Eric Bolsmann’s new book, ‘Wonderful trees of Pretoria’, will be launched at the Pretoria Art Museum on 1 April. The day starts at 10.30 am with the planting of five trees in Arcadia Park as part of Pretoria Jakaranda Lions’ participation in the Lions’ international tree-planting campaign.

Lions International embarked on a world-wide campaign of planting one million trees during 2017. Thus far 1.4 million trees have already been planted and the target has now been increased to two million trees.

Pretoria Art Museum

The five trees in Arcadia Park are Eric’s contribution and they are intended to form an avenue in Arcadia Park, which will be extended by Pretoria Jakaranda Lions on an annual basis.

Eric will donate a painting worth R4 000 to be auctioned for the benefit of Pretoria Jakaranda Lions.
A special exhibition of trees has been mounted at the museum. The director, Dirk Oegema, will give a guided tour of this special exhibition.

‘Wonderful trees of Pretoria’

Chris Willis, chief director: Conservation Gardens and Tourism South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Pretoria will also give a talk, and so will prof André de Villiers of the Dendrological Society of South Africa.

Eric will be available to autograph copies of his new book, which deals with a wide range of famous and not so famous trees from the arrival of the Voortrekkers to the present. The book showcases the stories behind these trees, many of which have been forgotten or have never before appeared in print.