Darling Kindersley brings gardening down to earth. The AHS Encyclopedia of Gardening puts the latest in gardening at your fingertips. Covering every practical aspect of gardening from design, prop­ agation, planting and cultivation, to advice on tools, soil, climate, weeds, pests and diseases, this new cornerstone of gardening literature is sure to make even the most perplexing gardening task ~~ easy to grasp. 648 pages

3,500 color photographs • 400 step-by-step sequences

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Endorsed by the American Horticultural Society eric an Horticulturist Volume 72, Number 12 December 1993

I ARTICLES

Undercover Natives by Paul E. Cappiello and Ken McPheeters ...... 14 Now that we've discovered American trees and tallgrass prairie flowers, it's time to lower our sights.

Is Peat P.C? by Chris Bright ...... 20 North America's peat supply is growing. Should we care if a bog or two is sacrificed?

Gardening Challenges: Their Own Private Idaho by Mary Jo Churchwell ...... 27 The author keeps her pantry overflowing despite a one-month growing season. DECEMBER'S COVER Treasures of the Sierra Madre Photographed by David M. Stone: by Erin Hynes ...... 33 PHOTOINATS Yucca Do Nursery has found a vast yet fragile store Gardeners who've seen the of floral beauty in the mountains of Mexico. cranberry, Vaccinum macro carp on, being grown commerciall y in Crystal Bridges and Down-Home Domes flooded bogs may assume that it by Art Ode ...... 38 requires similar conditions to grow People who like glasshouses shouldn't throw stones well. But this nati ve, mat-forming evergreen will thrive in any moist in the nation's heartland. acid soi l. In fall, its mahogatly leaves add color to a landscape, and its berries, if not eaten by animals, will persist until late DEPART M ENTS December. The cranberry is just one of many native ground covers Commentary ...... 4 that Paul E. Cappiello and Ken McPheeters recommend for the Letters ...... 5 home landscape in an article beginning on page 14. Offshoots ...... 6

Book Reviews ...... 8

1993 Index ...... 42

Classifieds ...... 45

Pronunciations ...... 47 American Horticultural Society

The American Horticultural Society seeks to promote and recognize COMMENTARY excellence in horticulture across America.

OFFICERS 1993-1994 t's wonderful to be back at Mrs. Sarah S. Boasberg the American Horticul­ Chairman tural Society, although I Washington, D.C. I Dr. William E. Barrick never actually left. My last term First Vice Chairman on your Board of Directors ex­ Pine Mountain, Georgia pired a year ago, but I have Mr. Gerald T. Halpin remained involved in many Treasurer Alexandria, Virginia ways. It is a great honor to return as your new President. I first remember AHS as a BOARD OF DIRECTORS source of the bea utiful but sim­ Dr. Thomas Amason ple block prints of flowers I studied in art classes as a youth. My teacher, Birmingham, Alabama Miss Claire, showed us how simple the designs must be, the opportunities Mrs. Suzanne Bales to use line and mass, and the great variety of forms available. I wanted to Bronxville, New York create both detailed water colors and dramatic block prints like the ones Mr. George C. Ball Jr. West Chicago, Illinois she showed us. Then I learned tha t the block print artist was B. Y. Morrison Dr. Sherran Blair and the publication in which they appeared was from the American Columbus, Ohio Horticultural Society. My only other sources of information were the Mr. William F. Brinton Mount Vernon, Maine magazine Flower Grower and the Saturday radio show on CBS with the Mrs. Nancy H. Callaway Old Dirt Dauber. To have subjects to paint I had to learn to grow them. I Pine Mountain, Georgia was interested in form (columbine), uses (foxglove for digitalis), history Mrs. Beverley White Dunn Birmingham, Alabama (tulip), and food ('Big B0y' tomatoes). Mr. Paul EckeJr. Art, growing, learning, and communicating what I discovered became a part Encinitas, California of my daily routine as a teenager and still propels me after all these years. Dr. JQhn Alex FIQyd Jr. I follow U.S. Department of Agriculture horticulturists B. Y. Morrison, Birmingham, Alabama Mrs. Julia Hobart Henry Skinner, John Creech, Fred Meyer, Neil Stuart, and Skip March, Troy, Ohio who have served as AHS President in volunteer roles. The position that I Dr. Richard L. Lower assume is now a staff position, intended to give more stability to both Madison, Wisconsin Mr. Elvin McDonald day-to-day operations and the realization of the Society's long-term goals. Houston, Texas For the past two years, I have served the USDA as national chair of florist Mr. William G. PanlJili and nursery crops review, shaping long-term goals for the nation's "green Martinsville, Virginia industries." These providers of plants and related services are the most Mr. Lawrence V. PQwer New York, New York rapidly developing segment of American agriculture, representing 11 per­ Dr. Julia Rappaport cent of the crop value and ranking sixth in all commodities, with only corn Santa Ana, California and soybeans being more valued. By the year 2000, the green industries Mrs. Jane N. Scarff New Carlisle, Ohio will represent 20 percent of the crop value and should be the number one Mrs. Josephine Shanks crop segment of the U.S. economy. Houston, Texas AHS should direct its programs, publications, symposia, and member Mr. Andre Viette Fismersville, Virginia services to inform these professionals as well as amateur and consumer Ms. Katy Moss Warner groups. I call on all members of AHS and their organizations to help ensure Lake Buena Vista, Florida that the beauty, health, and fun we now enjoy can be experienced by the Mr. Monroe Whitton millions of other consumers who want to be successful and environmen­ Alexandria, Virginia tally responsible gardeners. Write me about what we can do together! I sti ll look at every plant as a subject to paint, to use in an arrangement, or to introduce into a garden. Now I know their botanical and common PRESIDENT names, their culture, their pests and diseases, and facts about the many Dr. H. MaJ:c Cathey contributors to their research, growing, and marketing. As President of EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AHS, I will be working to ensure that everyone in America knows the full Mrs. Helen Fulcher Walutes benefit of having plants in their lives and environment. I'm back where I started- at AHS. H. Marc Cathey, AHS President

