
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993                   TAG: 9305130414
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ARBORETUM - ALMOST 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING - NEARLY FINISHED

As a child pulling weeds in her mother's gardens, Selena Pedersen hoped never to see another weed again. But now Pedersen spends most of her time outside in her own gardens.

For the last several years Pedersen also has spent a lot of time making her dream - the Community Arboretum at Virginia Western Community College - become a reality.

Lee Hipp, director of the arboretum, which was dedicated May 7, credits Pedersen as its founder.

Pedersen shares the credit with other former members of the school's horticulture club and Hipp, horticulture program head at Virginia Western.

Together, she said, they decided to pursue the project, and in December 1984, Pedersen became the arboretum's first contributor. In all, she donated more than $10,000 to have The Emille Knight Shade Garden named in honor of her mother, Emille Knight Stone.

More than $138,000 has been raised, with the biggest chunk - 31 percent - coming from private donations, said Pedersen, who currently serves as treasurer of the arboretum board of directors. Eighteen percent came from the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke, and the cities of Roanoke and Salem. The rest came from grants, garden clubs, businesses, the college's horticulture club, fund-raisers and interest income.

In-kind donations worth $2,800 also were obtained. "It was a real community effort," Pedersen said. "It's been a real knock-down drag-out struggle to get the funds."

Although the arboretum received a lot of support from the college, it's a community project, not a school project, Hipp and Pedersen stressed.

"I call it a real grass-roots effort. That's a real horticultural pun, isn't it?" Hipp said. "It's gratifying to see it . . . almost completed." Funds have been raised to finish the arboretum, which is 99 percent done, he said.

The arboretum's mission is educational outreach, Hipp said. The approximately 500 different species are labeled so people can know the name of the plants they see, he said.

All of the major collections are represented in six gardens - shade, rock, perennial, herb, conifer and annual.

Hipp said he already has given tours to diverse groups, such as school children, a retirement home, garden clubs and developmentally disabled people. He had six more tours booked for the two weeks following the arboretum's dedication. And the first wedding is scheduled for June 5.

For more information or to schedule a tour, call 857-7120.

Memo: Also ran in Neighbors May 20, 1993.

by CNB