Calendar of Events

UT ARBORETUM SOCIETY VIRTUAL BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL AVAILABLE ONLINE SEPTEMBER 18, 2021 AT 10AM

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society’s 6th Annual Butterfly Festival will be available online beginning Saturday, September 18th. This year’s Butterfly Festival will again be virtual with outstanding lectures and special video programs for children.

The festival will go live online at 10:00 a.m. and remain available for you to watch at your convenience. You may register to be emailed the links for these free programs at www.utarboretumsociety.org Registration for this event is required. These programs will be recorded and closed captioning is available.

Co-sponsored by the UT Institute of Agriculture, this event has become one of the most popular events annually with over 2,000 people attending in 2019. Due to the uncertain nature of COVID-19 precautions, this year’s festival has been filmed in advance to be presented online. This will be a different festival than in the past as there are no on-site activities, but we are excited to bring the public some great online options.

To celebrate the spirit of the festival, we invited the public to order and decorate wooden butterflies. These butterflies will be on display throughout the month of September around our Visitors Center. We invite you to enjoy this display whenever you visit the Arboretum during September.

Special presentations for children will be presented by Dr. Jerome Grant and students from the University of Tennessee Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

Our educational talks for the 2021 UTAS Butterfly Festival are:
“Of Biodiversity and Butterflies: Planting Design and Conservation for Pollinators” will be presented by Michael Ross. As more productive butterfly habitats are converted to residential, agricultural, and commercial sprawl the need for well-designed landscapes that support the full lifecycle of Lepidoptera species is increasingly important. This presentation will discuss key considerations, design, and planning goals for successful pollinator habitat implementation. Michael Ross, SITES AP, ASLA, is an assistant professor for the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences’ Sustainable Landscape Design concentration and in the School of Landscape Architecture.

“Principles of Butterfly Garden Design and Management: A Case Study in Pollinator Habitat Garden Management,” will be presented by Olivia Sievers Ross. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's approach to pollinator habitat provides an enlightening case study into best practices for butterfly garden implementation on a residential site. Prior to her training as a landscape architect Olivia was the Horticulturist and Lepidoptera specialist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s Ann and O.J. Weber Pollinator Garden and helped install the Luci and Ian Family Garden.

Register at https://utarboretumsociety.org/rsvpmaker/ut-arboretum-society-virtual-butterfly-festival-registration/

To learn more about the Arboretum Society, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org.