Bizarre Beauties

WORDS & PHOTOS BY SUSAN TIMMONS

They’re in vogue. The cool kid on the block. Such a hot item that CVS on Langhorne Road featured a vividly blooming batch for sale last week, and they flew out the door.

They’re the Dr. Seuss characters of the plant world. Curious, quirky, even outlandish to eyes attuned to typical Lynchburg flora. Some have symmetrical rosettes or other geometric shapes; others are oddly formed. Some look like foreboding rubbery cartoon creatures from ocean depths or outer space; others are so fuzzy and cute you almost want to cuddle them. They come in every color of the rainbow—subtle to brazen.

Some are edible or have herbal healing properties. One produces tequila, and another is a source of a USDA Schedule I controlled substance.

These plants are called succulents from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or sap. Dictionary synonyms for the word succulent are “tender, juicy, moist, fleshy, pulpy, soft, tender…” The common denominator is their capability to store water. Some, such as cacti, are especially adapted to living in arid conditions with poor soil conditions (xerophytes); others, such as bromeliads, can live in moist tropical environments in trees (epiphytes). And some, such as crassula, can even live under water (aquatic).

According to publications by experts, they have a variety of water-saving features, including:
• special metabolism adapted for efficient photosynthesis
• photosynthesis in stems, rather than leaves
• limited number of pores for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange
• compact, cushiony, columnar, ribbed, or spherical growth patterns to reduce sun exposure
• spiny, waxy, or hairy outer surface areas to reduce water loss
• shallow roots to grab moisture from dew or short showers
• water conservation when external temperatures are high (120+ degrees F)

Where They Grow

Succulents can adapt to brutal environments. They can live on salty sea coasts and dry lakes, and they can survive concentrated levels of dissolved minerals. High temperatures and low precipitation force them to collect and store water to survive long dry periods—up to many months.

Since succulents conserve water by means other than the fleshy leaves we typically see in plants native to our Piedmont region of Virginia, they are naturally adapted to dry environments all over the world. Various species are found in desert, semi-desert, and flat grassland areas in the Americas, southeastern Europe, Africa, India, Asia, Siberia, Australia, and more.

The rocky, arid coastline of California is one of those habitats where succulents grow naturally. Yet, for many years Californians turned their backs on their native plants and favored English-style lawns and other water-intensive trappings of our U.S. East Coast gardens as high fashion. Fortunately, in recent years, environmentally sensitive California coastline homeowners, as well as hotel and other commercial building managers, have responded to water shortages by “going native” and designing elegant gardens featuring their native water-saving succulent plants.

Another rocky coastline with a fascinating display of succulents is on the Mediterranean Sea. Jardin Exotique (Exotic Gardens) in Monaco boasts one of the largest, most magnificent, and meticulously labeled collections in the world, with several million succulents planted on a cliff overlooking the royal palace and the sea. The initial collection was acquired from around the world by Prince Albert I of Monaco in 1899, and he founded the Jardin Exotique in 1914 to showcase these trophies. Some original specimens are still there.

This is indeed a mecca for succulent aficionados. Though most of the plants in the collection could not normally be grown on the Riviera because of the cold mistral winds from the north, the Jardin Exotique is fortuitously protected by a mountain range, tempered by mild sea breezes, and hydrated by fog.

I’d always been a bit curious about succulents and somewhat amused by their odd and foreign appearance in our lushly vegetated and water-rich Virginia. But I’d never truly warmed up to them until a top-notch guide at the Jardin Exotique inspired more earnest education, quashed my (embarrassingly) provincial aversion to many succulents as simply weird oddballs of the plant world, and converted me into an enthusiast.

Closer to home, the most spectacular collection of succulents I’ve seen in the U.S. is in the world-class Desert Botanical Garden in the Sonoran Desert within the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The focus of this plant museum is to preserve Arizona’s natural desert habitat with research, exhibitions, conservation, and educational programs. Over 50,000 desert plants, including endangered species, inhabit 50 acres.

I’d never felt the allure of succulents pull my heart as well as my head into their world until this past January when visiting this magnificent botanical garden with my husband Tim’s knowledgeable and engaging Scottsdale cousin Donita as our guide. I was not only cured of my ignorance, but also officially seduced!

Here in Lynchburg

Now that I’m hooked, outdoor succulents grab my attention all over Lynchburg. During the years I worked at Randolph College, I had little appreciation for the flamboyant and commanding May-June white yucca blooms rising above the red brick wall against the backdrop of dark, leafy greens in front of Presser Hall. In retirement, I now honor them as one of the joys of my daily walking regimen.

And I can’t help but marvel at the spectacular stand of prickly pear cactus in front of Betty Bright cleaners near the southeast intersection of Route 221 and the Route 501 Expressway. Betty Bright’s patch of prickly pear blooms sunshine yellow during May and June each year, sets striking red fruit each fall, and delights passersby year after year. Who’d have guessed succulents would grow so successfully in a parking lot along a busy traffic artery in Lynchburg? As one of the hardiest of the cacti, it’s certainly adapted to our summer humidity and winter freezes. And there are other tough succulents along that stretch of road. It’s a veritable succulents road show.

When giving a talk on succulents at the Templeton Senior Center recently, I discovered that my audience was well familiar with numerous yucca, prickly pear, agave, and other conspicuous succulent plants growing outdoors in Lynchburg and our surrounding counties. Have you noticed any?

Although succulents certainly are not yet on Lynchburg gardeners’ “most popular plantings” list, they do show up in traditional Virginia gardens in small doses and happily coexist with neighboring native and other exotic plants. I successfully grew several lovely varieties of sedum, including the ever-popular “autumn joy,” hens and chicks (sempervivums), ice plant, and other succulents whose names I can’t recall, in my own perennial gardens, and they survived our winters.

A bonus of sedum is the beauty of the flowers in late summer and fall and their attractiveness to bees and other pollinators. Once flowers are spent and dry, they add visual interest to the winter garden and offer their seeds to birds.

However, most succulents prefer warm temperatures and are not able to withstand freezing. Due to the water stored in their leaves, freezing will often result in the plant getting mushy leaves and/or dying. So, most succulents around Lynchburg live in pots in homes.

My all-time favorite potted succulent is a decades-old jade plant that has withstood a couple of moves, neglect, and schlepping to church and other places when a specimen’s been needed. It even survived our most recent move with a maladjusted cat who decided its sandy soil was preferable to his kitty litter box for relieving himself. After discovering this assault on my venerable jade, I intervened and nursed it back to health. And it managed to regain its vitality and spread to 40 inches wide. These plants are tough.

I even had large potted bottle/ponytail palm (beaucarnea) for years that lived outdoors in summer and in the dark and cold (but not freezing) garage in winter. This is one of the varieties of succulents that sports a bulbous lower trunk for storing water, and we didn’t water it all winter. In keeping with our family tradition of sharing plants, my son Reid now enjoys it in his sunroom in Mathews County in the winter and on his screened porch in summer.

Until recently, the potted succulents seen most often in Lynchburg were typically passed in families or friend to friend, usually through cuttings. Reid and one of our daughters-in-law, Leisa, are now growing jade plants from cuttings from the mother plant (that’s also been passed around in the family). With the widespread rise in popularity of interesting varieties new to us, succulents are now more frequently purchased through nurseries, florists, and big box and grocery stores (and even pharmacies).

In addition to those already mentioned, popular varieties historically have been kalanchoe, euphorbia, bromeliads, Christmas cactus, aloe vera, agave, and snake plant (sansevieria). In years past, indoor succulent collections typically started with a little aloe vera at the ready for treating burns or a tough snake plant, with other varieties added over time. Today, a wide array of tiny succulents sporting fascinating shapes and showy blooms seem to be everywhere.

Care and Crafts

Since most succulents are not cold-hearty, they’re enjoyed as annuals for only one season if planted in the garden. But if planted in pots for outdoor display in summer and moved indoors for protection during winter, they can be enjoyed for years. As potted houseplants, succulents require little maintenance and don’t demand fertilizing or regular repotting.

When planting succulents in the garden, it’s important to remember that they need good drainage, or roots will rot and they will die. Our native compacted red clay doesn’t cut it for most succulents. We must amend the soil to give them a mixture containing sand or gravel or tuck them into stone walls or other places where their roots will not sit in soggy soil.

Most potted succulents need watering only every few weeks or less frequently. You can even take an extended vacation without a plant sitter and they’ll survive. Succulents are the ticket for those of us who choose to wean ourselves away from drama queens, whether in friendships or flowers.

While many succulents require bright light, too much direct sunlight can result in color change. Some green succulents tend to take on red tones (called “blushing”), especially along the edges, if light is intense. Bright light, but not direct sunlight, is best for many, yet some (like snake plant) thrive in low light, so it’s important to learn and follow the individual preferences of each variety.

One of the amazing qualities of succulents is easy propagation. The most common way to propagate is through a cutting, which is simply a several-inch piece of cut stem with leaves. It’s left for a week or so to “cure” and produce a callus, then placed in a growing medium such as sandy soil—and roots most likely will grow. This is the method I use for sharing my jade. Another method is division, which requires uprooting an overgrown clump, easing roots and stems apart, and separating into several plants.

While I confess I’ve only infrequently upped my floral design game by featuring succulents in arrangements, experts confirm that they’re an excellent choice for bridal bouquets, topiaries, vertical gardens, and other uses where you need plant material that won’t quickly wilt. I do know from experience that succulent rosettes can last without a water source for days. If misted or in wet floral foam, they may last for weeks. They are excellent for crafting and can even be attached with glue for decorating packages, holiday ornaments, or party favors.

Rising Stock

Succulents have in recent years captured the imagination of gardeners in Virginia and continue to gain an admiring following. They are versatile and require so little care that it’s no wonder they are such a hit. I lunched recently at Amuse at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and tiny potted arrangements of succulents graced all the tables. They charmed us, and we overheard other patrons compliment them, noting how well they work with mid-century modern décor. And how sensible for a restaurant to have live plant material on tables that doesn’t require daily refreshing!

Succulents even have their own fan clubs. The Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA, cssainc.org) founded in 1929, includes over 80 affiliated clubs and thousands of members worldwide. The primary purpose of the society is “to enjoy succulent plants through horticulture, travel and scientific discovery, with a concern for habitat preservation and conservation issues in deserts worldwide.” And closer to home in Washington, D.C. is the National Capital Cactus and Succulents Society (www.washington-dc.cactus-society.org).