4 DECEMBER 1993 American Horticulturist

Editor Kathleen Fisher LETTERS Managing Editor Mary Beth Wiesner Assistant Editor Chris Bright Editorial Assistant Steve Davolt Thanks for Their Memories Please put out a call to action, asking Design Director Joseph Yacinski I thoroughly enjoyed Kathleen Fisher's ar­ AHS members to contact their representa­ Designers ticle "The Incidental Ornamental " (Octo­ ti ves and urge them to cosponso r this leg­ Bob McCracken Reg Perry ber) on the history of New Guinea islati on. It would be wonderful if Pres id ent Mem bership Director impatiens. As a former employee of Clinton could sign the bill at AHS's River Darlene Oliver PanAmerican Se ed, I learned bits and Fa rm, site of the Nati onal H ome Compost­ pieces in conversations with impatiens in g Park. H. Clark Gregory Editorial Advisory Board breeder Claude Hope and others, but al­ Atlanta, Georgia Dr. Gerald S. Barad Flemington, New Jersey ways wonde~ed a bout the entire plant­ John Bryan hunting ex pedition. You have put m y AHS is nonpolitical and doesn't ta ke offi­ Sa usa lito, Cali forni a mind to rest. Thanks to American Horti­ cial positions on legislation. We do try to John Creech Hend erso nvi li e, North Carol ina culturist for taking the time to research keep members informed so th ey can make Keith Crotz and write such an intriguing article about their own decisions on issues . A short arti­ Chillicothe, Illin ois the events. cle on this bill appeared on page 24 of the Panayoti Kelaidis Denve r, Co lorado As the arti cle says, it was not a "wimpy Se ptember N ews Edition. H ochbrueckner, Peter Loewer tale" but one of dedicated scientists who a Democrat fr om New York, introduced Asheville, North Carolina deserv e a pl ace in hi story. This bit o f the bill in May. Janet M. Poor horticulture's past is now prese rved fore ver. Winnetka , Illinois Dr. James E. Swasey I ha ve recommended the article and maga­ Newark , Delaware zin e to my coll eagues for accurate informa­ tion and reading pl easure. Grow Your Advertising I look forward to more articles that cap­ AHS Advertising Department ture recent horticultural events and pre­ Own 2300 South Ninth Street, Suite 501 Arlington, VA 22204-2320 se rve history. N ona Wolfram -Koivula Washington (703) 892-0733 Downers Grove, Illinois Color Separations Monument. Heartland Separations, Inc. More Book Dealers Printer Keith Crotz's article on starting a garden Plant a tree from William Byrd Press, Inc. book collection (August) was both interest­ George Washington'S Replacement iss ues of AMERI CAN HO RTI CULTU R· ing and timely. It would be unreasonable 1ST are available at a cOSt of $2.95 per copy. Th e to expect him to know all the book dealers. estate in your yard . opin ions expressed in the artic les th at appear in Each tree will help AMERI CAN HO RTI CULT URIST are rhose of rh e He did miss two fine second-hand botani­ authors and are nor neccssari l}' th ose of th e SOl.: iery. cal bookstores: The Captain's Bookshelf, restore M t. Vernon 's Bora ni ca l nomencl arure in AM ERI CAN HO RT ICU L­ 31 Page Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801, TURI ST is based o n HO RTUS THIRD. Manu scriprs. Fruit Garden to its art work , and phorograph sse nr for possible publi ca ti on (704) 254-663 1, and Garden Works, will be returned jf they are accompanied by a se lf-a d­ original splendor. owned and operated by Robin Wilkerson, dressed, smmped envelope. We cannot guara nree th e safe return o f un solic ited materi al. 31 Old Winter Street, Lincoln, MA 01773, Call or write tod ay AM ERICAN HO RTICULTUR IST . ISSN 0096-44 17. (617) 259-1110. Peter Loewer is the offi cia l pu blica tion of the Ameri ca n H ort ic ul tura l to order your tree Socicty, 793 1 East Bouleva rd Dri ve, Alexa ndri a, VA Asheville, N orth Carolina 22308- 1300, (703) 768·5700. and is issued six rimes a or to receive a full yea r as a magazine and six rimes a }'ca r as a News Compost Bill Supporter catalog. Editi on. The America n Hortic ul tural Soc iery is a non­ profit orga ni z.a tion dedicated ro exce ll ence in horticul­ Many gardeners compost. Members of the 1-800-677-0727 rure. Membe rship in rh e Soc iery incl udes a subscripri on American H o rticultural Society should ro AMERI CAN HO RTICULTURIST. Na ri onal memo be rship dues are $45; rwo rears are $80. Foreign dues know about the Executive Composting FAJI1QUS & HISTORIC TR EES are $60. $15 of dues are des ignared for AM ERI CAN Act, HR 2292, sponsored by Congress­ HO RTICULTURIST. Copyrighr © 1993 by rhe Amer· 8555 Plummer Road ica n Horti cul tural Sociery. Seco nd -cl ass posrage pa id man George Hochbrueckner. What the bill Jacksonville, Florida 32219 ar Alexa ndria, Vi rg ini a, and at addi tional maili ng of­ does is simply ask, not require, the presi­ fi ces. Postmasrcr: Please se nd Form 3579 {Q AME RI­ A\lERIC/\ N FORE ..... !"'; CAN H O RTI CULTU RI ST, 793 1 Easr Bou levard dent and governors to start co mposting in All trees ore guorOIl - CL§5J\L Drive, Alexandria, VA 22308-1300. their back yards. With this good example, teed to grow. ~~~M ' Produced in U.S.A. many other citizens would be encouraged to do the same.

