Bilderback named J.C. Raulston Arboretum director

Media Contact: Dr. Ted Bilderback, 919.513.7006 or ted_bilderback@ncsu.edu

Dr. Ted Bilderback, a professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University, has been named director of the university’s J.C. Raulston Arboretum. He has served as interim director since 2009.

The Raulston Arboretum, on Beryl Road in Raleigh, is a nationally acclaimed garden with the most diverse collection of cold-hardy temperate zone plants in the Southeastern United States. It is primarily a working research, extension and teaching garden that focuses on the evaluation, selection and display of plant material gathered from around the world.

Bilderback joined the N.C. State faculty in 1977 in the Department of Horticultural Science as a teacher and researcher. In 1987 he became a North Carolina Cooperative Extension nursery specialist and served in that capacity until 2009, when he was named interim arboretum director. He continues to serve as an educational advisor to the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association.

Bilderback’s research led to the development of cost effective and environmentally conscious cultural practices for growing nursery plants, with emphasis on container substrates, irrigation practices and plant and substrate nutrient levels. Using distance education courses, workshops and publications, his extension programs introduced new technologies to the nursery.

In the early days of the Raulston Arboretum, Bilderback worked closely with the late Dr. J.C. Raulston, for whom the arboretum is named, and his students planted many of the older arboretum specimens and the older holly border.

Written by: Dave Caldwell, 919.513.3127 or dave_caldwell@ncsu.edu