Ken Druse REAL DIRT Newsletters

Plantaholic's Delight

Gardening, America’s favorite outdoor leisure time activity has growing pains. It was inevitable, and not unlike what happened to the cooking craze a few decades ago. Julia Child and others turned the idea of “get out of the kitchen in no time, into “cooking is an art that enriches your table and your life.” Within a few years, people were speaking French at dinner parties, and trading recipes for Coq au vin over the backyard fence. But then, the fashion for elaborate cuisine began to wilt like meringue peaks on a baked Alaska. Cookbook sales flagged. Cool Whip made a comeback. Now, it might be gardening’s turn to step out of the spotlight.

In my April 6, 2006 story for the New York Times, I write about a nurseryman, Tony Avent, who bets--and wins--on new plants that will keep customers coming back to Plant Delights Nursery web site and/or catalog year after year.

Also, be sure to See and hear the Multi-media slide show that accompanies the article!

  A Collector's Collector Rides the Waves
"Plant Fever" Helps One Nursery Weather Soft Plant Sales in the Economy
“The slump is real,” said Tony Avent, the co-owner with his wife Michelle of Plant Delights Nursery, a retail and mail-order concern in Raleigh, N.C., and founder of the Juniper Level Botanic Garden, (Tony’s nursery display gardens). “These things happen in cycles,” he claimed not sounding too anxious. Among dedicated gardeners, Plant Delights is one of the premier specialty nurseries known for new and unusual plants. They are in good company with Heronswood, Fairweather Gardens, Forest Farm, Asiatica, Collector’s Nursery, Seneca Hills, Roslyn and others around the country. Mr. Avent is known as a shameless plant promoter, and author of a joke-filled catalog with a cartoon on the cover (employing a sense of humor to weed out potentially difficult, humorless customers).

In general, sales relate to the health of economy; when there is a housing boom, plant sales are strong. But there are many other factors that affect business. After 9/11, for example, people turned to their gardens, and sales were good. The businessman-savvy Avent tracks his website sales and looks for correlating current events. “Every time something bad happened in Iraq,” he said, “sales drop, and take a couple of weeks to come back.” Whether times are good or bad, Mr. Avent feels the most challenging periods are times of insecurity. “People hate uncertainty.” On the other hand, good news does not always translate into good sales. The company saw internet sales dry up during the Olympics, and then bounce back as soon as the games were over. People who shop on line must spend less time at their computers and more time watching the Olympics.

One would imagine that with more and more emphasis on nesting that the gardening industry would be thriving, but it is not that clear cut. Organizations like the National Gardening Association say the aging baby boomers who may be scared of maintenance are cutting back, scaling down, and planting less. The marketers of garden products point to outdoor-living as the growth category, a kind of California pool-party lifestyle with built-in gas grills and suites of weather-resistant furniture. But a distinction should be drawn between followers of fashion, people who decorate outdoors, and real gardeners who want to tend plants.

I have noticed that people are becoming more interested in native ornamental grasses like Muhlenbergia capillaries, a New Jersey species with a cloud of pink flowers, and are beginning to choose them over potentially invasive Asian varieties. The fascination with wild gingers, subjects of a veritable cult in Japan, is attracting more Americans every year. Arisaema relatives of the Jack-in-the-pulpits from eastern American woodlands first thrilled only we plant nerds, but now they are one of the most sought after collectables, and more species are being propagated for sale. Nursery propagated native orchids, trillium and even carnivorous pitcher plants are going to be in more gardens in the future.

One of the newest Arisaema species in the US is the small-flowered A. saxitile (below, left). It is not in the Plant Delight’s catalog, yet, but is available from their website. Unlike the dark colored flowers of most Arisaema species, this pale-colored one does not smell like carrion, or as Tony writes, “body odor.” It smells lemony. (Zone 6 to 9).

Just as American gardeners graduated from growing annuals that have to be replanted every year, to long-lived herbaceous perennials, they are now looking to woody plants, especially flowering shrubs, to help lower maintenance without sacrificing color. Calycanthus, for example, are hot! Unusual versions of familiar trees like ginkgos with tubular leaves, weeping and variegated redbuds, and magnolias with flowers in shades of creamy yellow to chocolate-brown are becoming popular.

And then there is the hosta take-over. Interest in these shade-tolerant plants shows no sign of letting up. Last year’s New York Times article on plant collector and Hosta enthusiast Barbara Tiffany was the most e-mailed story of its day. The allure of the story might have been hostas, but could also have been the general subject of collecting, which fascinates all but the most resistant minimalist. I have heard the compulsion to amass objects of desire as stemming from anything like childhood deprivation to potty training conflicts. Who knows?


