Last Friday when I reported to the Pennsylvania Convention Center for my volunteer shift at the Philadelphia Flower Show, exhibitors and vendors were in flurry of activity putting the final touches on their displays for the 2009 show opening the next day. Prior to beginning my shift I took a moment to explore the exhibits as workers hustled about placing plants, adding the final clumps of mulch, and touching up paint jobs. My favorite exhibit in progress was by Temple University Ambler College students titled “Green Renaissance.”

"Green Renaissance" exhibit by Temple University Ambler College students at the Philadelphia Flower Show. photo credit:R. Robert

Their exhibit featured several green gardening concepts including a living wall, rain chain, and rain barrels. Their plant material included Swiss chard, fresh radishes, and various fresh herbs. Their design was inspired by 16^th century Italian gardens with adaption to the local and vernacular flavors and sustainable living. As a result of their efforts, judges awarded the display Special Achievement Awards-Garden Club Federation of PA Conservation-under 1,000 square feet.

Rain chains dripping into a rain barrel Temple University Ambler College student display. photo credit: R. Robert

I appreciated the use of the rain barrels in the exhibit. They demonstrated how rain barrels can not only be useful in the garden but can also be decorative and attractive. I especially loved how they used a rain chain to decoratively drip water in a rain barrel.

A water-wise gardener can use a rain barrel to:

• Reduce the volume of water flowing to the sewer treatment facility
• Lower the percentage of roof top rainfall as a component of urban runoff
• Backup source of water during times of drought or between rain showers
• Help to keep our creeks clean
• Naturally softened water – great for delicate houseplants, auto cleaning, and window washing
• Save money by lowering water bills
• Chlorine-free water helps maintain a healthy biotic community in the soil

The Scott Arboretum will be installing their first rain barrel in the Terry Shane Teaching Garden this spring. To learn more about this great gardening tool register for our workshop “Save the Rain! Water Conservation in the Garden” on Friday, March 27 from 9 am to Noon.

Rain chain example in Temple University Ambler College exhibit. photo credit: R. Robert

Congratulations to the students of Temple University Ambler College on their award winning design. Visit the Philadelphia Flower Show to experience all the sustainable garden techniques demonstrated this year.

Since Mother Nature doused the eastern seaboard with snow, those anxious to see the first snowdrops and crocus will find them buried under 6 inches of snow. There is relief for those starving for the scents and sights of spring: the Philadelphia Flower Show. This week Scott Arboretum staff, volunteers, and members can be found among the 5,000 volunteers helping to support this event organized by The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

In the imaginative gardens inspired by this year’s theme “Belle Italia,” visitors can see crocus, azaleas, tulips, ornamental cherries, and many other spring flowering plants. To create these Italian escapes designers use more than just great plants. Typical of many Italian gardens, a variety of statuary has been used to create a sense of place. Most of the show features the traditional stone statuary of male and female characters, but there are some pieces outside of the norm.

Rose statue created by Greg Leavitt for the Stony Brook Nurseries exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show. photo credit: R. Robert

Winner of the Mayor’s Trophy, Stoney Bank Nurseries partnered with artist Greg Leavitt to create a set of unique, horticulture-inspired gates and statuary. These pieces feature intricately detailed rose blooms and leaves. Their bronze tones provide a different character to the exhibit titled “Lago Maggione, Le Isole Borromee, and the Island Gardens of Northern Italy” in contrast to the white-gray tones of the other statuary.

Greg Leavitt gates in the Stony Brook Nurseries exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show. photo credit: R. Robert

Greg Leavitt’s pieces are a great addition to any garden as they often mimic what gardeners appreciate about nature. Leavitt’s work can be seen at the Scott Arboretum in the Dean Bond Rose Garden, where he created two gates. One entrance features the garden in winter and the other is the garden in summer. See if you can identify the difference. He has also created original pieces for public horticulture institutions such as Mt. Cuba Center and Longwood Gardens.

Rose blooms peaking through Greg Leavitt's gates in the Dean Bond Rose Garden. photo credit: R. Robert

All of Leavitt’s pieces are created by hand using traditional blacksmithing techniques. He does not contract any portion of his work out. He works with is daughter, Camilla, and wife, Tiana, at their studio in Bucks County to craft these masterpieces.

