Celebrating Olmsted’s 200th Anniversary

November 30, 2021

Rochester GC Wrangles Weeds in an Olmsted-designed Park

On a sunny day in October, sixteen Rochester Garden Club (RGC) members gathered at the Olmsted-designed Highland Park in Rochester, New York, to participate in a Weed Wrangle®.  Before the “wrangling” began, Mark Quinn, Highland Park’s horticulture director, Susan Maney, Highland Park, and  Milli Picclone, Highland Conservancy, explained how to identify and dig up swallow wort, one of the invasive plants threatening the park. In spring 2022, RGC members will return to the park to plant a selection of native plants.  

The wrangle was Rochester Garden Club’s chosen activity to celebrate Olmsted’s 200th Anniversary. Club members enjoyed the camaraderie and renewal of friendships after not being together for more than a year. With Mark Quinn’s guidance, RGC hopes to help preserve the natural beauty of Highland Park for future generations.

In 2015, The Garden Club of Nashville, a member club of The Garden Club of America, coordinated the efforts of local parks and green spaces in Nashville to have a one-day, city-wide education and eradication event named Weed Wrangle. The idea spread and years later Weed Wrangle is in multiple states and growing “like a weed.” Weed Wrangle projects are organized, at the core, by individual member clubs, but participation is beginning to come from additional organizations across the county. The mission, however, remains the same—to establish partnerships that connect volunteers and public lands for the purpose of education and eradication of invasive and non-native species with the planned restoration of native plant communities.

Olmsted's genius was to make his design look like a natural occurrence of trees, shrubs, and flowers. His Highland Park design is a completely planned arboretum which includes over 1,200 lilac shrubs, a Japanese Maple collection, thirty five varieties of magnolias, a barberry collection, a rock garden with dwarf evergreens, 700 varieties of rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel and andromeda, horse chestnuts, spring bulbs, wildflowers, and many trees. The crowning element to Olmsted’s original park was a three-story pavilion designed to enhance the scenic vistas of the surrounding Pinnacle Range. In celebration of Olmsted’s 200th, the Highland Park Conservancy is conducting a capital campaign to rebuild the pavilion back to its former glory.

The Garden Club of America is a proud founding partner of the Olmsted 200 bicentennial campaign.

 

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