Contributing to the increasing popularity of succulents is their unique and intriguing appearance. They can look downright weird. Their shape can be spiraled, spiked, sword, crested, corkscrew, moon, snake-like, wavy, ridged, ribbon, knobby, paddle, plumed, or like a tongue depressor. They can look like snakes, eels, snowflakes, spider webs, pinwheels, a pile of pebbles, or a string of pearls. And that’s not all. They can be covered with protective thorns, prickles, or fluff.

Size can range from minuscule to mammoth. It’s no wonder that standing next to a huge saguaro cactus in Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Gardens, Tim and I felt downright Lilliputian.

Aloe succulents are tagged with names such as partridge breast, gold tooth, blue elf, and hercules. Other succulents boast names like pig’s ear, calico kitten, bear paws, rosary vine, silver torch, and rat tail cactus. With monikers like that, it would be impossible for a curious creature like me not to be fascinated with these amazing plants.

Meet the Gardener

Susan Timmons served in the 1970s as Virginia’s first Environmental Impact Statement Coordinator, then Assistant Administrator and Acting Administrator of Virginia’s Council on the Environment and editor of The State of Virginia’s Environment. During that time she also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Environmental Professionals and received the National Wildlife Federation’s Award for Environmental Communications. More recently, she worked in higher education and nonprofit management and, in retirement, she serves as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Hill City Master Gardeners Association with a series of talks on “Gardens of the World.”

Gardens for a Sustainable Environment: Contemporary Concepts

This is part two of a two-part series on garden design. Be sure to check out Susan’s part one from our March/April issue, “Garden Design: Making It Your Own”.

Environmental sustainability matters to millennials. It ranks among their top three most important issues, along with college affordability and health care, according to a recent survey by Virginia21, a millennial advocacy organization. Millennials’ passion for environmental quality is fueling the flames of political advocacy and informing thoughtful personal choices.

This news sparks flashbacks of my own fervor for environmental advocacy at their age when I was employed as Virginia’s first Environmental Impact Statement Coordinator in the early 1970s. Passing the torch to millennials makes my heart sing and gives us all hope for the future of this earth.

Contemporary approaches to gardening reflect the values of environmental champions of all generations. And enhanced awareness and commitment to sustainability translates into garden design and plant material selection that favor sustainability over adherence to historical design norms.

At Home with Nature
What gives us greater joy in spring than a flowering dogwood announcing the end of winter? What better shades us from intense summer sun than a majestic white oak tree? These and a multitude of other native plants are a large part of what we love about living in Central Virginia. And they are the environmentally sustainable choice for our gardens.

I’ve touted native plant guru Dr. Douglas Tallamy and his book, Bringing Nature Home, in several previous issues of Lynchburg Living. Another valuable resource is a new book by Repp Glaettli, Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens, reminding us of the aesthetic beauty of local native plants, supporting nurseries in stocking the best varieties, and cultivating deeper understanding of the cultural and natural heritage of native plants in nearby counties of our shared Piedmont region. It also offers practical tips for best growing practices and catalogues native trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and perennial wildflowers.

First and foremost, contemporary sustainable garden design relies on the right plants for the right locations, accounting for site conditions: size, climate, soil, water, nutrition, and other plant needs. Native plants in the right place require little soil amendment, watering (once established), nutritional supplements, and human pampering. After all, since they’re in their native habitat, they demand no extra fuss.

I fell in love with one native plant at a time and added it to my yard. Then when rose rosette disease claimed dozens of my antique roses and I knew that I could not replant with roses, I chose natives to replace them and never looked back. I was committed to bringing nature home.

Pollinator Power
When I climbed the pasture fence at our farm to retrieve what I’d assumed was a piece of trash that looked suspiciously like a plastic Cheetos bag, I was immediately infatuated with an amazing orange blooming plant covered with monarchs and great spangled frittilaries. Googling it, I discovered it was aptly named butterfly weed, and I couldn’t resist digging it up for my yard. And… voila! I launched my commitment to creating a pollinator garden.

Most of my “starter” native/pollinator plants for my yard and garden came from our farm pastures, woods, and (I confess) even roadside ditches before natives started catching on with local nurseries in response to popular demand. For city folks, stock from country cousins, friends, or nurseries is a better choice than digging from property you don’t own. However, harvesting and transplanting roadside milkweed into a pollinator garden for monarch caterpillar sustenance seems a more noble act than leaving it for inevitable VDOT spraying or mowing.

Natives that attract pollinators, such as Joe Pye weed, coneflower, mountain mint, monarda, and summer phlox, can vigorously populate or happily co-exist with exotic cultivars in lush English-style borders and can vibrantly complete the formal design of a classical Italian garden or a French-style parterre, if that’s your preference and you’re not about to start over with your garden design. They also work well in modern, minimalist gardens; and hybrid designs are just fine.

They’re actually more interesting and contemporary.

Fun garden ideas that have been enjoyed for decades and are gaining increasing popularity are wildflower meadows sporting a mixture of pollinator-attracting flowers and native grasses, as well as woodlands gardens. They typically require a fairly expansive open or wooded area, although “mini-meadows” or tiny wooded areas in city backyards for wildflowers such as native large-flowered trillium can work well too.

The point of pollinator gardens is, of course, to attract and support a wide variety of birds, bees, butterflies, and insects, many of which require specific native plants for nourishment at various stages of their life cycle, with the classic example of milkweed for monarch caterpillars. It’s important for all of us, millennials and older folks, to understand that these host plants and the pollinators they support are critical to the biodiversity necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

Managing Water
A concept that’s turned into a viable alternative garden design and has gained traction in recent years is rain gardens. Rain gardens are basically an effectively engineered way to deal with areas where rain collects or that flood periodically from run-off from impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads and walkways. They are depressions in the landscape that gather water but eventually drain. What they’re NOT is swamp land, ponds, water gardens, or other land that remains wet or under water as a usual thing.

Plants that work in rain gardens can survive periodically standing in water, followed by dry spells. We have a prime example of a well-designed rain garden here in Lynchburg’s downtown Riverfront park. The area is subject to runoff from our city that rises on the bluffs above it. You’ll notice the garden is designed with trenching, sunken beds, and bridges leading to the adjacent performance area.

The garden’s been scientifically engineered with layers of rocks and other devices so water can drain slowly, removing pollutants, and be absorbed back into the earth rather than running directly into the James River. Rain gardens are an environmentally sound method of dealing with city storm water run-off, water conservation, and river water quality. Planted with site-appropriate plants, they are a beautiful, as well as functional, solution to environmental degradation from soil erosion and river pollution.

If the idea of hiring professionals to design a backyard rain garden seems too grand or expensive, but you have issues with rainwater runoff from your roof, driveway, or other impermeable surfaces, you can simplify matters with a Do-It-Yourself version, as I did. My roof drainage problem resulted in a mud hole at my basement door after every heavy or prolonged rain. With steep slopes rising from this door on both sides to downspouts at the corners of the first floor of the house, water inevitably cascaded downhill, taking soil with it, to… guess where! What to do?

First, I hauled in rocks and pavers and hand-built dry stack stone walls and a stepping stone path over permeable garden fabric to the door. (When my husband Tim calls me his “Rockette,” it’s definitely not because I’m a long-legged NYC dancer!) I then angled out terraced slopes behind the walls and added large rocks for soil retention. Next, I affixed one end of 15-20 ft. PVC pipes to each downspout to run the water out from the house, and planted small trees, shrubs, and perennials that could handle periodic flooding. I camouflaged the pipes with rocks and polished the terraces off with mulch. And, miraculously, it worked! I didn’t even know my home-grown concoction was a variation on a garden design with the official name of “rain garden.”

Water gardens, on the other hand, are just that: pools, streams, waterfalls, fountains, and other water features. As we’ve seen from looking at the history of gardens through time, water features with wonderful water plants have been integral to gardens for centuries, and they can be incorporated into indoor or outdoor spaces. They have never faded in popularity, and likely never will.

While sunken gardens offer the option of flooding and deep watering through slow absorption (and are typically more necessary and likely in arid climates), our area is more likely to embrace raised gardens that promote speedy drainage. They also serve the function of providing elderly or mobility-challenged gardeners the ability to enjoy gardening at a comfortable height, thereby meeting physical, medical, psychological, and spiritual needs.

Designs Turn Sideways, Up, and Down
When space is limited, or even if not, sometimes a small, simplified pocket, porch, patio, courtyard, or even alleyway garden is preferred. These tiny gardens can be exquisite, lovely, inviting, and a pleasure to their creators and guests.

Vertical gardens are enjoying a resurgence with a return to inner-city living, smaller home lots, condos, and other close living quarters where garden space is likely to be curtailed or non-existent, as well as in hotels, commercial offices and restaurants. Whenever I see a successful one, I find myself searching for the source of water and soil or other medium for nutrient delivery necessary for plant life. And I typically find a well-engineered structure that serves as a framework to hold individual plants and an irrigation system. I’m intrigued, but this isn’t something I plan to do at home. My engineering skills were pretty much tapped out with my “rain garden” project.

Espaliered (mid-17th century French from Latin) plants are trained to grow flat against a wall. While this age-old method historically was used for fruit trees and ornamental shrubs, its popularity has expanded in modern times to include any plant material, native or exotic, that can be trained in this fashion, such as magnolia, Lady Banks roses, and pyracantha. Lattice and similar framework are traditional supports for espaliered fruit and other types of trees, but permanently installed hooks with wires and other modern engineering options are available to carry higher and heavier loads.

Tower Gardens, made possible by modern technology, are a contemporary idea. One example is the hands-on tower garden project of the Princess Anne Garden Club in Virginia Beach that’s instilling a love of gardening while teaching environmental sustainability to the generation following Millennials (pre-K – 12th grade) in three public schools. The towers are 6’ x 4’ with slots for 28 plants, with herbs, vegetables and flowers grown in each cell, without soil; and each tower sits on a 20-gallon basin of nutrient rich water that supports the plant material. And they’re on wheels for easy movement.

This 21st century growing method is called aeroponic, with the root system aerated through misting with a nutrient-rich spray. It’s a first cousin to hydroponic growing methods that have been around a long time and which use a liquid nutrient solution for root immersion. I got my first glimpse of how efficient and effective this process can be on a behind-the-scenes tour at Disney World about 15 years ago. Thousands upon thousands of plants on high conveyer belts were producing abundantly to feed throngs of visitors. Will aeroponics and hydroponics, already used extensively in China, be the next “big thing” in the U.S. to address both environmental and economic issues in food production and home gardening?