AMERICA HORTICULTURIST 5 AHS Affiliates

Members of the following institutions are participants in AHS's Affiliate Membership Program, a networking OFFSHOOTS opportunity available to most botanical gardens, plant societies, and horticultural groups.

American Hibiscus Society Coco Beach, Florida

East Tennessee Horticulture and Landscape Association Knoxville, Tennessee

Friends of Manito Park Spokane, Washington

Friends of the Davis Arboretum Davis, California

Garden Resources of Washington Washington, D.C.

Hardy Fern Foundation Seattle, Washington

The Herb Society of America Mentor, Ohio

Huntsville Botanical Garden Huntsville, Alabama A Fabulous Garden Tour! flight movie (we're showing "The Life of Master Gardeners International Van Gogh" followed by a slide show of Corporation By Peter Loewer various garden shots, including a number Alexandria, Virginia of iris species sent to uS by previous Kalei­ ome along with all of us at Kaleido­ doscope travelers) and have a chance to Matthaei Botanical Gardens scope Tours, Inc. on this once-in-a­ introduce ourselves and relax, ready to Ann Arbor, Michigan Clifetime trip as we discover how our enjoy the fun-filled days ahead. European counterparts live, work, and Day 2: A day to remember! As the sun National FFA play. Forget your problems with weeds, rises to meet us through the windows of Alexandria, Virginia slugs, and powdery mildew and join other our airliner, we continue to wend our way friendly folks who also love to till the soil to the Netherlands on the final leg of our Oklahoma Botanical Garden flight. Right after breakfast, we'll land at and Arboretum and surround their property with beauty, Stillwater, Oklahoma beauty, beauty! Here's your chance to Holland's Schiphol Airport, where we'll bring home idea after idea, not only to collect our baggage and, after meeting our Rare Fruit Council International transform your own garden but to have a tour guide (who speaks excellent English), Miami, Florida memory chock-full of great suggestions for board a bus for the trip to our hotel, your neighbors and all those fun members located 125 miles away at Velp, a charm­ Santa Barbara City College of your local garden club-who didn't ing town close to the onion fields of Environmental Horticulture Program have the chance to attend this whirlwind Eerbeck. After checking into the hotel, we Santa Barbara, California garden tour. will board a glass-topped bus for a lively Day 1: Your nonstop adventure begins! tour of the fields, stopping for a late-after­ Tennessee Native Plant Society The group of happy gardeners will assem­ noon snack at the brand new McDonald's Knoxville, Tennessee ble at the airport in Kansas City for our close to the hotel, built as part of a cultural nonstop flight to Amsterdam. After check­ exchange. While at Eerbeck we will visit Tustin Garden Club ing in we will board the KLM Royal Dutch the Mayor's garden, a most delightful plot Santa Ana, California Airline jumbo jetliner and settle back for a with the world's largest collection of petu­ delicious dinner served by our friendly nia hybrids in all shades of purple and flight attendants. Next we'll enjoy an in- yellow. Dinner will be at the Hans Brinker