I encourage you to visit the Philadelphia Flower Show to kick the winter blues with spring blooms and an entertaining display of garden statuary.

About a month ago I headed up to Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend visit. Ever since my friend and colleague, Tim Boland, became Director of the Polly Arboretum in West Tisbury four years ago I have been making at least annual visits to Martha’s Vineyard. Regardless of the season, Martha’s Vineyard’s natural landscapes are stunning. Of course, it is well known for its stunning seashores and picturesque beaches, but Martha’s Vineyard also boasts many other natural areas and botanical treasures throughout the island including the Polly Hill Arboretum.

Throughout the Vineyard are native pockets where interesting plants abound. Fresh water ponds boast masses of Ilex verticillata, winterberry holly; Aronia arbutifolia, chokeberry; Cephalanthus occidentalis, buttonbush, and in the fall you can’t miss the dazzling red foliage of the highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum.

Vaccinium corymbosum, the highbush blueberry. photo credit: Andrew Bunting

This island is home to many interesting native trees including several oaks such as the dwarf chinkapin oak, Quercus prinoides; bear oak, Quercus ilicifolia; and white oak, Quercus alba. My favorite tree on Martha’s Vineyard is also a native found in our Crum Woods, the black gum or sour gum, Nyssa sylvatica. On Martha’s Vineyard the common name is beettlebung. This colloquial name is derived from the cask making industry. The “beetle” was the wooden mallet and the “bung” was the wooden cork or stopper. Because of the intensity of the winds the beetlebung trees have a flat-topped, wind-swept appearance. In the fall, their architectural form in combination with the fire engine red fall color is truly dazzling.

Stewartia pseudocamellia at the Polly Hill Arboretum. photo credit: Andrew Bunting

West Tisbury is the home of the Polly Hill Arboretum. Polly Hill, a native of Delaware, and her family vacationed on the Vineyard for decades. Just over 50 years ago Polly started planting the family farm with plants she had propagated from seed. While Polly always had an interest in horticulture, she was busy raising her family and did not embark on planting the property until the age of 50. As the plantings matured she became nationally recognized for her plant collection, as well as her plant selections and introductions. Her specialties were azaleas, hollies, stewartia, dogwood, and magnolia. She developed the West Tisbury Azaleas, as well as, introduced several cultivars of deciduous hollies and stewartias. In total she selected and introduced 83 cultivars.

Polly died last year after turning 100 years old. Today, the Arboretum has a full-time staff that continue to carry out the mission of the Arboretum. Many of Polly’s trees have matured into wonderful specimens. The Arboretum holds the NAPCC (North American Plant Collections Consortium) national collection of Stewartia. The Arboretum also manages a beautiful central meadow and many acres of native, peripheral woodlands.

Tim Boland, Director of the Polly Hill Arboretum with Magnolia macrophylla 'Julian Hill'. photo credit: Andrew Bunting

Please join us at A Winter Celebration at the Scott Arboretum on January 10th, 2009 to hear the Arboretum’s Director, Tim Boland (also a former Scott Curatorial Intern 1985-1986) present a lecture “Growing On-Island: A Horticultural and Botanical Tour of Martha’s Vineyard.” Register for this lovely evening now by calling 610-328-8025!

Also, call or email Julie Jenney, Education Coordinator, for more information or an itinerary about the September 2009 trip to Martha’s Vineyard!

Hori-Hori. Photo Credit: R. Robert

Currently we are overwhelmed with media talking about wish lists and Christmas lists, all in the hope that you will bring your wish list dollars to their store or have their product on your wish list. As a gardener, my wish list consists of garden tools since it is a little cold for plants here in Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, working at the Arboretum has introduced me to some invaluable tools that make life easier in the garden. I would like to share these treasures with you because you might want to add them to your wish list just in time for the holidays.

Hori-Hori, an item on my Gardener's Wish List. Photo Credit: R. Robert

A tool coveted by our volunteers and helpful in many aspects of the garden is a Hori-Hori garden knife. This handy tool resembles a knife and can be serrated on one or both sides. It is a great tool for digging out those weeds like Pinellia ternata with roots guaranteed to break apart when attempting to remove them by hand. This tool simplified the planting of 400 bulbs in my garden this fall. It was also extremely useful in “sawing” apart the overgrown roots of my summer container tropicals as I prepared them for over-wintering this fall. The Hori-Hori is such a handy tool I keep it in a holster along with my prunes while I work in the garden. Next to gloves, this is probably the most common tool volunteers use when working at the Scott Arboretum.