Understated Elegance
In addition to prioritizing environmental concerns, contemporary garden design also reflects artistic and aesthetic values, which currently lean toward asymmetrical, angular, and pared down to essential elements tied together by hardscaping in a unified architectural sensibility. Current U.S. taste tends to draw more heavily on the Japanese Zen tradition than more elaborate and symmetrical layouts.

A “less is more” philosophy guides today’s design.

Hardscaping often creates the “garden bones” in contemporary designs that yews, boxwoods, and other workhorse plants provide in traditional gardens. Natural materials such as stone and slate continue in popularity, and manmade materials, including pavers that offer permeability, have come a long way aesthetically as well as functionally. With low maintenance as a goal, these gardens may have self-watering planters, be all green, or feature repeat patterns of only one plant, such as an interesting native grass. Or they may include several varieties planted in repetition for contrast.

Visual interest is on many different levels even in these sleek designs and may include vertical plantings on privacy or partition walls. A focal point is always necessary, and several focal points can be effective if judiciously placed. Good lighting is essential for a dramatic spotlight on prized features, as well as for safety on pathways and near potential hazards, such as pools and ponds.

As my millennial grandchildren would say about contemporary gardens, “This is not our grandmother’s garden!” This grandmother freely admits sentimental attachment to the design of her old-fashioned country cottage garden with organically shaped English borders overflowing with a lush jumble of hundreds of exotic and native plant species.

Yet, I also respect and am strongly drawn to the elegant, serene beauty of refined minimalist and other Zen-like contemporary concepts. These fit the millennials’ mindset to shed the shackles of traditional concepts of political partisan tribalism or strict precepts of traditional garden design they perceive as inconsistent with their values and priorities.

I get it. After all, I’m already a kindred spirit with millennials in their desire to sustain our environment.

Inspiration Through History and Culture
WORDS & PHOTOS BY SUSAN TIMMONS

As economics and culture go, so go gardens. Gardens inevitably reflect their time and place in history. From subsistence gardens that give sustenance for survival to glorious, grand-scale pleasure gardens that flaunt wealth and power, garden and landscape designs run the gamut.

Our ornamental gardens in Lynchburg typically fall comfortably between these two extremes. They have been greatly influenced by those that came before us yet are uniquely American both in design and plant material.

Setting the Standard

Let’s take a sweep through time to see how gardens evolved throughout Western civilization and consider what that means to us when we design our own garden. A good starting point is late 15th century Renaissance Italy, which boasted gardens prized for their design, elegance, and political and social message to complement villas of the ecclesiastic and secular wealthy around Rome and Florence. As the Renaissance progressed, villas and their companion gardens became increasingly larger and more elaborate, reflecting classical ideals of proportion, formal order and symmetry, architecture and literature, and the desire to impress.

Prime examples are the Medici’s Boboli gardens at the Pitti Palace in Florence, the Vatican gardens in Rome, and the magnificent 16th century High Renaissance Villa d’Este at Tivoli. The latter boasts a magnificent terraced garden featuring elaborate water courses, pools, fountains (including a water organ), a grotto, and delightful visual surprises at every turn. This garden exemplifies the typical Italian design of a central axis with cross axes leading the eye to focal points, terraces on the side of a steep hill affording spectacular vistas, and adornment with classical and mythical statuary. These and similar, albeit often less elaborate, gardens throughout Italy set the bar for ideal garden design for the Western world.

This basic standard for gardens was adapted in many ways as it spread eastward across the northern shores of the Mediterranean into France and Spain, where steep shorelines meant it took great effort to move the earth and chisel terraces out of high cliffs. Another challenge was to engineer increasingly clever ways to channel waters by advancing knowledge gained from the construction of Roman aqueducts. The reward was lush gardens with exotic plant material and spectacular views of the sparkling blue Mediterranean.

The formal Italian garden was climatically and culturally tailored and embellished through Renaissance France, with Versailles as an extreme example of the trophy garden to display worldly wealth and status. And the French took the idea of conquering and controlling nature to its utmost extreme with fantastic forms of precision topiary, elaborate open and closed parterres, dramatic water features, and endless sculptural and other ornamentation.

Then, of course, the English would not be outdone by the French, so formal Italian- and French-style gardens became the rage there too, and many still today accompany palaces and great country manor houses, such as those in the Cotswold Hills. At Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill, the formal Italian garden is nestled closest to the palace (for exclusive use of the residential Marlborough family and their guests), while the French, via Italian, influence is obvious in the terraced water features and classical sculptures that are open to the public.

The Focus Shifts

Then, in the 18th Century, along came the most famous English landscape designer, Lancelot “Capability” Brown, who transformed the concept of gardens into a more relaxed design in tune with the natural landscape. He designed 170 or so parks and numerous estate gardens with a departure from classical formal symmetry and a celebration of the countryside beyond. His goal was to create gardens that looked as if they were nature’s own creation. But they only seemed so.

He, in fact, moved hills, created lakes, naturalized waterfalls, and strategically planted clumps of trees (a design feature adopted by Thomas Jefferson for Poplar Forest) to look as if they were there all along. Looking past the formal gardens at Blenheim Palace out toward the countryside is a showcase of “Capability” Brown’s brilliant artistry in nature. Thus was born “The English Landscape Style” that to this day influences our gardening here in Virginia.

Another significant shift that changed gardens and garden design forever resulted from the Industrial Revolution. Tools were developed, such as the lawnmower, to make cost and workload of planting and maintaining lawns and gardens manageable for middle class folks who couldn’t afford teams of hired gardeners. With new building materials and engineering skills, “glass houses” at London’s public Kew Gardens were constructed to shelter tropical and temperate plants from around the world for viewing by the general population. An appetite for gardening was, of course, whetted.

When Thomas Jefferson traveled in Europe, he embraced worldwide plant exchange. His fascination with plants and gardens compelled him to bring numerous exotic species of plants to America, and many have grown in popularity through the years.

As the middle class proliferated, well-designed public gardens grew in number and educational value. Love of gardening and interest in garden design was no longer the exclusive privilege of the rich and powerful. Gardening today in England and the U.S., and indeed around the world, has become one of the most popular hobbies and is accessible to almost everyone.

New Styles and Honored Traditions

English garden design further evolved through concepts developed by Gertrude Jykll (1843-1932), horticulturalist, garden designer, writer, and artist, who thoroughly understood plants, color theory, and other principles of art—line, form, structure, color. To her a garden was a blank canvas to which she could translate her knowledge into brilliant, artistic garden designs. Her robust combinations of color created exuberant flower borders that bloomed profusely in sequence as the gardening season progressed, and her aesthetic strategies and motifs have greatly influenced U.S. gardeners, including myself.

Vita Sackville-West, 20th century novelist and designer of the famous Sissinghurst Castle garden, masterfully embraced the concept of individual “garden rooms” with windows and doors in walls and yew hedges linking a multitude of rooms—each with a unique purpose, design, and character. Some of her other concepts expressed at Sissinghurst were mown grass paths, one-color gardens, and roses on brick walls (as we see in our Old City Cemetery). Another notable artistic English gardener was Rosemary Verey, who, according to a eulogy after her death in 2001, “brought the art of clipped boxwoods, laburnum walks and ornamental vegetable gardening to America.”

We in the U.S. continue to be greatly influenced by English garden designers/writers/lecturers, including modern-day experts Penelope Hobhouse (who designed many gardens in the U.S. as well as England), Mary Keen (who visited and spoke in Lynchburg last year), and Heidi Howcroft (who has also visited Lynchburg). The list of English garden gurus could go on and on. Most have taken historic concepts, refined them, created their own oeuvre, and taken our U.S. gardens to the next level. And we in Lynchburg listen to what they have to say.

As for U.S. garden designers, we already know that Thomas Jefferson, informed by his European travels, set the bar; and we must not forget landscape and garden architect/designer Charles Gillette, who in the first half of the 20th century so aptly created landscapes to pair with Colonial Revival architecture, most notably in Richmond, and earned fame as being the father of what’s known as the “Virginia Garden.”

Since our heritage continues to be of such value to us in Virginia, we revere Rudy Favretti, noted horticulturalist and designer of garden preservation and restoration projects, to complement historic sites, and William D. Rieley, landscape designer in Charlottesville, who works with the Garden Club of Virginia and serves as consultant for ongoing garden archaeological research at Poplar Forest to “honor the past while looking toward the future.”

Other Influences

As important as the evolution of garden design through Western civilization may be to us, it’s not the whole story. Let’s journey east from Italy, where West meets East, and consider that European gardens adopted many design motifs (as well as plants, such as the rose) from the East. Mogul gardens of Northern India were created with Muslim, Buddhist, Persian, Christian, and even Mesopotamian influences. These, like Italian gardens, adhere to principles of formal symmetry. They follow strict geometric and symbolic guidelines and proudly rely on mastering the flow of water, essential to exotic plant survival—a common denominator for all successful garden designs.

Far Eastern garden design also developed over a couple of thousand years. Rather than relying on formal symmetry, famous and elegant Chinese gardens, such as the Lingering Garden in Suzhou, create an entire landscape of rocks, water, plants, pagodas, and pavilions artfully compressed in a relatively small space. Every stone, structure, and horticulture specimen holds scholarly or spiritual significance. According to UNESCO, this and other gardens of Suzhou are the “most refined form” of the art of garden design.

Japanese gardens have certainly made their mark on the Western world. They, like Chinese gardens, can typify complex landscapes, but with cultural variations in their carefully-placed rocks, streams, meticulously pruned trees, and raked sand/soil—designed to stimulate intellectual and spiritual contemplation. Or they may be Zen minimalist, simple, and unadorned to invite meditation and serenity.

The most recent trends to influence our garden design are an outgrowth of environmental concerns. The Native Plant Movement, embracing the critical role of pollinators for bio-diversity and healthy ecosystems, has benefited from substantiation by scientific research translated into lay terms, most notably by Professor Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware. Understanding native plants and their value in home gardens is further changing the way we design our gardens to focus more on open, loose, and natural looks rather than closed, contrived, and exotic ones.

Designing YOUR Garden

I’ve been fortunate to experience guided tours of iconic gardens all over the world to inspire my vision for my own garden and make informed decisions on what would work for me in translating aspects of gardens from various cultures, and from grand scale to a smaller, simplified, more “human” scale. But if garden travel isn’t in your future, you can easily Google and read to help you sort through garden designs—historic and current trends.

What appeals to you? What’s your vision? And what will work for you? This is the starting point for any garden design.

