December 2022
And Now... It's Time to Enjoy Wintertide Lights
During the month of December, the Arboretum will be open every evening and glowing with multi-colored lights from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. Holiday craft programs return for children on December 10th and 17th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and the gnomes will be back, hiding amongst the trees.

New this year, board members will be in our new kiosk serving hot cider to visitors on most Friday and Saturday nights. The event is free.
Light a Tree

This year's Wintertide Lights will be the end of two years of outside funding that have made it possible to expand this event by adding more lights and Family Fun crafting events. There is no doubt people have loved the opportunity to see the Arboretum lit up in December. We doubled our usual December attendance the first year and again doubled that number last year despite record rains.

The board will be weighing whether we can continue the event in 2023 without grant support. If you're interested in supporting Wintertide Lights, please consider donating to Light a Tree.
Poets, Join Us "Out on a Limb"--
Deadline is Rapidly Approaching to Enter a Poem in Our 60th Anniversary Contest

The Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens will celebrate its 60th birthday in 2023, and we feel like celebrating! We have a lot of ideas and a lot of details to work out for events to be held throughout the year, but one of our first special events will be to add poetry to the gardens next April, which is National Poetry Month.

Click on the link to Visit our website to read the contest rules. Click on the link to Enter a Poem to submit your poem. You will be taken to the Everett Public Library's website where you can fill out a form to enter the contest. We thank the library for its help with this project.

Special thanks to Marlee Huber for sharing her beautiful photograph--and for allowing us to use it in the newsletter.

The Annual Meeting--Is the Third Time the Charm?
Mark Your Calendars for March 21

Our by-laws require us to hold an annual meeting. This has traditionally been held in Forest Park's Floral Hall in March, which is the beginning of our fiscal year. The last time we were able to meet in person was March 2019. Our pandemic Zoom meetings bridged the gap but were not a satisfactory replacement. All our fingers are crossed, hoping that we will be able to kick off our 60th anniversary year in Floral Hall on March 21, 2023.

We have already scheduled the venue and--to highlight the celebratory nature of the meeting--we have booked Lorene Edwards Forkner as our keynote speaker. Edwards Forkner is a Seattle-based author and gardener. You'll find her columns in the Seattle Times and her books in your local library. Her topic will be "A Handmade Garden," and she'll talk about how to create a personality-infused landscape that satisfies your aesthetics and fits within your resources.

We're planning an entertaining evening, including dinner, our featured speaker, a brief overview of what's in the works for 2023-24 in the Arboretum, and perhaps a few surprises. Look for more details in the February newsletter.
Classes Return in 2023 with Saxon Holt on a Timely Topic
Wednesday, January 11 at 6 p.m. on Zoom

Saxon Holt is a photojournalist and sole photographer of more than 30 garden books, most recently Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates. He is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, a Fellow of GardenComm (Garden Communicators International), and owner of the PhotoBotanic Garden Library.  His work focuses on the relationship between gardens and the land, seeking a sustainable aesthetic that can enhance both gardener and the earth.

According to Saxon, this presentation encourages gardeners to understand and work in harmony with their region. By choosing naturally occurring, climate-appropriate plants, gardeners can promote healthier ecosystems and make a difference from their own backyards. Working with rather than against the summer-dry climate means reducing impact on water supplies and creating spaces that attract and sustain wildlife. It means taking a step back, letting nature assert itself in the garden, and welcoming in the unique wildness of these special regions.
Support Your Arboretum by Joining Today. We Need You More Than Ever.
Take a moment to join or renew at www.evergreenarboretum.com and become part of the Evergreen Arboretum & Gardens family. Annual memberships come due in March of each year, but we can accept memberships at any time.

Your support is the key to our success. Your membership shows that you support our mission and the volunteers who dedicate themselves to the gardens. It is more important than ever to insure we remain strong and able to undertake significant projects once the pandemic is behind us. A robust membership base also shows the City that the Evergreen Arboretum is valued. You can join or renew online.
To contact Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens
email: contactus@evergreenarboretum.com
phone: 425-257-8597
mail: PO Box 13014, Everett, WA 98206-13014
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