6 DECEMBER 1993 Room of the hotel, dress optional. Hans and Fritz's Palace of Perfection lo­ Day 3: Today will be fabulous! At 6:30 cated just outside Upper-Gravenbroche, a a.m. we will board a bus for Amsterdam to sma ll town some forty miles from Nohm. visit a diamond factory and watch Dutch Day 6: A gaga time! This morning we The craftsmen cut and polish sparkling gems. wi ll travel to the famous city of Heidelberg Then we will vis it the Rijksmuseum where, where we will take time to visit the oldest best-kept after viewing the paintings, we will lunch college in Germany and see the fantastic in the museum snack bar (a great time gardens of the world-famous Huffelberg saver) and drive to the quaint city of Weesp Castle. We will marvel at the thick walls of secret among for a view of the cactus gardens of Hans the castle and the incredible forest of Putter, the wooden shoe king. There we trunks-much of the landscape is being will see over 600 species of cactus planted cleared for what wi ll be one of the largest garden-lovers ... in 600 different wooden shoes. After a stop convention centers in Europe-plus the at the Annual Cheese Fair in the town of Mayor's Tomato Garden, a spectacul ar Loon op Zand, we will visit the largest acre featuring over 150 different types of indoor covered market in the Netherl ands the love apple. Soon we will be driving .. . in addition to the superlative devoted entirely to household appli ances, a long a back mountain road, passing plant collection, display gardens, then head back to the hotel for dinner and spick-and-span vi ll ages divided by deep and forry-acre uncut forest , a night out at the local night club to hear spruce woods in neatly packed rows, in a The New York Botanical Garden the hit rock band, the Vaporizers. world straight out of the Brothers Grimm. Day 4: What a picnic! At 7 a.m. it's off Our ever-present tour gu ide wi ll answer all offers an amazing variety of to Aalsmeer to visit the world's largest your questions before our visit with a typ­ classes for ~du lts! flower auction where we'll see over thirty­ ical German family who actua ll y li ves in the Black Forest, operating a small hotel eight acres of freshly cut flowers under one Commercial Horticulture gigantic roof. We wi ll thrill to the sounds next door to the world's largest manufac­ of commerce and the hectic goings on turer of concrete gnomes and small garden around us as bidders vie for bunches of scu lptures in the gui se of celebrities of Gardening va lu able flowers and we witness several today. The trio of Wi lli e Nelson, Minnie million flowers change hands before our Pearl, and Garth Brooks is said to be abso­ Landscape Design eyes in less than six hours. You wi ll be lutely lifelike and the Gertrude Jekyll boot delighted by the afternoon visit (lunch wi ll (planted with dwarf crape myrtles) makes be served o n the tour bus) to the quaint a fitting centerpiece for any garden. Floral Design vill age of Volendam on the Zeid er Zee Day 7: Never to be forgotten! It's on to where everyone wi ll wear wooden shoes to Spain. After taking a nonscheduled flight Botanical Art & Illustration tour the streets and visit the swamp reno­ from Merzigtraum we'll visit the fabulous vation district near the town's state-of-the­ Hotel Sordide with its world-famous maze art landfill project. For dinner we plan to modeled after the face of legendary and Botany stop at the largest truck stop in Holland to famous General Francisco Franco. Here experience a true Dutch fast-food restau­ we will laugh and fro li c amid the largest Interior Landscaping rant, planning to be back at the hotel be­ co ll ection of ivy topiaries in Europe, all fore midnight. modeled after famous heroes of the Span­ Day 5: The wonders of Germany! At 6 ish labor movement. That night at the hotel Horticultural Therapy a.m. we board the bus for the happy jaunt the international conclave of the Zipper to Germany where we will travel through Entrepreneurs of Europe and Portugal and other plant-related arts! the Ruhr Va ll ey, marveling at the factories (ZEEP) wi ll be crowning Miss Zipper from that are bound to give reunited Germany a host of contestants flown in from around No matter how much---or how eminence in the new scheme of things. At the world. After an orgy of drinking, danc­ one of the quaint villages we will stop for ing, and carousing amid the colored lights little-you already know, what is sure to be a first-hand look at the of the convention, we will board a plane NYBG has a course for you! Rhine River. A fantastic photo opportunity for our flight back home and the memories Call us for a complete course awaits a ll as we visit the owner of a small of a lifetime. catalog at 718-817-8747, ask for chemical, factory who has a garden made Send today! Fill out the coupon below entirely of antique coat hangers in the for yo u r NO OBLIGATION NO dept. 92. shapes of dinosaurs (including a pregnant STRINGS travel packet, which includes Tyrannosaurus rex and three pterodactyls) twenty free coupons to the new Pyramid At the Garden, people and planted with an unusua l variety of Hotel in Las Vegas and your own celebrity grow too! members of the vast cabbage family. Pass­ map of Holland. ing a number of historic castles, we will pause for wine outside the famous Lorelei Peter Loewer is a frequent contributor to Rock and stop at the Knuspern Family American Horticulturist. His most recent NY Botanical Rosinpfalz, the world's largest collection of book is The Evening Garden. A version of petrified fruits (we will marvel at a portrait this article appeared in Quill & Trowel, Garden of Elvis Presley done entirely in multi-col­ newsletter of the Garden Writers Associa­ ored raisins). Our hotel that night will be tion of America.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 7 Successful Gardening Starts at White Flower Farm For 43 years, we've delivered the world's best ornamental plants to American gardeners. Our spring 1994 catalogue offers almost 800 varieties (more than 100 BOOI( REVIEWS new this season) plus hundreds of superb color photos and plenty of practical, how­ to-garden advice. The plants offered are grown on our nursery and are always fresh and vigorous, which assures superb performance even if you're a beginner. Of Gentle Conquest course, every shipment includes detailed James L. Reveal. Starwood Publishing, instructions and carries our guarantee. To receive your free copy of our Washington, D.C., 1992.160 pages. 8" x catalogue, called The Garden Book, please 1Olf2". Color and black-and-white illus­ mail the coupon below or call (203) 496- trations. Publisher's price: hardcover, 9600. We look forward to hearing from $39.95. AHS member price: $35.95. you. Sincerely, Amos Pettingill A single book seldom touches UpOB all of i White flower farm the reasons that compelled one to become a horticulturist. But James L. Reveal's ! Litchfield 40907, Connecticut 06759-0050 Gen­ tle Conquest, shlbtitled "The Botanical Dis­ i Dear Mr. Pettingill, i Please send my free copy of The Garden Book to: covery of North America With 1 NAME------Illtlstrations From the Library of Con­ ! ADDRESS------·--·--- gress," helped me relive decades of study in only 157 pages of text and illustrations. i CITY ------What took me years to acquire is pre­ L~~~_~~~~~~~~~~~-~~~~~-~~~~~-~~~~~-_-~~~~:~~~~~~~~~~-_-~~~ __ _ sented in nine chapters. Each chapter de­ scribes the exploits of a different group of plant collectors. A common element in so many of their stories is the importance of private funding, as they struggled to return live specimens to their benefactors. Reveal is about to get one. All those centuries of describes their successes and failures, and exploration will soon culminate in a full we hear about the illnesses and problems Flora of North America, which is being of spirit that complicated their work. produced at the Missouri Botanical Gar­ We Grow It's exciting to watch European concep­ den. Perhaps there is some way that this Beautiful Perennials tions of the plant kingdom chamge in the project too could make use of the botanical At A Price You Will Like!!! face of the New World discoveries. For art of the Li brary of Congress. Gentle Con­ instance, our flora served as the basis for quest shows how incredible such a combi­ The plants that return to bloom fundamental revisions in the science of tax­ nation might be. -H. Marc Cathey season after season for years of onomy, such as the definition of what con­ easy pleasure, our specialty ... stitutes a species. We also rediscover our H. Marc Cathey is President of the Ameri­ Perennials. many flowering evergreen trees in all their can Horticultural Society. White Theris for early spring, eye-dazzling variety- and relive the exoite­ summer's perky Shasta Daisies and ment of their introduction into Europe, Pass along Plants fall for blooming Chrysanthemums whose own flora boasts only six such trees. Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. Univer­ ... Perennials beautify your home. Reveal covers nearly five centuries of bo­ sity of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, Bluest~me grows over 300 varieties tanical exploration, beginning in the West North Carolina, 1993.221 pages. 8" x 9". of perennials which are shipped in Indies and concluding in the distant Color photographs. Publisher's price, full growth - easy to plant and reaches of the Far West. hardcover: $29.95; softcover: $16.95. each plant guaranteed. Each chapter's illustrations show us dis­ AHS member price, hardcover: $25.50; Send tor our tree catalog or call 800-852·5243. coveries we have come to take for granted. softcover: $15.25. We will be pleased to hear trom you. The brilliance of the w lors, the beauty of Name ______the compositions, and the great diversity of In Passalong Plants, Steve Bender and Fel­ plant form, site, and climate are captured der Rushing have achieved tme perfect mar­ Address ______on every page. The illustrations give ample riage of two noble traditions: southern