To help answer these questions, consider your values, goals, desires, lifestyle, and personal preferences. Are you looking for material or spiritual rewards from your garden? Your ideal garden may be an elegantly designed showplace, or you may prefer as simple a setting as possible to grow your favorite flowers. It may be a retreat for private enjoyment of the senses of sight and sound or to soothe your soul. Or you may be looking for an attractive outdoor extension of your home as a garden room (or rooms) for dining, entertaining, relaxing, or playing.

Are you more of a scientist or an artist? You may be focused on growing, propagating, and sharing interesting and healthy plants or more interested in creative, eye-catching arrangements of color, shape, and form. Or you may want it all with a combination of these attributes. It’s not necessarily one or the other. But it is a matter of knowing yourself. It’s up to you to decide.

If all this is confusing or if you need help with your design, there are excellent professional landscapers and garden designers in our area to offer guidance and assistance. Although most of my gardening has been DIY (see my “DIY Garden Design in 8 Steps” on the following pages), I’ve sought help for specific design and planting challenges at times—both Rosser Landscaping & Design LLC and Rainfrost Nursery have offered excellent suggestions as well as quality plant material and workmanship. And don’t forget that the Hill City Master Gardener Association offers the free services of Master Gardeners to come to your home and offer advice.

You may choose to develop a grand garden scheme or master plan before lifting your first shovel full of soil, or you may let your garden design evolve over time, as mine did, by focusing on one challenge or section of your land at a time. Again, there’s no right or wrong way for home gardens. It’s your garden. Within constraints of law and a reasonable nod toward community cohesion, express yourself and do it YOUR way!

Meet the Gardener
Susan Timmons served in the 1970s as Virginia’s first Environmental Impact Statement Coordinator, then Assistant Administrator and Acting Administrator of Virginia’s Council on the Environment and editor of The State of Virginia’s Environment. During that time she also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Environmental Professionals and received the National Wildlife Federation’s Award for Environmental Communications. More recently, she worked in higher education and nonprofit management and, in retirement, she serves as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Hill City Master Gardeners Association with a series of talks on “Gardens of the World.”

Dig Deeper

www.rosserlandscaping.com
www.rainfrostnursery.com
www.hcmga.com

IN 8 STEPS

1. Assess Your Space: Consider the size of your property, lay of the land, architectural style of your home, proximity to neighbors, and your design passions and preferences. For my half-acre backyard, I designed a free-flowing, casual country cottage garden featuring numerous organically-shaped borders and free-standing beds hugging the rolling terrain. This design complemented our colonial house on a farm cresting a hill in Bedford County. Yet, a more formal, symmetrical style may better suit other settings.

2. Face Unique Challenges and Opportunities First: My first challenge was to hide a honking metal utility barn from my landscape view. I planted a “green screen” as a buffer between the barn and the garden of my dreams, and in a couple of years that barn disappeared. My greatest design opportunity was views of Sharp Top and Flat Top mountains (and sunsets) to the west and Amherst County mountains beyond woods to the north. So, I made sure to take advantage of my borrowed landscape.

3. Budget $$, Time and Energy: Without an unlimited budget to spend on hiring professionals to design, plant, and maintain my garden, I developed it in incremental steps over 22 years, each year adding a new garden area and features. One year it was a rose garden. Another year it was building stone walls and paths. Yet another year it was a Crepe Myrtle allée up our driveway. With a full-time job many of those years, I had to budget my time and energy as well as money, so “slow and easy” was my motto.

4. Plan for Climate and Deer: Follow zone hardiness guidelines for planting. We’re in zone 7a, but we’ve experienced zone 6 conditions in recent winters. Plant material also needs to be suited to climate variances, or micro-climates, due to the lay of the land, sun or shade, windy or wind protected, and wet or dry. It’s frustrating and fruitless to plant a garden deer will eat, and I’ve not yet found a commercial product that keeps deer away permanently. Either stick to deer-resistant plants or build an adequate fence around your garden, as we did.

5. Select Plant Material: Decide on your garden “bones,” the hardscaping and foundation plants that set the shape and style of your garden. These include trees, shrubs, and other base landscape plants. Then select plants of different heights for vertical layering, with the tallest plants in the back of a border or center of a free-standing bed. Choose your plant preferences: exotics, natives, color, shape, size, and bloom time. Over time, add new plants as your taste and trends lead you.

6. Define Garden Areas and Prepare Your Soil: Mark the boundaries of your garden beds—whether they are a straight geometric pattern or a curving organic one. Then prepare the soil by removing undesirable plant material. As an environmentally sound option to using herbicides such as Roundup, cover the garden area with cardboard, black plastic, or other sun-blockers until the weeds are dead. Contact the Hill City Master Gardener Association
(www.hcmga.org) for a soil sampling kit and advice on what amendments are needed.

7. Plant, Water, Fertilize, and Watch Them Grow: Consider your water source and irrigation methods when deciding on what to plant where. And don’t underestimate the growing potential of plants. Most commercial labels on plants do not accurately tell us how large the plant will grow. So, leave space between new plants and allow room for them to grow, knowing your garden will continue to change with every new season. Over time, my full-sun garden grew into a sun-and-shade garden as new trees and shrubs matured.

8. Reassess, Rearrange, Transplant…and Leave Room for Serendipity: The joys and challenges of designing a garden include endless exciting opportunities for discovery and creativity. Unwelcome surprises with weather, pests, and diseases are inevitable, but afford opportunities. When my roses died of rose rosette disease, I replaced them with native plants. My garden design was also flexible enough to accommodate any plant a family member or friend gave me. These are gifts that touch my heart, and I could never design a garden that didn’t make room for them.

Would you give your friend a baby or a puppy? That’s the stock reply from local bonsai expert, Julian Adams, when people ask him to sell them a bonsai tree as a gift for a friend. Julian, a master grower of bonsai, knows first-hand from 47 years of experience the tremendous amount of nurture and perseverance it takes to keep a bonsai thriving. He knows it requires daily time and attention and an appreciation of just what bonsai is and means. To Julian, it’s 50 percent horticulture, 50 percent art, and 50 percent philosophy. Yep. That adds up to bonus points for those who are passionate about bonsai. And he is.

What is bonsai?
To Westerners, it’s the Japanese name for a small, stylized tree typically grown in a shallow container.

The word bonsai in Japanese translates literally into “planting in a container, dish, or tray” and was developed as part of the practice of Zen Buddhism. From there, it caught on in more recent times in Western countries—first in Europe, and then in the United States.

Today, bonsai aficionados practice their science, art, and philosophy across the United States, with several experts right here in Lynchburg.

Prior to its refinement as a horticultural practice and art form in Japan, most sources trace the derivation of bonsai back to China, where it is called pen-sai or penjing. Some sources even claim that before traveling to China, the practice originated in ancient India where ayurvedic physicians collected medicinal trees from the wild and grew them in pots in miniature form.

Whatever the roots of bonsai tradition, it’s been around for well over a thousand years, and it’s all about roots and shoots—and controlling them to create the tree you desire given the nature and characteristics of the specimen. Bonsai trees are not genetically dwarfed plants. They have the same genetic properties as their kindred full-sized trees but achieve their miniature size through human control.

The goal is to create a realistic representation of nature in the miniature form of a tree while keeping the height under four feet, with most bonsai typically even shorter than that. But size classifications are disputed. One source declares that to be a true bonsai the tree cannot exceed one meter (3.28 feet), while another classification scheme declares a range from minute Keshitsubo (1-3 inches) up to Imperial (60-80 inches).

Picking a Specimen
Since most bonsai trees are grown outdoors, they experience the same seasonal and weather conditions as their full-sized relatives. Your specimen here can be one of many different deciduous or evergreen species if it can be grown in Climate Zone 7 and in your own micro-climate and conditions (sun, shade, windy, protected from wind, etc.). Native trees and exotics that share our climate preferences are a safe bet for growing outdoors as bonsai in our area, but if your preference is a tropical tree, it will need protection from our winters in a greenhouse or indoors with sufficient light.

Growing bonsai successfully requires sound horticultural practices and techniques. That’s the 50 percent science part of the practice, and I think that’s why most successful Lynchburg bonsai growers with extensive collections are those with scientific curiosity and background, such as engineering and medicine. This scientific approach is especially required of growers such as Julian who embrace the full range of bonsai practice. He propagates his own trees from cuttings, air-layering, grafting and seeds, and cultivates hundreds of specimens to maturity.

On the other hand, many enthusiasts don’t attempt to start from scratch, but rather select small already-rooted trees with potential directly from the woods, their yards, or other available sources to create bonsai. The important criteria are that the plant has a woody trunk or stem, grows branches, has leaves that can be reduced in size, and can be grown in a container. For most trees, it’s best to transplant in its dormant season.

Then there are some bonsai enthusiasts who want only to maintain with minimal manipulation one or more trees and begin with already mature and basically-trained plants. I was at that end of the spectrum when 30-some years ago I became enamored with bonsai and purchased a lovely decades-old Hinoki Cypress. My highly-valued bonsai was easy to grow and maintain. It wasn’t fussy about pH, required little more than full sun, daily watering and good drainage, and was fun to progress with pruning and shaping the already established composition. But after three years of success with it, I managed to bring it close to death.

Back to Julian’s point about babies and puppies, I learned the hard way that I wasn’t a good candidate for bonsai ownership. My family and I started spending summers at a cottage at the “Rivah,” and I entrusted my prized bonsai to an employee back at home in Danville who let it sit in a pan of water for days on end rather than following my instructions to check and water it daily. Without drainage, root rot almost claimed it.

I was horrified by the sight of it when I thought back on all the years of tender care that had brought it this far. The good news is that a local bonsai expert restored it to heath, and I gifted it to her in humble gratitude and appreciation for her skill and superior stewardship. She then was gracious enough to allow me to borrow it for display in my home on special occasions.

Getting Started
I hope you’ll take my almost-disastrous experience with bonsai as a lesson learned, rather than discouragement, and will try it. It’s a fun practice offering a stunningly rewarding product for those with time, patience, and dedication. First envision the shape, style, and design of your specimen as it matures, gleaning inspiration from the natural inclination of your specimen.

Then after trimming roots and branches to achieve the desired effect, plant it in a container that most effectively displays your composition and restricts roots and food storage capability.

Simple and understated earthenware Japanese pots and more decorative Chinese pots are traditional, but anything works if it can support the tree and frame it unobtrusively.

