The once-vibrant arboretum created by a past Reinhardt College president is slowly coming back to life.

Over the past year and a half, college horticulturalist Zach White and the Cherokee County Master Gardeners have created an index of roughly 125 different trees and shrubs across the Waleska campus.

White said each tree has been labeled with its genus name and its origin.

The Burgess Arboretum was developed by the late Reinhardt president Dr. James Burgess Jr., who indexed more than 1,100 trees and shrubs on the campus.

During the 1970s and '80s, Burgess also created a card catalog in the college's library that contained each tree and shrub's genus and species name and a campus map of the Arboretum.

Over the years, labels have fallen off trees and shrubs, or have been removed with the expansion of the campus.

While working on the restoration project, White said he noticed the college has a "treasure chest of gems" of various trees and shrubs on its campus.

A Scarlet Oak tree grown from an acorn found in front of the Georgia General Assembly was discovered on campus.

The acorn was given to Burgess from Georgia Secretary of State Ben Fortson, and the men dubbed the tree as the Fortson Oak. The tree originally was planted on the lawn of Burgess's home at the time and now is 30 feet tall.

The campus is also home to an American Elm tree, a type of tree that was nearly wiped out during the 1930s by Dutch Elm Disease.

Other trees found on campus include a male and female ginkgo tree, a Cornelian Cherry Dogwood tree that bloomed in February and a pecan tree planted by the class of 1914.

The college has also discovered a tree that came from the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.

White partnered with the Cherokee County Master Gardeners and the Cherokee County Cooperative Extension to restore the arboretum.

According to County Extension Agent Paul Pugliese, 20 volunteers from the gardening group helped with the process.

A grand opening of the arboretum was conducted at the college this month.

Nearly 200 people attended the event, and the school dedicated an American Chestnut Orchard to longtime trustee Randall Porter.

Now, with the initial indexing complete, Pugliese and White said they are working to create a map of the entire arboretum and are identifying more trees and shrubs on campus.

The map would allow people to participate in self-guided tours.

To fund their ambitions, the college and Master Gardeners are conducting a plant sale. The sale is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and Friday behind the old Waleska Baptist Church at the corner of Highway 108 and Reinhardt College Parkway across the street from the college.

Various plants such as pansies, tulip bulbs and herbs will be for sale, and Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions

Both Pugliese and White said restoring the arboretum has been an exciting cause they've been happy to undertake.

"It's adding an attraction to our campus," White said, adding that restoring the arboretum also is a way of "promoting environmental stewardship."

Pugliese said he hopes people realize the number of unique trees Reinhardt has on its own campus.

"A lot can be gained from the arboretum," he said. "There are a lot of unique trees that don't exist anywhere in Georgia."