Slale'____ _ testimony to the importance of the botan­ storytelling and a gardener'S love for shar­ ical collection in the Library of Congress, ing plants. Their one- to two-page stl!ldies Zip ______and the publisher deserves credit for bring­ of a variety of unrelated plants glide com­ 7225 MIDDLE RIDGE RD. ing these pictures before a broader public. fortably from one species to another, like MADISON, OHIO 44057 Reveal's history deserves a sequel, and it an idyllic raft trip down the Mississippi.

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Box 1130 Buckeystown, Maryland 21717-0010 Brookshire, Texas 77423-0188 Thermal, California 92274-1130 1-800-999-5459 1-800-765·5459 1-800·365-5459 But for a ll the down-home warmth and UNIQUE wit of Pass along Plants, the book is far more than anecdotes and chummy conve r­ HOUSEPLANTS sa ti on. It contains a strong measure of horticultural insight-an undercurrent th at subtly expl ores the gardeni ng im pulse and urges us to expand traditional hori­ zons by taking a few quirky chances. A final chapter by Rushing, "Organizi ng Your Own Plant Swap," o ffers some bas ic guidelines to keep gardeners' enthusiasm jumping-like tha t notorious leapin g frog-even aft er they've finished the book. The p lant swap is the garden catalog for delivered to your fr iends and neighbors. This is how yo u ca n doorstep ge t that ye ll ow or bl ue walking iris you've Established in 1892, Logee's is had your eye on, in exchange for your one of the country's foremost chaste tree weeds (or, uh , seedlings). Forget mailorder sources of rare tropicals. The book is perfect for night-s tand read­ whether a species is regionall y appropriate, Our color illustrated catalog lists in g: a coll ec tion of short stories to make and get a seedling of that ye ll ow-berried over 2,000 of the finest fragrant and yo u smile, chuckl e, or reminisce about the nandi na growing down the street by the flowering plants. first time a friend coaxed you into touching town hall. a touch-me-not (Impatiens balsamina). I fin d that my copy of Passalong Plants has L08ee's The language and tone of Passalong already become a "passalong book"-its Plants is the best part of the reading. tales of southern plants are rumored to be Greenhouses RlJs hing's fans will recogni ze hi s unwaver­ doing nicely up in Zone 5. In kee ping with 141 North Street ingly personal style-it's as if he were greet­ the custom of southern passalongs, I won't Dept. AH ing us from his front porch, saying, " Here, thank the authors fo r this colorful cutting Danielson, CT 06239 pop open a beer and let me tell yo u about fro m ga rden life. -Joseph M. Keyser this orange montbretia." Bender's eq uall y Catalog $3.00 refundable fri endly prose is a walk thro ugh his old Joseph M. Keyser di1'ects composting pro­ neighborhood: we peek over fences and grams for Maryland Environmental Services. take stock of everyday gardening wisdom. The "passalong" nature of these plants strikes a chord in any of us who've nur­ tured and loved a now rampant vi ne give n MOVING? to us as a rooted clipping by a mother, grandmother, or childhood fri end. Passa­ long plants grow from the garden of the heart and thei r value is in their history or nostalgic charm-not necessarily in their DON'T LEAVE YOUR quality as cultivars. Bender and Rushing are candid about AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST their selecti ons. While some choices are BEHIND exquis ite, p erha ps even sta ndards of beauty in the southern garden, others are Send us an old address label and your clearly not the most impress ive of botanical new address and we'll make sure you discoveries or the lates t and greatest. But all of them are real performers, with an don't miss a single issue. elan to match the tales that have grown up around them. Send address and name changes to: Sample a few of the chapter headings to get a taste of the book's se nsibil ities: American Horticultural Society "Weirdisms, Oddities, and Conversati on Address Change Department Pieces," "Well, I Think It's Pretty," a nd Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles 7931 East Boulevard Drive "Gaudy or Tacky?" We're not dealing here Jack Sanders. Ragged Mountain Press, with top-secret experiments on germplasm Camden, Maine, 1993. 232 pages. 71/ 2" x Alexandria, VA 22308-1300 or internatio nal corporate sc hemes to pa­ 9lf2". Co lor and black-and-w hite illus ­ Fax: (703) 765-6032 tent a black marigold. What interests the trations. Publisher's price: hardcover, authors are plants that are fun to grow, to $2 1. 95. AHS member price: $19.75. sniff, to wrestle under control, and to "passalong" to friends and children. And Life long Connecticut res ident Jack Sanders after all, is n't that one of the reasons most has been studying wildflowers fo r twe nty of us got into gardening in the fi rst place? years. And his experiences as a veteran