Many growers use a special potting mix to encourage drainage and control nutrients. Specific care relates to the species, but typically, fertilizers are used sparingly. Watering regularly and draining that water are essential, as well as placing the bonsai in the proper location for sun or shade, etc. Placement may change as conditions and seasons dictate to afford protection from storms or harsh winter weather. Julian displays most of his bonsai collection on raised benches at a good working height except in hard winter when they are placed on the ground for root warmth and shielded from potentially damaging winds.

Training the tree to your desired composition includes periodically trimming roots, pruning and wiring branches with a specific type and grade of copper wire, and pinching buds to redirect healthy growth. Once the copper wire has been wrapped around a branch that you wish to train in a specific direction, you can carefully manipulate that branch (within reasonable limits of course) to suit your composition. Step-by-step tutorials are available for those ready to take the plunge, and Julian will be happy to sell you just the right grade and quantity of copper wire.

You might also want to follow Julian’s lead and grow bonsai from cuttings, air layering, grafting, or seeds and experience the joy of nurturing your bonsai from its beginning into a mature creation that fulfills your design vision. Just remember that newbies are very fragile and require constant attention since they must not be allowed to dry out. And we all know what summers are like in Lynchburg.

So, here’s where Julian’s engineering background and ingenuity kick in: He’s invented a fascinating Rube Goldberg type of device that’s hooked up to an outdoor water faucet and triggers a thorough misting of the newbies when a delicate paddle dries out and kicks the water on. On a scorching August afternoon, this might happen every 20 minutes or so. And tiny sun-loving, outdoor plants are thriving.

Artistry
The point isn’t to replicate the growth pattern of the full-sized tree in nature, but rather to create your own artistic design. While some bonsai artists prefer a more natural look or even believe that the primary goal of bonsai is to create a realistic depiction of nature, others prefer a more contrived or dramatic effect through human intervention. There’s no absolute right or wrong answer. It’s a matter of preference.

In bonsai, there is a delicate balance between nature and nurture. You are controlling nature within the bounds of what’s humanly possible—stretching limits, while remaining sensitive to, respectful of, and constrained by nature.

Some specimens, especially very small ones, become quite abstracted from nature, and the smaller the specimen, the more fragile its existence. Bonsai can be so abstracted that they only suggest a tree. As with any work of art, differences in aesthetic determine preferences in composition, style, and the degree to which the grower manipulates the plant. Styles can be upright, slanting line, weeping or cascading, and more. And a popular shape is the asymmetrical triangle.

An amazing aesthetic pleasure of bonsai is the character and beauty of twisted and gnarly trunks and branches of aged trees that still produce robust foliage intertwined with deadwood and intriguing bark patterns. Bonsai artists carefully prune back selected foliage to expose interesting trunk and limb structure. Tip: Compositions are usually easier to manage with trees that have smaller leaves in nature. Leaf size will be further reduced through pruning limbs and roots. Bold surface roots also add visual interest, and some exposed roots can be trained to grow over relatively large rocks or in a variety of interesting patterns.

Many bonsai enthusiasts take their artistry to another level with additional elements to create miniature landscapes with more than one plant and include rocks, ground covers, small figurines, and other accoutrements. Some are detailed enough to represent miniature cliffs, mountains, islands, and other natural phenomena that add interest. The ideal is for each tree to be viewed in its overall relationship with the elements surrounding it.

A bonsai is never completed, and it may be remodeled if the age and health of the tree or style preference of the grower dictate a different path. Or there may be many caretakers for one tree over the span of its life, since with careful care and attention, some bonsai live for hundreds of years. One prize-winning specimen owned by a bonsai master in Japan is reported to be over 800 years old and is a work of art worth a small fortune.

Beyond Science and Art
Bonsai is much more than a successful melding of science and art. Each tree is unique and invites personal reflection, interpretation beyond the physical creation itself, and inspiration for poets and essayists.

Every aspect of a bonsai is laden with symbolism and meaning—the type of tree selected, the container, and aesthetics of composition and style. While some of the symbolism rooted in Eastern mythic and religious thought may be a bit obscure to us, other symbolism is easily grasped. For example, knotty, gnarled trunks and branches evoke consideration of the passing and toll of time.

With each change of season, bonsai offers new delights in shape, size, color, and meaning. Emerging spring green leaves, lush summer foliage, vibrant fall colors, and bright winter berries all offer fodder for appreciation of life’s mysteries in a journey though time.

Bonsai as a horticulture and artistic practice, hobby, or obsession is a challenge on many levels to our gardening and horticulture capabilities, aesthetic and design sense, patience and perseverance, and time. Yet as a reward, it offers endless hours of pleasure, beauty, and spiritual growth.

As we learn from Zen Buddhist practice, countless hours of meditation in the presence of bonsai can lead to enlightenment. Celebrated Japanese Bonsai Master and philosopher Saburo Kato’s hope for bonsai is that it will “keep the torch of peace burning throughout the world.”

Contact Julian Adams at (434) 384-7951 or www.adamsbonsai.com.

THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Eyes sparkling and squirming with mpatience, I sat at the top of the stairs in my flannel gown and robe and awaited Mom’s green light before charging down to the living room to the wonder of a decorated tree shimmering over Santa’s bounty.

It was the crack of dawn, and I felt like a racehorse at the gate while Mom started the percolator, plated the Dresden Stollen, and eyed a cursory sweep under the tree to assure she hadn’t forgotten anything. (Some months later, Mom would inevitably discover an overlooked gift buried in the back of an overstuffed closet.) Then Dad flipped the switch to the multi-colored tree lights, and my sisters and I were invited down to begin our Christmas day.

And year after year (even after I knew the secret of Santa), I was thrilled at my first glimpse of the annual magic of our sometimes symmetrical, real fir tree adorned with lightbulbs shaped like flames or bubbling-candles, along with an unabashed mix of old and new, elegant and cheesy glass balls—plus ornaments passed down from my grandmother and silvery tinsel (lead-based until the FDA declared it a hazard) draped a single strand at a time. And occasionally candy canes hooked over the ends of boughs. This miracle of the decorated tree was executed without fail every Christmas Eve after kids’ bedtime. Not a day or an hour before. It was always the greatest Christmas morning gift; and the tree stayed up until New Year’s Eve. This was my memory of the tradition in my family circa 1950s and ’60s.

Christmas Tree History
According to my friend, Mary Kathryn McIntosh, a walking encyclopedia of Christmas history and lore, Christmas traditions date back to 1605 with the first mention in a diary of an indoor evergreen in Strasbourg decorated with paper roses, apples, gilded candies, and more; and the practice caught on in Germany. Fifty years later candles were added to indoor trees (yes, a fire hazard).

The first documented Christmas tree in Virginia was in 1842, and in 1849 Virginia became the 5th state to legally recognize Christmas. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert then popularized Christmas trees in the U.S. after setting up a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle that appeared (without mentioning their titles) in America’s Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1850. With the abundance of trees in our Commonwealth, the tradition was easily established.

Trees were ornamented with glass balls, chains of beads, toys, and all sorts of memorabilia, and some were even hung upside down from the ceiling to spare sparse floor space. And it seems that whenever and wherever they are, they always spread their celebratory limbs to embrace family gifts and childhood pleasures.

In 1877, five years after Edison invented the light bulb, electric lights made their way to Christmas trees, and by 1900, one in five families had a tree. It seems it took a long time, however, for improvements in tree lights. Until recent times, I can recall laboriously testing each individual light socket when one bulb went out and took the whole strand out with it. While I’m at it, another big improvement is deeper and more accessible water vessels to prevent dehydration.

In the 21st century, Christmas tree farms have become a business that’s grown into a $1 billion industry. The big box stores are the largest sellers, although I still favor a local garden center with a direct pipeline to a western North Carolina Fraser fir farm.

Carrying on Family Traditions
When it became my turn to be the grown-up and carry on family Christmas tree traditions with my own children, I abandoned tinsel and my parents’ frenetic practice of decorating the tree on Christmas Eve. While still cherishing those childhood memories, I initiated new, and easier traditions of my own—some better; some that turned out to be not so good. I did, however, retain the tradition of a natural tree in favor of an artificial tree in white, blue, or other trendy themes and styles.

And I created a memory tree laden to this day with my own childhood Storybook dolls, handcrafts and other memorabilia from world travels, gifts from family and friends, and items made by our own children or myself. Each ornament tells a sentimental or spiritual story; my needlepoint Santa shares a tree limb with a tuna can crafted into a manger scene by one of our sons in Sunday School 50 or so years ago. Oh, and our tree sports a pair of baby shoes from each of our five sons, and my heart is full every Christmas as I place them on the tree. An angel is the topper, and she watches over it all.

A new tradition that didn’t turn out so well was when in the 1970s, my firstborn son Reid and I strung popcorn, piece by laborious piece, to drape our tree with natural garlands instead of tinsel. That’s the good part. The not-so-good part is that I couldn’t bear to throw the garlands out after the holidays, so I tucked them in a box in a storage area where mice discovered a bonanza of Christmas dinners to last them the rest of the winter. That was a short-lived tradition.

Many years later when I moved to Bedford County, a new tradition was to make a family outing out of selecting our own tree on our farm, and we usually picked one of our overly-plentiful cedars. As we aged and finally admitted we were tired of facing the New Year with a floor full of dropped needles and scratchy twigs when hauling the crispy cedar to the burn pile, we turned to North Carolina grown Fraser firs, a most satisfactory fresh tree.

Now, as seniors living in a second-floor condo, we’ve of necessity ceded fresh trees to a less labor-intensive artificial tree with built-in lights, and I continue to decorate it the same as always. I admit modern fake trees do look real—well almost—but I still think authentic fresh trees are best.

Doors, Mantles, Tables, and More
I continue with the old-fashioned tradition of decorating mantles, tables, and other spaces with fresh greens and berries. What’s more beautiful at Christmas and makes the house smell better than sprigs of Fraser fir, pine, spruce, and boxwood on a bed of shiny magnolia leaves punctuated and enlivened by holly berries? One of my favorites for dramatic splash is Winterberry holly.

I love fresh green garlands wrapped along stair banisters and hanging mistletoe on a “kissing ball,” but they’re traditions I’ve also let go. Come to think of it, I don’t see mistletoe in homes these days. Maybe folks in my age group are less interested in being caught under the mistletoe—or maybe shooting mistletoe out of trees for those kissing balls has pretty much gone by the boards, at least for city folks.

