Bartlett Arboretum plans tulip festival, treehouse concerts, art fair for April
It’s time for tulips, trees and songs in the air at the Bartlett Arboretum, which officially opens for the season at noon Thursday, April 1.
For those who can’t wait to visit, an unofficial sneak peek is set for noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 28.
Commonly called the arb, Bartlett Arboretum is located about 20 miles south of Wichita in Belle Plaine and is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as well as noon to 7 p.m. Thursday. The later hours on Thursday accommodate photographers who want to capture ideal natural light. Visitors can provide a $10 suggested donation for admission into a mailbox inside the gate; the suggested donation for photographers is $50.
Now in its 111th year, the arb has become known not only as a home to champion and special trees but also for its concert series and other events that celebrate nature. Last year, the concerts and several of those events, such as the arb’s new monthly supper and song series, went on hiatus because of the pandemic.
In what she calls a “hope springs eternal” calendar of events, arb caretaker Robin Macy is bringing back many of those events this year, including the popular Treehouse Concerts that feature local, regional and well-known acts.
Season passes are available for $75, good for admission to all concerts, salons and open days throughout the year. 2020 season passes are also good for this year, said Macy. Technically the arb’s owner since the 1990s, Macy prefers to be known as the arb’s caretaker or steward.
Over the past few decades, Macy has been rejuvenating, maintaining and adding features to the arb with about 50 or so volunteers whom she calls Soil Sisters and Brothers. The volunteers have planted about 40,000 tulip bulbs that visitors can see all through April, which is the arb’s “Tulip Time.”
The tulips will then be dug up in time to give them away by the fistfuls (about 20 or more bulbs, Macy estimates) to each mom who visits Mother’s Day, May 9.
Daydream, a jazz ensemble featuring several members of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, will kick off the Treehouse Concert series Sunday, April 18. Three more concerts are scheduled for May: Byron Berline Band, a bluegrass band from Guthrie, Oklahoma, May 2; a Mother’s Day concert May 9; and Lucky People, a popular Wichita cover band, May 16. Macy, one of the original founders of the band formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, is still booking acts for the rest of the season.
Other April events include:
▪ Gentle yoga classes taught by Molly McFerson in the wide-open Big Z area at 11 a.m. Saturdays starting April 3. The lawn takes its name from the zoysia grass that stretches in front of the Loblolly Stage.
▪ An April 4 Easter celebration with a 7 a.m. sunrise service hosted by the United Methodist Church of Belle Plaine. From 2-4 p.m., following an egg hunt, there will be live jazz music at the Loblolly Stage and desserts prepared by the Soil Sisters served from the Whistlestop Depot, an 1876 Santa Fe railroad depot that was moved from Oxford, Kansas, to the arb in 2013.
▪ The return of Art at the Arb April 10 and 11, which will feature more than 100 visual and performing artists along with food vendors and crafters.
▪ A celebration of Arbor Day Friday, April 20, with special late hours and walks and talks with Macy, community forester Tim McDonnell and Hillside Nursery’s Mark McHenry. Tree walks are scheduled for noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
May 3 will mark the return of the arb’s monthly Live from the Whistlestop supper and song event, which was introduced in the early months of 2020 as a fundraiser for the arb and the Quiet Zone Initiative, a community project Macy is involved in to find safer alternatives to the 100-decibel train whistles heard numerous times a day in Belle Plaine. Live from the Whistlestop happens at 6 p.m. the first Monday of the month, with reservations required. Cost is $50 per person, and guests may bring adult beverages.
The Soil Sisters prepare the dinners, using produce grown on-site in the arb’s Victory Garden and hoop house. Guitarist Ken “Kentucky” White, Macy’s husband, and National Fiddler Hall of Famer Shelby Eicher from Oklahoma provide the live music.
The arb was founded in 1910 by local physician Dr. Walter Bartlett, a civic leader and naturalist who helped turn 15 acres into a botanical garden featuring trees. It is home to nine state and one national champion trees, other unique trees and some special areas such as the Terraced of Paris gardens and Teeny Town that features child-sized buildings.
For more information about the arb and its events until closing day Nov. 3, visit bartlettarboretum.com or its Facebook page.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 5:01 AM.