10 DECEMBER 1993 I A full year of catalogs from Jacksan&Perkins® Call today for your subscription New and award-winning roses, bulbs, perennials, gifts, furnishings and tools - a unique selection of products and ideas to add to the enjoyment and value of your home. Exclusive varieties ... and our prices give you real value. Best yet, we guarantee your complete satisfaction! • Legendary quality - over 120 years of know-how assure you of the finest results. • Helpful tips from garden experts. • Shop from home - whenever it's most convenient for you.

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City ______S tate _ Zip ___ lackson&Perkins' 1 ROSE lANE, DEPT. 11 W, MEDFORD, OR 97501 © 1993, Jackson & Perkins ------~ newspaper reporter and editor and as SPElAL INTEREST GROUP JDURS Northeast regional editor of the Canadian Wildflower Society's Wildflower magazine J7~e/%ordAmeriav have provided him with a rich background Dear Garden Enthusiast, for writing Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles. Despite the subtitle, "The Lives and Lore On our special GARDENS qfNORTH of North American Wildflowers," Sanders AMERICA tours, you can discover the idyllic settings which . admits that most of the plants in the book are found east of the Rockies. Arranged in three seasonal sections, each of the eighty­ two chapters offers a vivid description of a particular wildflower's appearance, habi­ tat, pollination, history of use, and folk­ lore. Sanders also offers gardening advice for growing (or discouraging) these plants. Whenever I open a new wi ldflower book the first thing I do is check the index for my favorite plants, and I was happy to dis­ cover fringed gentian, hepatica, and violets among these pages. At first I was disap­ pointed that Sanders devoted so much space to weedy plants like heal-all, hawk­ weed, and chicory. I never gave chicory a second glance until I read Sanders's de­ scription of bright yellow goldfinches "fluttering among chicory's sky blue flow­ ers." That image was enhanced when I learned that the flowers produce a yellow First-class tours since 1928 dye, while the leaves yield a blue dye. Now /iJr aftee brochure, calI800-~-7092. ahm I scan roadside stands of chicory in hopes of seeing a flock of goldfinches. Of course, part of the fun of reading a new book is discovering new plants. I'd never seen black cohosh (Cimicifuga race­ mosa)-the "fairy candles" of the book's title-until I visited the Blue Ridge Moun­ tains this summer. I was enchanted with the tall fuzzy spires of white flowers and de­ lighted to find a chapter devoted to them in Sanders's book. "The woodlands, where flowers show their splendor in the spring, are almost void of blossoms by midsum­ mer," he writes. "So it's often surprising, even to someone familiar with wildflowers, to run across black cohosh brightly bloom­ ing in the dimly lit deciduous woods of July and August." The plant biographies are lively and in­ formative and Sanders's words can weave magic. His description of the color of com­ mon speedwell, Veronica officinalis, evokes a splendid image: The flower is "blu e with a hint of red, a shade described by the Chinese with a word meaning 'the merica's leading garden talents- Ralph Graham, Jack sky after rain. '" A Siebenthaler, Betty Hotchkiss, Jane Morgan, Roelof de Vries, The book is illustrated with black-and­ Genevieve Tremble, Calvin Smith, Walter Chandoah, Dr. Neil white line drawings by Dawn Peterson. Odenwald and more-invite you to share this exceptional event. The beautiful end papers--covered with delicate water colors-are a special touch. Call 800-SEA-ISLAND for This book should be in the library of every reservations and information. wildflower lover. -Mary Beth Wiesner Co-sponsored by the American Horticultural Society Mary Beth Wiesner is managing editor of American Horticultl!lfist.