Door and window wreaths of fresh greens continue as a long-standing Virginia tradition, and my old standby is a classic combination of magnolia leaves and boxwood that can be dressed up with berries, nuts, pinecones, and any other imaginative materials that are handy and strike my fancy. It’s fun to alternate the front and back of magnolia leaves for a lovely combo of green and copper.

To create your own wreath, start with a pre-made form and u-shaped picks from a hobby store, and fasten overlapping magnolia leaves one at a time around the entire circle in a pattern that pleases you. Boxwood wreaths can be made the same way, and you can combine the two and/or other greens, making wreaths one-sided or two-sided for hanging on glass doors or windows. If you’re looking for a quick splash of color to tie in with your decor, add a bow. And, voila!

Stepping It Up
If you’d like to step it up to the next level, try making a della Robbia–style wreath, the crème-de-la-crème of festive fresh wreaths. Inspiration for these reaches back to the 1440s when Italian sculptor Luca della Robbia invented the technique of vibrant polychrome tin-glazed terracotta statuary. He passed his form of artistry down to family members who continued to produce decorated terracotta reliefs edged by beautifully modeled wreaths of brilliantly hued flowers, fir cones, and fruits such as apples, oranges, and lemons.

Today’s della Robbia Christmas decorations in natural materials may be in the form of a round wreath, shaped to fit an architectural space above a door or windows, or other forms. Just start with building a basic wreath or form with magnolia leaves, boxwood, and/or other natural materials such as red cedar, pine, mountain laurel, rosemary, or ivy. Then, using wired picks, affix flowers, berries, and fruit to please your personal taste. In addition to apples, oranges, and lemons, try adding pineapple, limes, pomegranates, and cranberries. Dried flowers, rose hips, pinecones, and okra pods are other options. Your della Robbia creation may be as elaborate as you like. Let your imagination be your guide! Tips: Dip fresh fruit in acrylic wax (kitchen floor wax) for longer life, and please do not add a bow.

Your della Robbia creation may also be used as a centerpiece or over-mantle decoration. Or you may prefer mantle and table top decorations with fresh materials that lean toward simple understated elegance with just a few magnolia leaves, boxwood, and sprigs of holly. I had fun one season hanging fresh bright red peppers on a miniature live spruce tree as a centerpiece, and I regularly assemble little trees of fresh boxwood cuttings on a pyramid shaped metal form designed to hold apples, lemons, or other fruit. Sometimes I drape them with cranberry garlands or add sprigs of holly. Simple, easy, and quick—and always tasteful. Fresh natural materials never go out of style.

Look for Inspiration
For inspiration and ideas for natural Christmas decorations, you’ll find lovely fresh plant material and décor all round Lynchburg this holiday season—at the Farm Basket, local nurseries, Old City Cemetery, churches, and more.

A particularly interesting spot to visit for historic Christmas decorating is Point of Honor (www.pointofhonor.org) in historic Daniel’s Hill, completed in 1815 by Dr. George Cabell. This Federal style mansion is now a city museum where period arrangements grace the mantle, tables, and even the stairs every Christmas. Christmas Open House is Sunday, December 3rd, from noon until 4 p.m. This holiday season, as last year, features live greens and other plant material in arrangements and a decorated tree in the Victorian style, following two prior years of arrangements in the 1815-1830 pre-Christmas tree Federal style.

To venture not far from Lynchburg for natural and creative Christmas decor, visit Avenel (www.historicavenel.com) in Bedford. Also known as the William M. Burwell House, built about 1836, Avenel is a blend of Federal and Greek Revival styling. It is known for glorious fresh Christmas arrangements and is the place to see the della Robbia tradition in practice. A great opportunity to visit would be for their 1850’s celebration, “Gilded Christmas of Olde,” on Saturday, December 9th from 6 until 8:30 p.m., when Avenel will also feature spirits and culinary delights from the past as well as lively entertainment. Tickets may be purchased from any board member, www.lynchburgtickets.com, Arthur’s Jewelry, Scott & Bond Insurance, or Bedford Welcome Center.

Deck the Halls!
I feel that childhood delight rush back as I trim my tree once again this Christmas, spread fresh greens on my mantle, and deck the halls with holly. Whether your Christmas décor is sacred or secular, reflective of worldly attachment or spiritual reverence—or a combination of these like my tree and me, it’s a very personal reflection of you and your traditions.

If you’ve never tried to create a fresh della Robbia wreath, I hope you’ll start a new tradition of your own this year and see how imaginative you can be. I can’t wait to see photos! Email me at susantimmons@verizon.net.

Living in the Moment

He has a cave. She has a shed. Both have a sanctuary. A place of refuge—an oasis, retreat, hideaway. A place to call his or her own.

She sheds are a trendy thing, at least as far as vernacular, catchy phrases and marketing soundbites go. But language aside, the thing itself is as old as human history. When in the world haven’t women found a special place for escaping the demands and challenges of everyday life?

For Women and Budding Women
Oh, how memories flood back of times as a young girl in Richmond whiling away endless happy hours in a tiny, exquisite white frame, green-shuttered play house set among the daffodils and rose beds of my best friend’s mother’s backyard garden. Anne Gordon Harrison (double first name in traditional Southern style) and I fancied ourselves as two grown-up ladies hosting tea parties for our favorite dolls in this little organdy-curtained wonderland. A genuine English porcelain doll-sized tea set and miniature flower arrangements of forget-me-nots, candy tuft, and lily of the valley that we arranged ourselves in tiny glass vases completed the scene.

In our make-believe world, our dolls were our children—and we shared their, and our, innermost dreams and secrets. This was seven decades or so ago, and I can still retreat into those sweet innocent memories.

Was this play house a she shed? Absolutely—even if, as little city girls, we didn’t yet know the meaning of the word “shed.”

It was our happy place where imagination ran wild and we were free to be our true pretend-lady selves under Anne Gordon’s mother’s hawk (yet unobtrusive) eye.

A Place for a Poet
Reaching even further back in history, on Pierce Street in inner-city Lynchburg, the Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer, 1882-1975, created her own special she shed. Her backyard cottage, according to Jane Baber White, author of Lessons Learned from a Poet’s Garden, was a “charming, cluttered one-room sanctuary built for her by her husband Edward as a place where she could write.”

According to Jane White, Edward was industrious and imaginative in building the structure, using slabs of greenstone to make the chimney and floor. All materials were salvaged or gifts from friends and neighbors and ingeniously repurposed.

And they cleverly named her cottage Edankraal, which “combines Edward’s name with Anne’s to form a pun on the word Eden and the South African word for dwelling, ‘kraal’.”

Edankraal’s front porch was framed by trumpet vines supported by massive turned posts in aqua blue. And over time, her beloved garden, for which she is also famous, spread around Edankraal and overflowed with roses, bulbs, grapes, lilacs, poppies, peonies, rose of Sharon, daisies, phlox, coralbells and much more.

Edward and Anne’s hospitable home and garden of ever-changing seasonal color blossomed into an intellectual oasis for notable Black scholars and civil rights activists, including Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, and James Weldon Johnson. And when she could grab quiet moments amid all this intellectual stimulation, Anne would submit to the pull of her passion for gardening, then retreat to the solitude of Edankraal and draw from her garden inspiration for her poetry and musings:

Being a Negro woman is the world’s most exciting game of “Taboo”: By hell there is nothing you can do that you want to do and by heaven you are going to do it anyhow—We do not climb into the jim crow galleries of scenario houses we stay away and read I read garden and seed catalogs, Browning, Housman, Whitman, Saturday Evening Post detective tales, Atlantic Monthly, American Mercury, Crisis, Opportunity, Vanity Fair, Hibberts Journal, oh, anything.I can cook delicious things to eat…We have a lovely home—one that
money did not buy—it was born and evolved slowly out of our passionate, poverty-stricken agony to own our own home.Happiness
—Anne Spencer

Out of passion and love, Anne not only had her own home, but also her very own she shed. And it opened the spigot for her creative literary juices to flow.

Jean’s Sugar Shack
After reading my story in Lynchburg Living about my country cottage garden, a previously unknown-to-me lady named Jean Springer invited me to visit her own beloved country cottage garden in Amherst County. Recognizing that we were kindred garden spirits, I drove out Elon Road five or so miles beyond Woodruff’s Store to discover the spiritual soul of her lovely garden, a she shed she calls the Sugar Shack.

This she shed is a small space, but within its 8×10 walls are so many objects of memorabilia spanning generations of family and friendship that it’s almost impossible to take it all in. Dolls, baby clothes, shaving brushes, lace from a wedding gown, mini-quilts, toys from her childhood and much more. Every single item punctuates a story of a relationship she cherishes and memories of magnanimity. And every feature and flower that grace the Sugar Shack’s surrounding garden—the little waterfall and stream lovingly built by her grandson, a plaque, “Remembering Andy,” and a fabulous assortment of spectacular irises—has its own story of generosity of spirit.

Jean says she sleeps in the main house up the hill (well, most of the time), but her heart is always in the Sugar Shack. And she has even slept there with a passel of grandsons lined up like cordwood in a mini-loft that extends under the porch roof.

She shares stories of sleepovers with the kids, with checkers (no electronics allowed), night-time stories, round-robin bedtime prayers, and heart-to-heart talks after lights out, followed by crisp mornings with hot breakfasts of eggs, bacon and toast fixed on the hotplate. Adding a little stove for wintertime warmth, Jean has created cozy, intimate, and never-to-be-forgotten memories with grandma—coated with lots of grandma’s sugar—in the Southern colloquial sense of the word.

It’s Jean’s happy place, her joy, her gift to herself and to her family. It’s also her quiet place, and she makes time every day for the peace and tranquility it brings her, rocking on her porch or reading her Bible inside.

What’s the Purpose?
Women like Anne Spencer and Jean Springer have been creating their own happy places in their gardens since the beginning of time. Yet, she sheds as a named trend in pop culture are just now catching up with the well-established institution of man caves or other traditionally male pastime places.

Both reflect their owner’s purposes, needs, tastes and preferences. Some men prefer to be cocooned in a dark room with a comfy chair positioned for the best angle to the TV or lined with books. And others would rather have an entirely different set-up to suit hobbies such as woodworking or tinkering away idle hours. Their man caves are their very own space to suit their purposes.

As with men, women’s ideas for garden she sheds are as unique as they are themselves. The purpose, look and feel of Edankraal was right for Anne Spencer, and the Sugar Shack is right for Jean Springer. Others may prefer a pleasurable escape from everyday responsibilities in the form of a different kind of private place to meditate or entertain, enjoy arts or crafts or simply hang out.