Tree Wrench. Photo Credit: R. Robert

Another obscure tool that volunteers have found invaluable is the tree wrench. This device receives its greatest use during the winter months while the winter woods crew of volunteers are removing invasive plants from the Crum Woods. This tool uses leverage to pull out large weeds like pesky Norway maple seedlings. The tree wrench comes in various sizes appropriate for the size of the weed you are removing. It makes the task of cleaning up a wooded or overgrown area gentler on a gardener’s back.

These are our favorites. What tools are on the top of your wish list?

If you would like try out these and many more tools consider volunteering at the Scott Arboretum.

While England abounds with some of the most magical gardens on the planet, it too is rich in garden centers and specialty nurseries. After learning about a unique nursery in Severn Valley of Gloucestershire, I knew I had to visit during my annual trip to England this July. Pan Global Plants (http://www.panglobalplants.com) is owned and operated by plantsman, Nick Macer. In many ways this nursery emulates Dan Hinkley’s famous Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Washington (which has been sold and relocated). Pan Global Plants also has beautiful gardens that showcase the treasures found in the nursery.

Nick Macer is a real collector. He has amassed his holdings through his professional connections as well as from his collecting trip to Morocco, Mexico, and beyond. While he grows many herbaceous plants, woody plants are his specialty. His collection of species and cultivar maples is impressive.

He is promoting many of the stripe-barked maples including Acer ‘White Tigress’ Some authorities list this as a selection of Acer tegmentosum. This medium-sized maple has green bark with pronounced white striations. We have a wonderful specimen growing in the Hydrangea collection. He too listed a rare Himalayan maple, Acer sterculiaceum, which has striking new red foliage. This fall we added Acer sterculiaceum ssp. franchetii to the front of the Science Center.

For broadleaved evergreens he sells Daphniphyllum himalaense ssp. macropodum. This plant was virtually unknown to American horticulture until about 10 years ago. At a close glance it resembles a rhododendron, but it also has shiny foliage with distinct pink petioles. Alkaloids in the stems protect it from being eaten by deer and it thrives in very dry shade. At the Scott Arboretum, we have plants growing in the Terry Shane Teaching Garden, Sproul Observatory, and Kemp Hall.

Of course, at Pan Global there were plants that I covet and hope to add to our collections some day. Desmodium yunnanense has rounded, velvety silver leaves with pendant pink-purple flowers. Carpinus fangiana is the pi`ece de re’sistance of the hornbeams. The long multi-bracted fruit clusters hang downwards like long tails and the newly emerging foliage is a striking red. Carrierea calycinum is a Chinese native with lantern-like flowers and is a close relative of the equally rare, Poliothyrsis sinensis.

I have no doubt the next time I visit the United Kingdom I will see many ‘old favorites’ as well as new and exciting gardens and nurseries where I can find inspiration for great plants in the Scott Arboretum and the Delaware Valley.

Last week I headed down to Raleigh, North Carolina with local garden designer, Gary Keim and former Curatorial Intern and Head Gardener of the British Embassy, Jim Adams. We had all signed up for the JC Raulston symposium which is held every two years at the JC Raulston Arboretum on the campus of North Carolina State University.

In 1993 the Scott Arboretum staff went on a staff retreat to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. JC Raulston had arranged our itinerary for the three-day visit and the entire Arboretum staff stayed at JC’s house. This was a wonderful introduction to the wealth of gardens, nurseries, and avid gardens that abound in this area.

For decades JC Raulston was a passionate professor at North Carolina State University. Without a doubt, he was considered one of the premier plantsmen in the world. His generosity to his students, colleagues and fellow professionals was unequaled. Tragically, in 1996 he died in an automobile accident.

