Epic 100 Bucket List

Golden Ginkgo Grove at Blandy Experimental Farm

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• Golden Ginkgo Grove at Blandy Experimental Farm

The natural beauty of the gardens, trees, birds, bees, wild flowers at Blandy Experimental Farm will astound you as you stroll around the 172 acres of property that surrounds the Historic Quarters building. Reserve a guided garden tour, join a plein air painting club, bring a picnic or go birding, but do not miss the Ginkgo Grove.

With over 300 trees, Blandy’s Ginkgo Grove is one of the largest public ginkgo groves in America. The grove is most beautiful in late October and early November when their foliage casts a warm golden glow all around.

We can enjoy the Ginkgo Grove today thanks to a scientific experiment dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. Ginkgoes have separate male and female trees. Dr. Orland E. White, Blandy Experimental Farm’s first Director, wanted to know what proportion of a gingko’s seeds will develop into male vs. female trees. To test this question, Dr. White and his students planted an experimental ginkgo orchard at Blandy using seeds collected from a tree of the Grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Because ginkgoes can take 20 years to reach sexual maturity, Dr. White did not live long enough to see the “fruits” of his labor and discover the answer to his question. When the final tally was made in the 1980s, 157 trees were female and 144 were male – a roughly 1:1 male:female sex ratio.

Blandy Experimental Farm is free to visit, but donations are appreciated and go toward supporting the mission of environmental research and education.

Location
400 Blandy Farm Lane
Boyce, VA 22620

Boyce is located in Clarke County, in the northern district of the Shenandoah Valley.
ExperienceClarkeCounty.com