12 DECEMBER 1993 flowers in Your Garden sets itself apart from other wildflower ga rdening books. Ferreniea arranges the lists in three catego­ ri es- stalwarts, intermediates, a nd spe­ [?~~~ cia lty pla nts. Each secti o n is further di vided into pl ants for shade and pl ants for sun. Entries include deta iled information on culture and ha bitat and a color photo. The sta lwa rts, which include fo am­ ~~SEED fl ower and fringe tree , "are readily avail­ able and easy to handle and transplant." CATALOG Intermediates "generall y demand more at­ tention to their particul ar needs for site, habitat, or culture." Some of the interme­ di ates are easy to grow but may be ha rd to es tablish or pro pagate. O th ers may be dif­ fi cult to find. Included here are fringed polyga la and dewdrop. Specialty plants, which make up the sho rtes t list, "are hard to come by, slow and difficult to propagate, Wildflowers in Your Garden and ge nerall y chall engin g to grow and get Written and ph otographed by Viki esta blished. " This is where yo u' ll find Ferreniea. lIIustrations by Carol Bolt. Ran­ pl ants like purple fringed orchid. dom House, New Yo rk, 1993.217 pages. The las t secti on contains in-depth chap­ 8 1/4" x 10V4". Color photographs and ters on pl anning, pl anting, and maintain­ color and black-and-white illustrations. in g wil d fl ower ga rdens. Ferren iea, who Publisher's price: hardcover, $35. A HS crea ted the North Ameri ca n wildflower member price: $29.90. ga rden at Longwood Ga rdens in Pennsy l­ va ni a and se rve d as direc to r of ho rticulture Featuring 112 full c olor pages, Books abo ut wildflower gardening fill th e at the New England Wild Flower Society, Stokes seed c atalog is a com­ shelves of bookstores, and gardeners with provides everything a gard ener needs to plete guide to gardening fo r an interes t in the subject probabl y already kn ow to embark on a wildflower garden­ the beginner and the profes­ have se veral of these vo lumes in their col­ ing adventure. -M. B. W sional. Th e c atalog lists over lec ti ons. I haven't found any new book on 2,500 varieties of vegetables, fl owers and herb s, including the how-tos of nati ve pl ant ga rdening th at more than 250 Stokes Exclu­ has topped my two fa vo rites-Ken Druse's sives. Stokes also c arries a full The Natura l Shade Garden and Landscap­ Book Order Form line of helpful garden accesso­ ing With Wildflowers by Jim Wilson. But ri es for around the home. while Viki Ferreni ea's Wildflowers in Your o Gentle Conquest $35.95 o Passalong Plants Garden has n't replaced either of these on o Hardcover . . $25.50 Get high quality Stokes seed my shelf, it has joined their ranks. o Softcover . . . $15.25 at grower pric es, send for your Wildflowers in Your Garden compares o Hedgemaids and Fairy free Stokes Seed Catalog to­ most cl osely to the Wilson book in its basic Candles ...... $19.75 day! Wildflowers in Your approach-both are practical guides to o Garden ...... $29.90 Stokes Seeds crea ting a variety of wildflower gardens. 1724 Stokes Bldg ., Box 548 Buffalo, N.Y. 1424()'0548 But Wilson's book is for purists, who want Postage and handling: $2.50, first book; $1.50 o nl y w ildfl o w er s in their ga rdens. each additi onal book. Virgin ia res idents add 4 WYo sa les tax. Please a ll ow six weeks for deliv­ o YES! Please send my FREE Ferreniea's landscape plans us e wildfl ow­ ery. Prices are subject to change without notice. Stokes Seed Catalog to: ers with other garden favorites to create natural area gardens, rather like what Enclosed is my check for $ ______Name: ______Druse advocates. o Visa 0 MasterCard Exp. Date: The book o pens with ten landscape Address: ______plans. Almost every work in this genre Acct. #: includes a plan for a meadow and a wood­ Signature: la nd garden: predictably, Ferreniea has both. But she also includes plans for water­ Ship to: side, rock, and bog gardens, shady and Street: ______sunny borders, a fern garden, and a wild­ fl ower container garden. Along with a de­ City: tail ed discuss ion of the possibilities of each, State/ Z ip: ______Stokes Seeds 1 there are landscape plans with pl ant keys 1724 Stokes Bldg. Box 548 I as well as photographs of gardens. MAlL TO: AHS Books, 793 1 East Boulevard Buffalo, N.Y. I The second, and probably the strongest, Drive, Alexandria, VA 22308·1300. AH1 2/93 14240-0548 1 section is a set of plant lists. Here Wild- L

AMERICAN HORTICULTUR IST 13 Undercover Natives It's time our own ground covers came in from the wild. Here's a debriefing.

