This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Thoughts on J.C. Raulston

Dear fellow plant lovers,

We are all saddened by the death of J.C. Raulston. His love, knowledge and energy in promoting woody plants is matched only by his network of friends throughout the United States and the world. The arboretum at North Carolina State University, his legendary newsletters, guides to nurseries, plant distribution programs, propagation guide for woody plants, plant sales, illustrated talks, education programs and his former students now active in horticulture throughout the United States, and so much more... is what J.C. has given us.

One of my first discoveries while in grad school on the eastcoast was the NCSU arboretum newsletter. I immediately devoured all that I could find and became a NCSU arboretum member so I could receive his notes. Notes from trips, book reviews, nurseries to visit, mail order nurseries to order from, plants newly received at the arboretum, comprehensive treatments of a particular genus and whatever else J.C. deemed noteworthy were included. Thirty pages of packed information were not uncommon. Two particular essays come to mind, his exaustive essay on Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) and his five part "Notes from the Road" on his European Study Leave Travels circa 1989 in which he "drove 21,000 miles through 20 European Countries and visited over 170 historic gardens, arboreta, and botanical gardens - as well as another 45 nurseries and garden centers, and numerous museums, landscape sites, etc." Notes from the Road also covered visits to castles, museums, hotels, gas stations, etc. You travel his route in the first person narrative. You really felt like you are there seeing and feeling through his eyes and thoughts. I don't remember how much the Chronicles of the NCSU Arborteum are but they are well worth the investment with 402 pages of information, journeys and inspiration. NCSU Arboretum address is Department of Horticultural Science, North Caroline State University, Box 7609, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-7609.

I sure hope that the arboretum sets up some kind of fund in honor of J.C. to promote horticulture in some fitting way. Perhaps a fund to help horticultural students or professionals in their training. I'm sure that many of us would contribute. We owe him so much.

An editorial from an North Carolina paper...

   ------------------- Editorial: Uprooted too soon
    [THE_NEWS_&_OBSERVER]
        Tuesday       "J.C. Raulston expressed it this way a couple of
   December 24, 1996   years ago to a News & Observer reporter: "There's
   ------------------- a time for life and a time to pass on to make
                       space for new life." The topic, no surprise, was
                       his own life's beloved centerpiece and, now,
                       monument: the N.C. State University Arboretum,
                       where older plants have to make way for the new
                       varieties whose propagation and distribution are
                       its reasons for being.

                       Who would have dreamed then that Raulston, a warm
                       dynamo of a fellow with countless projects in the
                       works, would not be bustling around the
                       horticultural world for decades yet? Only 56, he
                       was no old tree. Nor could any new shoot
                       conceivably replace him.

                       Now he's gone, dead in a head-on nighttime crash
                       on risky U.S. 64 in Randolph County after his car
                       reportedly strayed across the center line. Just
                       like that, another family lost the driver of the
                       other car, 17-year-old Jonathan Daniel Bass.

                       And just like that, in the midst of its 20th
                       anniversary celebration, the nationally honored
                       arboretum that Raulston's sweat and charm and
                       enthusiasm had swiftly built from scratch to
                       showplace on a shoestring lost its founder,
                       teacher, patron saint and chief digger. The
                       university lost a fine roving ambassador for
                       applied life science. The community of
                       landscapers, nursery growers and gardeners lost a
                       lovable, profoundly useful leading citizen. All
                       around, the loss is, as NCSU horticulture head
                       Thomas Monaco says, devastating.

                       It will be dealt with. Loss always is. The
                       challenge will be to make good come from it.
                       Raulston himself, realizing a few years ago that
                       too much of the arboretum's early success was tied
                       to his own personality, began laying groundwork
                       for its healthy continuance if and when he should
                       depart.

                       Those who have walked the grassy, shade-dappled
                       maze off Beryl Road in wonder at its varied bazaar
                       of beauty of leaf and form and flower, those
                       who've sniffed its sweet airs, sat by its peaceful
                       pools, feasted their eyes on its borders -- all
                       these know that J.C. Raulston already has his
                       fitting monument.

                       Even so, for all the friends of a great gardener
                       who died midway through the year's longest night
                       on the cusp of the winter solstice, spring will be
                       a little late this year."


His recent fundraiser appeal for the NCSU Arboretum and his signing of in my "Chronicles of The NCSU Arboretum" are both signed in the same way, "Plan - and plant for a better world, J.C. Raulston".

More information on J.C. Raulston can be found at http://kelley.ece.edu/Arboretum/Arboretum.html




"Who passes by sees the leaves;
 Who asks, sees the roots."

 - Charcoal Seller, Madagascar


I walk to where the water ends
   and watch as clouds rise.

  - Wang Wei, China (700-761)
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index