Five things to do at Bartlett Arboretum’s TreeFest, happening this weekend

Bartlett Arboretum, a more-than-century-old tree museum in Belle Plaine, is closing out its 2024 season Sunday, Nov. 10, with a celebration that includes activities it’s become known for: art, concerts, and, of course, all those trees.

During TreeFest, the botanical museum — known colloquially as the Arb — will also celebrate the unveiling of a commissioned 30-by-8-foot mural created in recent weeks by local artist Elisabeth Owens right outside the garden gates.

Here are five things you can do at this year’s TreeFest, which runs from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 per person, with small children being free. Gates open at 9 a.m.

Hear about the museum’s trees of distinction, including nearly a dozen state champion trees found on its 20-plus acres, and about the medicinal trees growing at the Arb, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Robin Macy, who bought The Arb in 1997 after she came across the property by chance, will begin what she calls her “Tall Tree Tales” tour at noon on a plot of land adjacent to the Arb that she recently purchased. The former pasture was part of the arboretum in its early days until founder William Bartlett, a local physician and naturist, sold it. Macy, who prefers the titles steward or caretaker, said she reacquired the few acres “because the truth is, and I never thought this in my wildest dreams, we have run out of room.”

At 2 p.m., Annie Friesen, who is an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), will take visitors on a tour of the Arb’s trees with medicinal properties.

Ask an arborist about trees. Certified arborists from three local tree companies will be on site to answer questions about trees and tree care.

Buy a tree. Hillside Nursery, a Wichita business that’s been around for nearly a century, will sell varieties of oaks, maples, bald cypress, elms and loblollies. The 6-foot trees, all of which are proven Kansas-hardy, will be in containers.

Listen to music. Under the ownership of Macy, a co-founder of the original Dixie Chicks, the Arb has developed into a concert venue, bringing in local, regional and national talent several weekends during the season.

Three acts will be featured during TreeFest: Kentucky White Jazz Trio at 1 p.m., the Hootin’ Annies at 2:15 p.m. and Little Big Twang at 3:30 p.m. The Hootin’ Annies bluegrass band from Kansas City is making its Arb debut. Little Big Twang, which includes Macy and her husband, Ken “Kentucky” White, will feature music from their newly released CD.

Admire and buy local art. One of the Arb’s perennially popular events is its springtime Art at the Arb event. In a similar vein, TreeFest will feature a pop-up market with about two dozen local artists selling birdhouses, jewelry, ceramics, vintage goods and other items. Owens, the artist who created the Arb’s new mural with a $7,000 grant from the Kansas Arts Commission, will be on site for a meet and greet at the historic former Santa Fe Railroad Depot that was moved to the Arb from Oxford, Kansas, in 2013.

Owens, who has created several murals around Wichita, including one featuring the Wichita flag with a floral theme on the side of College Hill Deli, will also display and sell her ceramic works of art and prints.

While TreeFest marks the closing of the Arb for the season, Macy and the group of volunteers she calls Soil Sisters and Soil Brothers will spend the coming months preparing for the 2025 season. That includes the planting of around 50,000 tulip bulbs, whose springtime blooming determines the Arb’s opening date, usually sometime in April, although it has opened as early as March.

TreeFest at the Arb

What: final event of the 2024 season at the Bartlett Arboretum, with activities including the unveiling of a new mural, a popup art market, music by three bands and tree-centric talks

When: noon-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10; gates open at 9 a.m.

Where: Bartlett Arboretum, 301 N. Line St., Belle PlaineAdmission: $10 per person, free for small childrenMore info: bartlettarboretum.com, facebook.com/BartlettArboretum/events