She sheds may, of course, be multifunctional. My friend Clarkie Eppes and her husband Tom live in a charming renovated, expanded, and modernized 1930s log home on Fox Hill Road with beautiful landscaping, terraced gardens, and a spectacular view overlooking the James River. Her delightful she shed is a free-standing log cabin in the garden, most likely a garage originally, now converted to accommodations for living, sleeping, desk work, and dining—plus a bath and private terrace. It’s tastefully furnished with family antiques and collections and serves as a get-away for Clarkie. It also doubles/triples as a comfortable guest house for visiting grown children and short-term rental for UVA students doing rotations in family medicine in Lynchburg.

Creating Your Own
The first step after deciding on your purpose(s) is to see if existing space can be converted or adapted: a garage, tool or potting shed, a greenhouse, or kid’s play house. If not, you’ll want to explore options for a pre-fabricated, kit or custom-built structure. A simple Google search will bring up lots of options.

According to author Erica Kotite in her recently released book, She Sheds: A Room of Your Own, you can “plan on spending about $500-$1,000 to rehab an existing shed, $2,000-$5,000 to build a shed from a kit, $6,000-$15,000 for a more customized and pre-assembled kit shed and then $15,000-$35,000 for a top-of-the-line designed shed with installation and landscaping.” Of course, if you want marble floors and crystal chandeliers, you’re out of this range. Pricing is also affected if you want/need electricity, running water or appliances—or if you add HVAC and special insulation to create a multi-seasonal shed.

Next, decide on external visual appeal and internal décor. Do you want your she shed to have a consistent look with your house, à la Clarkie and Tom, or take a daring plunge and go for a big splash? If your décor style and budget say “no” to all new furnishings, why not scout around for early attic, late basement, flea market or consignment shop treasures that could be jazzed up with a fresh coat of paint? Are you yearning to have fun personalizing your space with a fanciful color combo or other touch of whimsy?

How does your she shed fit into your landscape and garden? You may want to add climbing vines or roses to surround the entryway, window boxes spilling colorful annuals, or whatever else works with your existing yard and garden design.

She Sheds Without Walls
Not all she sheds have walls. My own country cottage garden at our farm featured a gazebo that was my happy place. It was as much a she shed to me as any cleverly and artfully designed enclosed garden space. When there, I sat quietly surrounded by nature, and that was all the décor I needed. The rest of the world stood still.

I felt the cooling breeze from the mountains on a sweltering summer day as gaura danced and swayed along the fence line. I saw bluebird mamas and papas taking turns feeding their eagerly awaiting young and butterflies and hummingbirds flitting from flower to flower. I smelled antique roses and heard bees buzzing in droves on purple vitex spikes. And I savored the flavor of ripe homegrown tomatoes. It was my place of mindfulness.

It was there that I came to appreciate more deeply that my place of personal freedom and happiness can be a play house with Anne Gordon or a gazebo at the farm or even the garden bench under a canopy of viburnum at my new home at the Woodstock. A she shed in the form of a physical place can indeed provide peace and joy. As can the self-knowledge that comes from living in the moment.

Meet the Gardener
Susan Timmons served in the 1970s as Virginia’s first Environmental Impact Statement Coordinator, then Assistant Administrator and Acting Administrator of Virginia’s Council on the Environment and editor of The State of Virginia’s Environment. During that time she also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Environmental Professionals and received the National Wildlife Federation’s Award for Environmental Communications. More recently, she worked in higher education and nonprofit management and, in retirement, she serves as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Hill City Master Gardeners Association with a series of talks on “Gardens of the World.”

The Question
It was May a year ago. With eyes glazed and jaw dropped, my mouth mumbled, “What? You’re inviting us to open our new home and garden for Garden Day?”

Lynchburg’s enthusiastic event co-chairman Courtney Alford repeated her invitation. In a split second, her contagious smile melted my guard and “Well, sure!” slipped out. It would take a tougher woman than I to say “no” to my friend and fellow Hillside Garden Club member, Courtney.

Besides, our club serves as local event co-sponsor of Historic Garden Week in Virginia, along with Lynchburg Garden Club. Both clubs are among the 47 statewide member clubs of the Garden Club of Virginia (GCV) committed to a common purpose and legacy.

The event highlights Virginia’s hospitality, history, and beauty, and proceeds fund the restoration and preservation of more than 40 historic public gardens and landscapes statewide, including Point of Honor here in Lynchburg, as well as a research fellowship program and a GCV centennial project with Virginia State Parks. Meg Clement, state Chairman for this 84th annual event, reported that “approximately 26,000 attendees across the state contribute economically and culturally. Recent surveys indicate that over
$11 million is spent across Virginia…with a cumulative impact of $425 million over the past 45 years.”

And the GCV members have a track record for impeccable organization and support of homeowners on the tour. So, of course, I’d do my part. Commitment made, I had less than a year to prepare.

Then It Sinks In…
Soon my own questions came flooding: Why would Garden Day visitors want to tour a second-floor condominium? (I couldn’t recall a condo ever being on the tour.) Will our small communal garden sport anything but weeds on April 25th? (I hadn’t yet seen it in spring.)
Will our Homeowners Association approve? (I didn’t know my new neighbors.)

Oh, and the Big Question: Will we have time for order to arise from the chaos of our move from our farm in Bedford County to our new home in The Woodstock? (We hadn’t even scheduled our move-in date yet!)

I wasn’t willing to concede being overwhelmed even though my mind was loaded to capacity with figuring out what to do with our accumulation of 43 years of treasures and junk that decades of living, loving, and space at the farm encouraged. With time to Garden Day (G-Day) ticking away, we stepped up our game with the help of our sons and my sister Jan Dow, who hauled a truckload to Richmond to distribute to family there.

With only Tim, Mama Cat, and me living under our roof, I counted on preparation being less stressful than the first time I opened my home and garden for G-Day in 1985 while managing a house full of teenagers, a four-year-old, and a menagerie of dogs and cats.

That was in Danville’s 1886 Penn-Wyatt House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This time it’s the 1917 Woodstock, designed by Stanhope Johnson and a Lynchburg Historical Foundation Merit Award recipient. Knowing that historic places with architectural appeal hold their own on Garden Day and draw the crowd reduced pressure even more.

Besides, we’re a foot stool and lap robe kind of family, comfortable surrounded by family memorabilia, including collections of folk as well as fine art from around the world. Some may consider our treasures tchotchke or worse, but we don’t have it in us to stage décor à la Architectural Digest or keep up with trend-setting decorators. So, we were ready to buckle down and prepare.

First things first, I appealed to our Homeowners Association for our neighbors’ blessing—and was warmly embraced.

Just the spark I needed to start hustling to place furniture, hang pictures, and figure out what to do with the garden.

Taking on an Established Garden
The idea of opening the Woodstock’s communal garden was daunting. I was still grieving my beloved farm garden we’d left behind and didn’t intend to start over with this one. But Meg Laughon, Elizabeth Hutter, and other trusted GCV friends convinced me that it had good bones and great potential. They, along with several new neighbors, garden guru Don Lee, and the Woodstock’s own professional landscaper Kenneth Robertson helped us take inventory, appreciate the work of previous gardeners throughout the Woodstock’s history, and consider what could and should be done to spiff up for G-Day.

We learned that previous residents were master gardeners who popped plants in every spot possible, especially plants found on sale that they nurtured into fine specimens. Ah, my kind of gardeners—more interested in rescuing plants than presenting a grand and cohesive landscape design.

Our feeling of kinship with the past century of Woodstock gardeners continued to grow. They’d planted and nurtured many of the same trees, shrubs, and perennials that we’d planted and loved at our farm, including Virginia favorites—magnolia, dogwood, maple, crepe myrtle, azalea, wisteria, lilac, snowball viburnum, tree and herbaceous peonies, and iris. A bonus was lovely mature camellias, which I’d never grown successfully before. My gardener’s heart began to beat a little faster.

I knew from my previous historic garden that when restoring an already established garden, it’s best to observe it a full year in every season before making radical changes—except for the obvious immediate tasks of removing dead, diseased or radically overgrown plant material.

Kenneth and crew removed dead tree limbs, shaped up shrubs, cleaned out debris, and started tackling a huge overgrowth of English Ivy, accumulated Magnolia leaves, and the dreaded poison ivy—which drove me out of the weeding business after a couple of wicked early spring bouts of allergic reaction.

Yet there was still much work to be done. The flower beds remained scruffy with winter and early spring bedhead, and I couldn’t tell whether some sticks were new-to-me shrubs just waiting to flesh out or last year’s perennial debris. So, patience was the order of the day.

As spring unfurled, the risk of frost diminished daily, neighbors pitched in to fill pots with boxwoods and plant annuals, and Tim and I transplanted tree and herbaceous peonies, hellebores, and more from the farm and planted a few additional varieties of Japanese maples. By then we were hooked.

Behind the Scenes
Courtney and her counterpart, local event co-chairman Lea Barksdale, epitomized GCV grace, organization and support.

They ably led an army of volunteers who aced every planning detail, including organizing the tour path, three shifts of hostesses to cover every critical juncture, and police presence. Flower chairmen, our cousins Patsy Wilkinson and Carter Bendall, orchestrated a committee of talented arrangers who created a profusion of gorgeous arrangements, upholding Lynchburg’s reputation for flower arrangements that put our G-Day on the map.

Club members answered questions, brought meals and gifts, and always showed great appreciation while I perked along happily hanging pictures, planting the garden, and enjoying stories by other Garden Day survivors. Elizabeth Hutter told me one of her garden’s matched pair of wisteria arches looked dead and dreadful the year she opened her garden for the tour. Her solution? Cut off blossoms from the other profusely blooming arch, put them in water tubes, and tape them on the barren plant. No one was the wiser, and the slow bloomer took stage center a week or so later, of course. Such are the vagaries of nature and tricks of the trade.

Another friend requested that closet doors remain closed.

Looking for the bathroom, a hostess accidently opened one of the off-limits closets to discover it piled high with sports equipment and other evidence of a full life. Facing the interloper was a big sign: “Don’t judge! I bet your closet looks like this too.”

Tales of innovative solutions to occasional G-Day glitches speak of devoted husbands schlepping guests around traffic snarls and of keeping homeowners’ floors clean and dry during pouring rain by issuing shoe booties or plastic bags at the front door, collecting them at the back door, and running them around front to reuse. I figured that no matter what the challenge, these ladies are up to it and can turn it into an amusing story!

