In our continuing effort to inform and entertain during our weeks in isolation, we found a new blogpost from the Arnold Arboretum of interest to our community.

By the beginning of October 1918, Spanish influenza had shuttered businesses in Boston. Schools had been closed. Horticulturists, meanwhile, were scrambling to respond to a looming plant quarantine, which would strictly limit horticultural imports into the United States. In a new blogpost, Arnoldia editor Jonathan Damery writes about how the Arboretum adapted to these new regulations and points to Japanese winterhazel (Corylopsis spicata and C. pauciflora) that arrived amidst the tightening quarantine. The soft yellow flowers of these winterhazels are now among the early promises of spring. Visit https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/plants-under-quarantine/