The Scott Arboretum has been a great beneficiary of the generosity of both JC Raulston and in more recent years the JC Raulston Arboretum (formerly North Carolina State University Arboretum), named in his honor and memory. Some of our most interesting and ‘cutting edge’ plants were given to us by JC, such as Poliothyrsis sinensis and the wonderful Euscaphis japonica which has beautiful pink fruits which ripen to red and then burst open revealing the shiny black seeds. Both plants will be featured in the Scott Arboretum’s Horticulture Seminar “Cutting Edge Trees, Shrubs and Vines” to be held on October 11^th.

Before we headed south we contacted Melanie Blandford and Todd Rounsaville who both worked at the Scott Arboretum, but now work at the world renowned, Plant Delights Nursery. With the help of the nursery’s owner, Tony Avent (whom we had originally met in 1993), they made suggestions of gardens to visit.

One stop was the wonderful collection in east Raleigh of Norman Beale. The influence of JC Raulston was evident. The collector’s garden abounded with the rarest woody plants including Firmiana simplex, Poliothyrsis sinensis, and Pterostyrax corymbosa .

The Friday before the symposium we met Melanie and Todd, and spent the entire day touring Plant Delights Nursery. In addition to the nursery, Tony Avent has developed the adjacent Juniper Level Botanic Garden which holds over 13,000 taxa of plants (different kinds of plants). To put that in perspective the Scott Arboretum has 3,300 taxa on 125 acres and Tony Avent has amassed four times as many plants on 7 acres! The woody, perennial and succulent collections are all equally impressive. The older part of the garden has a fantastic Lagerstroemia faurei, which was popularized by JC Raulston in the late 1980’s. It is a garden where you could literally spend days exploring and not be bored. Digging through the layers of plants I spotted the extremely rare conifer, Cathaya argyrophylla which is found in the subtropical mountains of China in only four isolated areas. A few years ago we received one plant via James Waddick. Unfortunately, our tree did not survive and we are currently seeking a new source to try this species in the Arboretum’s collections.

Cutting edge perennials also abound. I came across this fantastic miniature sunflower, Helianthus ‘Low Down’. Many of the Helianthus, Heliopsis, Rudbeckia and Silphium which produce sunflower-like flowers are much too imposing in size for most gardens, however, this new introduction of Helianthus will inevitably be a highly praised perennial.

While at the symposium on Saturday there was ample time to explore the JC Raulston Arboretum. JC was well known and admired for his ability to comprehensively collect taxa within many of the popular genera from Juniperus to Cercis. Over the years, both before and after JC’s death, I have always seen the Raulston Arboretum as a great source of knowledge. Even on this past visit I made notes and took pictures of plants I had never seen before and covet for the Scott Arboretum. I was excited to see a large foliage selection ofthe Chinese tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera ‘JC Raulston’.

For the Scott Arboretum to grow its collections it is essential that we build relationships with other botanical institutions throughout the U. S. and abroad. Botanic gardens and arboreta have always been an invaluable source of both plants and information, and I have always found them to be a critical component to our collections development.

In 1991 JC Raulston received the Scott Garden and Horticulture Award. It is given annually to “…an individual, organization or corporate body who, in the opinion of the Selection Committee, has made an outstanding national contribution to the science and the art of gardening.”

While in Pittsburgh, Julie and I explored Phipps Conservatory which was completely amazing, with 13 different rooms with various themes, complete with a butterfly room and a sunken garden. They were just setting up a huge exhibit on the chocolate plant that will be in full swing when we head back for the Associates trip on September 15-16, 2008. We will also get a behind-the-scenes tour of the propagation houses on our September trip! We had lunch at Café Phipps which was delicious. One of the highlights was a trip up the Duquesne Incline on an old cable car. We had dinner atop Mt. Washington with absolutely incredible views of the entire city and the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. It was really impressive.

The next morning we left the hustle and bustle of the city for the Laurel Highlands and Ohiopyle State Park. This area was once the richest county per capita in the country and is home to two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated private residences: Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob.

We will be visiting both of these architectural gems on our trip in September, with guided tours of each and some time to explore the grounds, which include a Sculpture Meadow at Kentuck Knob. There are several interesting sculptures around the residence, and even more in the adjacent meadow. I think my favorite was a section of the Berlin Wall with graffiti on it that read “create.”

If you are interested in learning more about our upcoming trip, email me at ehaegel1@swarthmore.edu or call me at 610-328-7339! We are all really excited to be offering this trip and hope that you all will love Western Pennsylvania as much as we did.