Charles Snyers's blog

Last Monday, I visited Roath Park in Cardiff, Wales with IOS member Tony Titchen and a small group of members of the International Dendrology Society (some of them also members of the IOS). 

A member of the International Oaks group on Facebook (moderated by IOS member Jeroen Braakman) posted a link to the following item. 

A new species of Lithocarpus, known commonly as Stone Oak, was discovered in the Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand.

Yesterday, 22nd of September, nearly 30 oak enthusiasts gathered at Pavia nurseries, an outstanding nursery owned and run by Dirk Benoit, past IOS board member. 

On your way to AIken in South Carolina this November, you might pass by Red Oak, NC. 

The City of Aiken has in cultivation what is believed to be the most comprehensive collection of oaks in the United States. The week-end of 2-3 November will be devoted to discovering this collection and more.

Interested in attending this oak enthusiasts meeting, click here.

Two oaks elected tree of the year 2013

Michel Timacheff, IOS Member and photographer, came across an old oak near Villers-sur-Lesse in southern Belgium.  Its circumference is over 6 meters at BH. 

Chêne de Hour, Quercus robur (photo. Michel Timacheff)

Dan Hinkely will be speaking at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Magnolia Society, next April 19th- 21st.

It is my pleasure to announce that we have just launched a new IOS Web site.  Our previous Web site was built on an open source content management system called Drupal.  We moved it to a more recent version of Drupal.  In the process, we standardized and simplified the Web site to make it easier to use and easier to upgrade in the future. 

In January 2012, the USDA Agricultural Research Service released a new edition of the American Plant Hardiness Map.  The previous edition was released in 1990.  Two new zones 12 and 13 have been added to this 2012 edition.  The zones are based on 1976-2055 weather data, that is 30 years of data.  The 1990 edition was based on 13 years of data.  See the What's new section of the USDA ARS Web site for details here. 

Chevithorne Barton in Devon is home to one of the two UK National Collection for the genus Quercus. It was built by IOS member Michael Heathcoat Amory. His collection is one of the most comprehensive oak collections in the world. You can now query the inventory of the collection on the recently launched website: http://www.oaksofchevithornebarton.com/index.cfm. For many records, pictures have been made available on line.