Plant Delights offers about one hundred hosta varieties, many of which Tony Avent bred, himself. His have funny names like ‘Elvis lives,’ ‘ Hosta Bubba,’ ‘ Elephant Burger,’ and more. But this gorgeous variegated, medium size hosta (below, right) is not Tony’s and has a comely name – ‘Eternal Flame.’ Get it while it is hot!

Echinacea ‘Art’s Pride,’ also found as 'Orange Meadowbrite' (below, left), is one of the hybrids developed at the Chicago Botanic Garden by Dr. Jim Ault. The plant may be in short supply since it has been shown to not be easy to produce ion great numbers in tissue culture. The story goes that many of the results turn out to be E. ‘Mango Sunrise,’ a paler, but beautiful flower.

“Some people are passionate about their new cars,” Mr. Avent explained, and he thinks that is the way it is for many plant lovers. But he also points to a difference between plant collectors and say, people who buy antiques. “I bought an antique chest, and I’ve watched it all year,” he joked. “It hasn’t grown an inch.” Plants, he reminds us, grow bigger and better, flower and, unlike other collectables, can be reproduced and shared. That doesn’t hurt when a new hosta goes for $200 or more before the supply can catch up with demand. Sharing is a big thrill for Mr. Avent, and for most gardeners.

How does Tony know what collectors are going to want in the future? Simple – he is one of them.

Click here to visit Plant Delights online catalog.

Farewell to the Student Teacher

The following newsletter was originally published on January 31, 2006 and corresponded with the obituary I was asked to write for the New York Times.


On Friday afternoon, I received an e-mail from Tom Fischer, the editor of Timber Press books in Portland, Oregon, telling me that the great English gardener and author, Christopher Lloyd, had died at the age of 84. I called my editor at the New York Times, and I should have known, I was given the assignment to write the obituary -- with a three-hour deadline.

I hardly felt qualified for the task. For one thing, the deadline was frightening. Here it was Friday, 10:00 pm in England, and I knew that I would not be able to reach anyone for comments over the weekend. (I urged the Times to assign it to Mr. Fischer at least since he was on the West Coast, he would have a three-hour jump on the job.)

When I explained to the Deputy Editor that this was indeed a very important artist, she checked her bosses and agreed that it should not run on a Saturday, but during the week when there was more of a chance it would get space, and I could have the weekend.

I talked to several of Christopher Lloyds close friends. I kept hearing the word “acerbic.” Then came “great host.” One person mentioned that he was a good writer. Finally, gardener came up. “People said he was the last of the breed.”

Then the word “experimental” surfaced. Mr. Lloyd was an original artist who worked in a transitional style. He experimented over the last fifteen years with unconventional plants like tropical perennials and Mediterranean species, as did his colleagues the author and nursery owner Beth Chatto, American artists Marco Polo Stufano at Wave Hill, designer Gary Keim, nurserymen Dan Hinkley and Nancy Goodwin.

Besides being known for his published works, Mr. Lloyd was perhaps even more famous for the place where he gardened, Great Dixter, where he restored, maintained, altered and invented gardens. “ My parents were both gardeners, ” he wrote in his contribution to “The Englishman’s Garden,” edited by Rosemary Verey.

His mother, the former Daisy Field, appreciated “the art of letting plants enjoy themselves,” Mr. Lloyd wrote. “She would go round the garden with a trugful of snowdrop bulbs or odd cyclamen seedlings…and pop them into all sorts of odd places: under the skirts of hedges and topiary specimens into paving and wall cracks.”

His father Nathaniel bought Great Dixter in 1910. He wrote a few books including “Topiary: Garden Craftsmanship in Yew and Box,” which is still in print. The architect Sir Edwin Lutyens designed additions to the house and laid out the gardens. Lutyens often worked in conjunction with Gertrude Jekyll, the influential Edwardian garden designer, but Mr. Lloyd was always quick to set the record straight that although he had met Miss Jeckyll when he was a boy, she never worked at Dixter, as is often printed.

But all the words I heard didn’t say what first came to mind when I thought of Mr. Lloyd. I only met Christo (as we called him) a few times (I wish I had gotten to know him better). . The thing that struck me about this man was how eager he was to engage young people in discussions about horticulture. At events where we would meet up, he was always surrounded, like a rock star, by "kids" (under 30). I know Christo enjoyed their company, but he was a great, and here’s the word, “teacher.” Right: Christopher Lloyd and Louis Bauer (former curator of the Flower Garden) at Wave Hill, the public garden in the Bronx, NY  around 1995.  

