Liquidambar styraciflua 'Slender Silhouette' - Amber Tree 'Slender Silhouette'
The Bavarian Garden, Landscape and Sports Ground Construction Association donates three sponsor trees for the arboretum
As a business and employers' association for the Bavarian gardening and landscaping sector, the Bavarian Garden, Landscape and Sports Ground Construction Association (registered association, VGL Bayern) primarily takes care of the legal and technical advice of its member companies, supports their public relations work and represents their interests in business and politics.
The association was founded in December 1963 as the Professional Association of Bavarian Landscape Gardeners in Ingolstadt. It was the first independent association of commercial landscaping companies in western Germany. What started as a small group of gardening and landscaping companies has since grown to more than 600 members. Today, the association represents the most efficient specialist firms in the sector in the Free State. The member companies employ between 3 and 200 staff. To become a member, they have to prove professional competence and quality.
The member companies of the VGL Bayern cooperate with architects, landscape architects, urban planners, companies and private individuals. Together, they realise various buildings - from outdoor facilities for municipalities, universities of applied sciences and companies, sports and playground construction to residential complexes and private gardens. What unites them all is the goal of shaping our future sustainably - in the city and rural areas. It is about improving the quality of life, upgrading locations and realising visionary green projects. Projects such as the green high-rise in Munich's Arabellapark or the Fischparkhof in Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate, for example, ensure an environment worth living in as part of the "Green in the City" initiative and make Bavaria the exemplary pace-setter for the entire German sector.
The association's mission statement follows values such as service and customer orientation, fairness and competence, or progress and innovation. The basis of the association's work, however, is the commitment to environmentally conscious action. That includes the promotion of an intact environment, as well as the use of plants suited to the location or ecologically oriented building materials, and the commitment to greater environmental awareness in politics and society.
A decisive focus of the association is also the area of training and further education. The VGL Bayern is a member of the HSWT's sponsoring association, and there is close cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences, which trains the next generation of academics in the sector. In particular, the Landscape Construction and Management course of the Landscape Architecture Department offers the opportunity for intensive professional exchange. Prof. Rudolf Walter Klingshirn teaches law at this department and heads the association as director. "The arboretum also serves to educate our junior staff and provide further training for our members," explains the honorary professor. He himself, together with the association's president Gerhard Zäh, is often on campus for meetings. "In future, on these occasions, we will certainly also visit the Association's three sponsor and climate trees: a red maple (Acer rubrum "Frank Jr. Redpoint"), a columnar amber tree (Liquidambar styraciflu "Slender Silhouette") and a Caucasian zelkova (Zelkova carpinifolia), as well as the entire arboretum," says President Zäh.
Distribution: Southeastern North America to southern Illinois, west to eastern Texas, south to Florida, riparian forests, mixed deciduous forests.
Size: 10 to 20 metres high and 6 to 12 metres wide
Leaves: deciduous, alternate, maple-like, 5-7-lobed, 12 to 15 cm wide, deep purple, purple-brown, yellow-orange, wine-red in autumn
Flower: green spikes, pendulous long-stalked spherical heads
Fruits: spherical, woody capsules
