
Tim Boland on Lessons from Polly Hill Arboretum (#52)
From The Plantastic Podcast by Jared Barnes
April 5, 2026 · 1h 22m · Episode 52
About this episode
Tim Boland discusses lessons learned from Polly Hill Arboretum, including plant propagation and the importance of record keeping.
For this month's episode of The Plantastic Podcast, I welcomed my dear friend Tim Boland on to talk about lessons from Polly Hill Arboretum. Tim shares the remarkable story of Polly Hill, who started her arboretum at age 50. We dig into the importance of record keeping, provenance, and plant propagation. Tim also talks about always having a paper bag in your back pocket for seed collecting, trying multiple approaches when a seed won't germinate, taking ecological notes whenever you encounter plants in the wild, and underutilized natives. And, as a Querciphile, Tim makes a compelling case for why there truly is an oak (and a native plant!) for everyone.
People in this episode
Host: Jared Barnes
Guest: Tim Boland
Topics covered
- arboretum
- plant propagation
- record keeping
- native plants
- seed collecting
- ecological notes
Keywords
- Polly Hill
- arboretum
- plant propagation
- seed collecting
- native plants
- ecological notes
- Querciphile
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Polly Hill Arboretum
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