which really stands out. Even their dead branches stand out, and don't fall off. There's another Araucaria closer to the visitor center, but I forgot what it is. Two Patagonia Cypress, both don't look so happy in our climate. The selective breeding of Port Orford Cedar to combat root rot. Hoyt is one of the very few institutes that have some of the new strands from this breeding program.

The walk lasted till 2pm, 30 minutes past the scheduled finish line. Our guide today Julian is very enthusiastic, very happy to answer questions regarding to these trees. Another educational and enjoyable tour at Hoyt. I shall come more often.

All along in the rain. 9 adults started at the visitor center, and one jogger joined us midway. One lady from West Virginia doesn't even know the word conifer refers to cones. I took the park shuttle bus back to Japanese Garden, and then walked down to downtown via International Rose Test Garden. The garden still has a lot of blooming roses. Quite a few people, but not as many as in summer.