NVCC FACELIFT

The Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association (CNLA) is donating more than $35,000 worth of plants and labor as part of the largest improvement project ever to the grounds at Naugatuck Valley Community College. On Wednesday, Oct. 4, workers from a dozen or more CNLA-member firms converged on NVCC’s Tamarack Arboretum as part of the association’s annual “PlantConnecticut” program.

   The program selects one site somewhere in Connecticut to receive complimentary landscaping in an effort to focus attention on the value of Connecticut-grown plants and encourage planting around the state. The 110-acre grounds at NVCC have never been the subject of such large-scale improvement project — one that will involve more than 250 plants and trees — because the campus was built in phases and never reached the landscaping phase. All of the landscaping that exists in NVCC’s Tamarack Arboretum, which includes most of the campus’s plantings, has been donated over the years by student clubs and the college. Currently, there are about 200 different species of trees and shrubs in the arboretum, which is used by students in horticulture, field biology and botany courses for species identification and other purposes.

   “We’re bringing a team of volunteer landscapers and hundreds of plants to the NVCC campus and arboretum because we think they’ve got a great horticulture program,” said Bob Heffernan, executive secretary for CNLA. “With more than 100 varieties of new trees and plants, these gardens will become in-the-field study aids for the students for years to come.”

   NVCC is only one of two colleges in Connecticut that offer a degree in horticulture, which is designed to prepare students for to further their education at a four-year university or find jobs in landscaping, greenhouses, garden centers and related businesses. The University of Connecticut is the only other college in the state that offers a horticulture degree. In 2004, the two schools announced an agreement that allows horticulture graduates from NVCC to seamlessly transfer to UConn to earn a bachelor’s degree. More than 500 students have received horticulture training at NVCC and have gone on to start their own businesses.

 Also, in 2005, NVCC’s horticulture program became the first in Connecticut to be accredited by the nation’s largest trade association for landscape professionals, the Professional Landcare Network. PLANET’s accreditation means the association believes NVCC’s horticulture curriculum more than meets the needs of the landscape industry by meeting its rigorous set of educational standards.

   “CNLA’s decision to select our campus for this year’s project will not only benefit the students in our horticulture, field biology and botany programs, but all students and staff alike, as well as the greater Waterbury community,” said Bonnie Simon, director of NVCC’s math/science division.

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