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Raulston Arboretum’s “Gala in the Garden” to celebrate North Carolina

Media Contact: Anne Porter, director of development for the JC Raulston Arboretum, 919-513-3826 

Delectable food, musical entertainment and a silent auction featuring unusual plants and an eclectic array of gift items will be showcased at the annual Gala in the Garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University. The event will take place May 4 from 3:30 to 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

Tickets are $100, of which $40 is considered a tax-deductible donation. Sponsorships also are available. The JC Raulston Arboretum is located at 4415 Beryl Road in Raleigh, two blocks from the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. To purchase tickets or inquire about sponsorships, call 919-513-3826 or visit http://jcra.ncsu.edu. Online registration closes on April 25, but tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the event.

Set in the arboretum’s beautiful springtime gardens, “The Gala in the Garden—Celebrating North Carolina” will feature North Carolina’s finest food, botanicals, products and people. Guests will mingle along the garden paths enjoying rare collections of plants. The gala’s main event area featuresgourmet North Carolina food and drinks – including a special North Carolina themed cocktail – along with a silent auction featuring items from gardening gifts to one-of-a-kind plants.

The annual Gala in the Garden has been a Raleigh garden party experience since 1991 and is the Raulston Arboretum’s major fund-raising event of the year, with proceeds supporting its daily operations, plant collections and educational programs.

“Our Gala in the Garden has become a harbinger of summer gardening,” said the arboretum’s director, Dr. Ted Bilderback. “Friends from across the community gather to enjoy the arboretum’s festive atmosphere and bid on gardening gifts and one-of-a-kind plants donated from some of the finest nurseries in the country.”

The JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, N.C., is a nationally-acclaimed garden with the most diverse collection of cold hardy temperate zone plants in the southeastern United States. The arboretum is free and open to the public 365 days of the year.

As a part of the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University, the arboretum is a working research and teaching garden that focuses on the evaluation, selection and display of plant material gathered from around the world. Plants especially adapted to Piedmont North Carolina conditions are identified in an effort to find better plants for southern landscapes. The arboretum is named in honor of Dr. J. C. Raulston, its late director who founded it in 1976.

– S. Stanard