Countdown
Glitches for us piled up the final week before G-Day: The front-room chair that for decades passed for shabby-chic suddenly degenerated into tattered-derelict. Window washing, an estimated 2-day project, turned into a complicated 5-day project. Touch-up paint didn’t match. Our old HVAC system chose an 84-degree day to die. And, the big one: Tim’s health took a turn for the worse.

Thanks to re-upholstery magic by interior decorator friend Marjorie Grabeel, multiple trips to paint stores by Love Painting’s Kameo Hunter, and rushed HVAC delivery and installation by Wooldridge Heating and Air, we slid in under the wire on G-Day eve. The chair arrived and looked great, windows were spotless and gleaming, and paint touch-ups were drying to match the walls. Half of the new HVAC was running in time to keep flowers and arrangers from wilting, with final installation complete by 9:30 p.m. Fears of G-Day visitors fainting from the heat evaporated, and Tim’s ticker was ticking. So, bring it on!

We even collected our own tale to add to G-Day lore:
As “Arranging Day” (G-Day eve) progressed, one of the arrangers commented, “You have the nicest men working for you. They were so helpful in bringing our card tables, buckets of flowers, and bags of tools upstairs for us. Did you bring them in town from your farm to help us?” It took me a minute to figure it out: Uh…no! She hadn’t noticed the pocket stitching on their shirts, “Wooldridge.”

The Big Day Arrived…
…along with chilly drizzle and rain. As hostesses reported for duty and we were leaving for the day, I flipped the AC off and gas logs on. After all, that’s what we do for a cozy day at home.

My parting words were, “Forget the plastic shoe bags. These rugs survived decades of living on our Bedford County farm with kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, dogs, cats—and red clay, food, and wine. Some are even welcoming their second Garden Day. A little rain won’t hurt.” And after 1,424 guests filed through that day, I was right. Tim and I—and our rugs, home, and garden—are all happy survivors.

My garden-loving friends know me well. We weren’t ready to say “good-bye” to gardening. The Woodstock garden and the community that shares and cares for it had found a place in our hearts. So, I’ll continue transplanting peonies, iris, hellebores, and my great-great-grandmother’s daffodils from their most recent home at the farm to The Woodstock. I know they’ll bloom where they’re planted. As will we.

Living Flower Arrangements

Have you always envied those individuals who could take just any old pot and make it become a masterpiece floral arrangement in soil? Well, Lynchburg has Master Gardeners who can teach you to pot plants in an arrangement just like the pros. I for one do not have the talent, so I am eager to learn.”

These luring words from Elsie Morris, President of the Hill City Master Gardener Association (HCMGA) landed in my email inbox a few weeks ago and reeled me in. Even though I’ve been collecting containers and potting plants in them for as long as I can remember, I’m always up for a new perspective and tips for success. And Master Gardeners Patty Butters, Diane Cooper and Laura Meniktos offered exactly that with their seminar and workshop on “Container Gardening and Fairy Gardens” at Lynchburg Grows just in time for those of us who’ve been watching the calendar and weather reports in anticipation of filling this spring’s outdoor garden containers with works of floral art—or edibles—as well as setting houseplants outside.

Catching Potted Plant Fever
Eye-catching creations of plants in containers first sparked my imagination in picturesque old European cities with charming balconies brimming with blooms and palaces where majestic urns spilled splashes of color against great masses of gray or honey-colored stone structures. Oh, yes, I recall charming pots of flowers in courtyards in Seville, window boxes in Germany, urns lush with geraniums rimming walls and other delights at cross-axis points in formal Italian gardens, and alluring combinations of plants in pots in stately gardens in the Cotswold Hills.

And I’ll never forget the obligatory line-up of lemon trees in terracotta pots in Mediterranean and other Italian gardens, or the seemingly random scattering of charming pots bursting with color in meandering country cottage gardens or carefully placed by front doors in cities with tight living spaces and small yards. It seems that not to be outdone by their forebears, Christchurch, New Zealand has serious competition and rewards for gardeners who incorporate clever and artistic use of pots in their landscapes during their annual Festival of Flowers.

Container gardening has recently gained traction here at home. Renowned garden writer and professor, Allan Armitage, author of Herbaceous Perennial Plants and Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens, declared in a recent Piedmont Landscape Association Seminar in Charlottesville that container gardening is the fastest growing garden sector in the U. S. today, and that excellent space-saving “patio veggies” are now being bred for container gardening and vigor, with especially good success for potted slicer and cherry tomatoes.

What’s Not to Love About Potted Plants?
They add colorful punctuation to green landscapes layered with trees, shrubs, and ground covers—or provide a touch of living green to the built environment, inside and out. They introduce interesting shapes (such as vertical elements into horizontal gardens), and enliven balconies, patios, terraces and porches with intoxicating scents wafting over sitting areas.

Mobility is another plus, since portable pots can be moved from porch to patio or popped temporarily into party décor. And they offer the option and flexibility in choice of plant material when space constraints, poor soil, or no soil at all do not present conditions amenable to in-ground planting.

Potted tropical plants that require inside protection over the winter add a lush exotic flavor to summer outside spaces. For years, my screened back porch was the perfect summer home for my collection of potted orchids until fall’s first frost, and autumn nights outside invariably set the flower spikes for January’s indoor blooms.

Or you can plant a sequence of spring bulbs in your pots, followed by annuals when danger of frost passes. Other plant options are perennials, shrubs, trees (such as a single boxwood or Japanese maple) and herbs.

Pots are especially useful for containing perennials or herbs that tend to spread all over the garden, such as mint, or to manage other challenges. I potted all our herbs for kitchen use out of range of the lifted-leg of our little beagle every time we let him outside. A bonus was locating the pots just outside the kitchen porch door for quick and dry-footed access. And for years Tim planted his tomatoes in pots inside an abandoned fenced dog run to keep critters from eating them.

Growing plants in an enclosed space—whether large or small, grand or humble, permanently located or portable, useful or purely decorative—is the perfect solution to space constraints.

Even the smallest of front stoops can typically hold a little pot, and window boxes are sometimes an option when the building façade is flush with the sidewalk or street. Indeed, potted plants can brighten any spot, including a back alley, narrow path between buildings or window sill; strategically placed splashes of color in pots offer visual appeal with less work than in-ground gardens.

Classic and Creative Containers
Over time, potted plants have developed from the classic “lemon tree in a terracotta pot” into a highly evolved floral art form. Exciting combinations of plants and containers are endless, and most anything can be used as a container—if it drains.

You will, of course, want to consider size, shape, color, style, use and location.

Whether you choose containers that are utilitarian or decorative, be sure they suit your style and purpose and are compatible with their setting: your architecture, yard furniture and other features. An eclectic assortment of pots can be quite effective, just as an eclectic art, furniture or rug collection can reflect the owner’s taste and preferences for interior design.

For our farm, mid-sized traditional metal urns were right for flanking the entrance fence gates, while simple, functional pots worked outside the kitchen door. At the other end of the house, the idea of clustering blue ceramic urns and pots captured my fancy for our terrace entertainment area overlooking the Blue Ridge.

When considering protective potting for kitchen herbs, I searched dusty corners of the barn and discovered an old copper ham boiler. Scrounging around produced another one that Tim’s grandma had used as a tub for washing clothes over the wood-burning stove at their Indiana farm. (Yes, it had earned its holes in the bottom, and I didn’t have to pay extra for well-earned patina!) Then over time, I repurposed additional rarely-used copper pots (by drilling holes in their bottoms) and ended up with a solution that was just right for kitchen container gardening.

Remember that unglazed terracotta pots are porous and water evaporates from them more quickly than from metal or plastic ones. They can also crack if the potting mixture freezes in winter, and large ones can become too heavy to move once planted—although the weight can be a good thing for stability in windy areas.

Patty urged workshop participants to scour yard sales and Goodwill for unusual and fun cast-offs that could be spruced up to create containers and charming “fairy gardens” with tiny figures in live plant settings. Her out-of-the-box (intentional pun) thinking produced a miniature scene in a sea shell, a pirate ship, a shoe, and a child’s little red Radio Flyer wagon, each accompanied by a charming story. One of these as a birthday gift most certainly would enchant children and imaginative adults alike!

Plant with Flair and Locate Strategically
Diane stressed the three “C’s—Container, Colors, Creation” for potted plants and agreed with Patty and me in choosing a container: “Just about anything that holds soil and has (or can be given) drainage holes is fair game!” When selecting plants, consider color, shape and growing habit.
She reaffirmed rules-of-thumb I follow for creating pots with panache: Unless the container is very small (or you’re simply planting a shrub or other statement plant), add three or more complementary species: thrillers, spillers and fillers.

Thrillers include attention-getting “wow! factor” plants for height, such as spikes/dracaena; spillers, such as sweet potato vine, creeping Jenny, or ivy, cascade over the edge of the pot; and fillers can be any plant that takes up the middle ground. For an artistic arrangement, the traditional guideline for number of plants in a container is 1, 3, 5, or 7. Be sure to place the tallest plants in the center of the pot and let spillers tumble over the edge.

For strongest contrast and eye appeal, Diane prefers combinations of primary and complementary colors (yellow and purple, orange and blue, red and green), although any combination that balances color and texture is fine, even if you go for a combo such as purple and red or orange, all green, or all white—which are some of my favorites.

Choose plants for their location—sun, shade and other environmental conditions. Once again, ensure good drainage (adding permeable garden fabric, gravel, or crock pieces if needed), potting soil or other appropriate growing medium—soil-based, soilless, acidic, or alpine/free-draining, and fertilizer. Clustering pots can create a more dramatic effect, but be sure to group plants with similar sun and water requirements.

Caring for Containers
Frequency of watering is determined by plant choice (tender annuals need more, succulents need less), size and type of pot (small pots typically need more), if in sun (more) or shade (less), and time of year (more in heat of summer). In spring, fertilizing with a 10-10-10 mixture once a week will get your pots off to a good start. With experience, you can tell by the condition of the leaves if they need more (or less) sun, water and fertilizer. And experience is gained only by giving it a whirl. So, let’s go for gorgeous potted plants this season!

…At The Old City Cemetery

Old City Cemetery’s 27-acre public garden includes the largest public collection of antique roses in the state of Virginia.

This spring, see the beautiful blooms for yourself during the 22nd Annual Antique Rose Festival. Get the best selection of this year’s inventory on Saturday, April 15. The festival also includes workshops and guided rose tours in May. View the full schedule at www.gravegarden.org. Photo Courtesy of Old City Cemetery