“I’m not too old to learn,” he once said. “And I’m not too old to teach.” His books and articles are charming and often disarming; but always instructive with really good advice, graciously sahred. It seemed to me that he liked talking with "the young generation" as much as anything else. I suspect Christo considered himself one of them.   
Mr. Lloyd wrote 20 books on gardening, columns for various newspapers over the years, magazine articles and -- astounding! – a weekly column in Britain's Country Life magazine for 42 years. (I always think it must be easier for "Brits" to write so well and so profusely -- 'cause they talk so good.)

By any standard, this is a prodigious legacy. His greatest, however, are the gardens at Great Dixter in Sussex, England, near Rye, where Lloyd was born and where he lived his entire life.

Be sure to visit Great Dixter web site  to see many photographs and detailed descriptions of the gardens there. And if you can, make sure you are one of the 44,000 people a year who visit them in person, from April to October during the three hours they are open each day.

Portrait of Christopher Lloyd, courtesy of Timber Press.

 

Southern Belles On the Move?

This newsletter was originally sent October 17th, 2006. If you would like to subscribe to our free newsletter, please type your address in the box on the upper right of this page.

Is global warming real? I can only add a bit of anecdotal evidence and my personal observations. Every time we have a cold winter, I wonder if it is true, but during years of record-breaking drought, I’m fairly convinced. Also, I’ve read ecological reports citing that populations of plants such as ferns are losing individuals in the southern edge of their range, and their northern edge keeps extending. It is a slow process, but happening none the less. As for my Southern Magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora), there’s no way to tell if they are thriving due to climate change, or because of the varieties I have chosen.

Magnolia grandiflora has large lustrous leaves [right] that are fuzzy on the undersides – anything from just a little green nap to thick cinnamon-brown felt. I have yet to try ‘D.D. Blanchard’ but she is high on my must-get list. Then there is ‘Simpson’s Hardy,’ and ‘Twenty-four Below,’ named for obvious reasons. ‘Victoria’ is alleged to be the hardiest. ‘Little Gem’ is a small-leafed, small-in-stature tree that I tried - -it died. Perhaps the new warmth will let me try ‘Little Gem,’ again. For now, though, I am very happy with a similar, and I think more beautiful variety ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty,’ a tree with rich flannel backs to the small-for-the-species leaves that is doing very well.

Magnolias once shared the earth with Tyrannosaurus Rex, along with the first mammals and birds. The middle of the Cretaceous period was when the continental plates moved, and the accompanying volcanic activity created the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains in the American West, and the Alps in Europe. Until that time, the earth was mostly at sea level, tropical and there was no polar ice cap. As the Cretaceous period ended, about 65 million years ago, the sea level dropped, exposing more land on the continents, and greater temperature differences from the equator to the poles. The sub-tropical magnolias survived (the dinosaurs didn’t).

Even though it is very likely that several Magnolia grandiflora varieties can survive cold, they also have to look good. Burned leaves, or no leaves are not desirable traits for an evergreen. The winner in my contest for most hardy, good looking and vigorous Southern magnolia is ‘Edith Bogue’ [left]. The trees (planted to screen the road) are still young, but have produced flowers. The variety’s leaves do not have the richest brown of some, but the ‘Edith Bogue’ trees have also not been damaged by road salt spray, and the leaves looked lustrous and shiny in the winter of February 2006, following days that dipped to minus 10 degrees.

Is ‘Edith Bogue’ thriving in may garden because of her constitution, or because the climate has warmed? Hard to answer, but another completely unscientific observation has me thinking things are definitely changing.

Just a few weeks ago, I found, a gorgeous corn snake hatchling [below] sunning on the flagstone path in front of the house. The baby was over twelve inches long with a head about half the size of my pinky nail. Baby animals, even snakes, are so cute. I thought that because they had large eyes in comparison to the rest of their small bodies. But I guess large eyes aren’t the only factor that determines cuteness (at least not for me) because the pretty little snake was (dare I admit it) adorable.

After a little research, I discovered that the range of the North American corn snake is from Florida to the southern tip of New Jersey – a zone warmer and a thousand feet lower -- than the State’s northwest corner where I garden. I doubt the little snake was an unwanted pet tossed from a moving car, so how did it get here, if it’s progenitors did not migrate north, extending their range?

I vote for migration – the range of this Southeastern snake, like the ferns and Magnolia varieties, just might be inching northward.

Have you similar anecdotes to share? If so, I would be really interested in reading about your observations. Please email me , on this topic or any other interesting garden life thoughts you may have.

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