Pumpkins PUMPED ABOUT

by ANDY SHAW

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Four 18-wheelers turn off Garland Road and enter the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden at sunrise. A fleet of forklifts and horticulturists feverishly offload their cargo in the Pecan Grove. Dozens of cardboard crates are everywhere, bursting with 90,000 pumpkins and gourds.

It will take a team of 40 horticulturalists and volunteers two weeks to unload and organize them for Autumn at the Arboretum, which runs through Nov. 21. This year’s theme for the Pumpkin Village is “Adventures in Neverland,” complete with ships, a treasure chest and a plank.

“Everything used to be themed around pumpkins, and now it’s what you can build with pumpkins,” says Jennifer Wang, Arboretum horticulture manager. “You start to run out of stories that have pumpkins in them.”

Expects Captain Hook and Tinker Bell sightings.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Wang says. “But as soon as we’re done, we all stand back, and we’re amazed at how wonderful it turns out.”

For more information, go to dallasarboretum.org. See more photos at lakewood.advocatemag.com

DID YOU KNOW?

Paula Pyle says the best way to preserve a pumpkin is to keep it out of the sun. The Fairytale and Porcelain Doll varieties last the longest, especially if you keep them in the house, because they are dense. “I had one that I threw out in March,” she says.