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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: Cercis siliquastrum

Posted in: Blog Spring

Looking good out in the arboretum today are over 15,000 trees, though perhaps some more obviously than others.

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Restoring our ha-ha!

Ha Ha. An expression often used to represent laughter. However a ha-ha is also a landscape design feature that creates a barrier to things such as livestock, while preserving uninterrupted views.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: eye-catching Enkianthus

Posted in: Blog Spring

Among the many attributes of members of the Enkianthus genus are the bell-like flowers.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: Davidia involucrata

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

I have chosen to highlight this one this week as our largest, oldest specimen (close to Main Drive and Loop Walk in the Old Arboretum) is looking quite fine in bract right about now.

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The Westonbirt Project - Community Inclusion update

The role of the Community Inclusion team is to enable a greater number of people, from under-represented groups, to experience the arboretum and to ‘connect with trees’.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: Rhododendron quinquefolium

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

There is far too much excitement amongst the plants to attempt to mention it all here, so I shall stick to just the one today.

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A Welcome Building update

The Welcome Building has been changing dramatically over a very short space of time and will continue to do so in the coming weeks.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: radiant Rhododendrons!

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

Among the numerous Rhododendron species and cultivars in flower here currently, are two 'firsts' for Westonbirt.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: fantastic foliar flushes!

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

Amid the endless shades of green seen as fresh foliage emerges, are equally wonderful tones of pink, purple and red, as some of our trees put on a colour show equal to that of autumn.

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A Welcome Building update...

It has been a while since my last Welcome Building blog and a lot has been changing inside and outside over the last few weeks!...

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The ins and outs of the Welcome Building...

You might have seen the building work going on in passing, but I thought it could be useful to tell you a little bit more about what the new Welcome Building will hold..

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The restoration has begun...

Work has begun on the final element of Phase One of the Westonbirt Project, the Downs Restoration.

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: cheerful cherries

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

Some of you will know that our Prunus sargentii on Broad Drive is looking rather good just at the moment. Photographs posted to Facebook last week illustrated this nicely I took a few more this morning confirming that this is still the case!...

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All things are difficult before they become easy...

So said the Persian poet Saadi. I don't know what experience he had of running a visitor attraction during a major engineering exercise, but he sounds fully prepared for the job to me!...

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Dendrologist Dan's spring stunners: awesome Acers

Posted in: Blog Botanical Spring

There is so much to excite here at Westonbirt just now - far too much to mention them all here so I have chosen to highlight just a few of the Acer species along Broad drive, which are perhaps more subtle in their flowering beauty.

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