Arbor Studies

He that planteth a tree is the servant of God,
He provideth a kindness for many generations,
And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
Henry Van Dyke

 

By James Dempsey

 

It begins in early spring, soon after the lowly skunk cabbage has quietly bloomed along the edges of brooks such as the Middle River at the foot of Mount St. James Following the welcome yellow blaze of forsythia and the fat purple flower-blobs of the rhododendron come the elegant white flowers of the Bradford Pear—the first tree on the Hill to bloom. The sudden splashes of color make gray winter a memory, and, so, nature briskly begins its yearly march toward the lushness of summer.

It’s difficult to envision New England without thinking of trees, and just as difficult to imagine Holy Cross without the dappled light of the locust trees along Linden Lane or the soughing of the wind through the crisp foliage of fall. It is a little-known fact that the Holy Cross campus is, in fact, a registered arboretum—a collection of maintained specimen trees—that the layman can enjoy and the arborist can study.

There are about 1,000 trees on campus, representing as many as 600 different species—and they are cared for by superintendent of grounds, Jim Long, and his crew. Long’s beard and warmly gruff Worcester accent are known to many who have passed through the gates of Holy Cross. This year, Long celebrates his half-century of employment at the College. He likes to say that he came for a summer job in 1958 and stayed for good.

Long first worked under Rev. Florance Gillis, S.J., who insisted on professional education and gave the young landscaper homework and reports to write.

“We were still cutting grass with sickles when I came,” Long says.

The first power lawnmowers bought by the College had no oil pumps—and when they were tilted to the side to mow the campus’s many hills, the oil ran into the cylinder head and sometimes caught on fire. To solve the problem, workers mowed the hills from top to bottom, letting down the mowers with ropes and hauling them back up for the following passes. Workers still have to wear cleats when mowing the steeper hills on campus.

Landscaping is both a craft and an art—and it takes a lot of work to achieve Holy Cross’ “natural” look. Consider Linden Lane, for example, that beloved leafy entrance of the College. Originally just 15 trees grew alongside a cinder path climbing the hill toward the center of campus. But the building of a cement walk in 1922, the paving of the road in 1933, and the expansion of the road and creation of the median strip in 1958 put more and more pressure on the trees for which the lane was named. Long and his workers fertilized, pruned, sprayed and cabled the trees—but the damage had been done—and, by the 1980s, only six of the original 15 remained. So the decision was made to fell the dead and dying trees and replant. The center sidewalk was removed and sodded to improve the root environment, and a couple of dozen honey locusts, along with other trees, were planted. The locust, with its compound leaf made up of dozens of leaflets, throws a dappled shade and gives Linden Lane its beautiful half-filtered light. Other improvements—from limiting winter salting to drawing up a snowplowing plan that was sensitive to the needs of the environment—helped the trees to thrive.

Long is justifiably proud of the arboretum and the College grounds he knows so well. The campus has been recognized with a dozen or so national awards and scores of features in trade magazines.

Greenhouse foreperson George Query is another grounds veteran who has planted many of the campus’s trees in his 35 years at Holy Cross. During the winter, he raises the 6,000 or so annuals that decorate the campus and works to increase student interest in horticulture by raising houseplants that are “adopted” by students. He even “babysits” the plants when students are on vacation. It’s a gentle teaching of the value of living things that pays off. Most of the cluster of trees and bushes around Beaven Hall were planted by students—and many classes choose to plant trees in memory of their time at Holy Cross.