BY PAUL E. CAPPIELLO AND KEN McPHEETERS

round covers are the workhorses of the landscape. They can smother and outcompete weeds, conserve soil moisture, and paint backdrops that turn mere plant collections into landscapes. But too many gardeners choose an old gray mare, like Japanese pachysandra, or an untameable stallion, like periwinkle. American gardeners have learned that many native plants are aG sure bet in terms of both beauty and health; natives flourish in local weather and soil and have natural defenses against insects and diseases that inhabit the same area. Native ground covers tend to put on the same kind of unflagging performance, and there are both woody and nonwoody species for just about every garden. One of North America's best woody ground covers is bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), also called dwarf cornel. It's fairly widespread throughout our Northeast, growing as far north as USDA Zone 2, but also appears in mountainous areas of our South and even in New Mexico and California. If you can imagine our native flowering dogwood (c. florida) growing along the ground, you have a pretty clear image of bunch berry. From late May to late June, and sometimes sporadically through the summer, it has four to six white bracts surrounding small greenish flowers. In late summer, it produces terminal clusters of up to ten red drupes, or stone fruits, each about a quarter-inch in diameter. C. canadensis is sometimes called pudding berry; Laplanders made a pudding or dainty from fruits of a relative, C. suecica. Humans find the raw fruit almost tasteless, but they're favorites of white-tailed deer, grouse, and other forest dwellers. If animals don't find them, bunch berries may put on a display through winter's first snows. Like flowering dogwood, they also put on a fall foliage show. On some plants the leaves remain green with only a mottling of red, but the best turn a clear dark crimson. Many a frustrated gardener has thrown in the trowel after repeated attempts to establish bunch berry in a garden, and it's true that this wonderful native is a bit on the touchy side. But the trick to growing C. canadensis is not some ancient guarded secret of the Penobscott Indians. Give it the same conditions that make it thrive in the wild: adequate moisture, well-drained acid soil, a relatively cool root zone, and generally, a light, filtered shade. It performs best when well-mulched and irrigated during summer droughts. Bunchberry's only common ailment is a leaf spot that shows up on drought-, heat-, or otherwise-stressed plants. Bunchberry is easy to propagate from seed, but seedlings grow slowly and may take three to five years to flower. It's easier to divide the plants in spring, following the old adage, "dig 'em a spade deep." Needing to be moved with a substantial root-and-soil

14 DECEMBER 1993 Left: Bunchbeny, one of our best ground covers, looks like a carpet of dogwood in late spring. Above: Bunchbeny's red fruits appear in summer and will last until the first snow if white-tailed deer and other wildlife don't eat them first.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 15 mass probably indicates that bunch berry roots benefit from a specific soil-fungus interaction. An impressive evergreen ground cover that flourishes under much different condi­ tions is bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva­ ursi). Its succulent, inch-long, glossy dark green leaves and its dense branching make it look almost artificial. A. uva-ursi is also called bear's grape, barren myrtle, and kinflikinick. Native Americans made a "tobacco" from its leaves and bark. Most members of this genus are the manza nitas of our West and South, reliable only to Zone 6) or 7. Bear­ berry is the hardy soul of the bunch, tough­ ing it out into Zone 2. It will grow as far south as Virginia, and is also found in parts of northern Califomia. The urn shape of the quarter-inch, white to light pink flowers reveals their member­ ship in the Ericaceae, or heath family. They appear in clusters at the end of branches from April through June. The three-eighths-inch fruits tum brilliant scarlet in August and, Yellowroot isn't very flashy, but it while popular with animals, can remain on spreads aggressively and will grow the plant through most of the winter. gastronomes swear that wild blueberries almost anywhere. This woody creeper Bearberry is most often found on sandy make the best muffins and pancakes this will reach over two feet tall. coastal soils, exposed dunes, slopes, and side of anywhere. rocky ledges. It can also be found in partially But fall may be its most spectacular sea­ shaded, woody sites, but rarely in full shade. son. In northeast Maine, wild blueberry In Maine, it grows on the rocky shoreline, barrens may stretch out for hundreds of exposed to harsh winter winds and salt spray. acres in a patchwork of spreading colonies, So it's not surprising that easy culture is each displaying its own mixture of red, another of its attributes. Given a well­ purple, orange, and every combination in drained, preferably sandy soil, and at least between. When the foliage drops, the show partial sun, bearberry will thrive for many continues with red, yellow, and green years. Its dense growth requires little prun­ stems, which can create stunning patterns ing, and its preference for low soil fertility against a blanket of snow. means there's little need to feed it. Culture is simple. V. angustifolium does There are quite a few cultivars available. best in sandy soil with a pH between 4.5 Those that have been especially vigorous and 5.5 in full sun. But it will tolerate a pH here are 'Vancouver Jade', a release from up to 6.5, and filtered shade as well, if the the University of British Columbia Botani­ gardener can tolt:lrate more open growth. cal Garden, and 'Massachusetts'. Both are While the blueberry is relatively pest free, pink-flowered. some clones seem very susceptible to pow­ American gardeners have finally noticed dery mildew, especially late in the season. that bl,ueberries grow on native plants that Unfortunately, lowbush blueberry cultivars happen to be beautiful. There are several have never been thoroughly eval~ated for species of low-growing blueberries native disease susceptibility, growth characteris­ to the Northeast, but the most common is tics, and ornamental value, although we're the deciduous Vaccinium angustifolium, a currently doing so here in Maine. dynamic plant with something going for it An evergreen closely related to the blue­ all year long. berry is the cranberry, V. macrocarpon. It's Ultimately two feet high, it prodwces also a mat former, growing only six to ten quarter-inch, typical heath-type flowers inches tall but spreading to three or four during May and June in shades of pink and feet. The tiny, single, pinkish flowers aren't white. The blue-black fruits-covered by a overly showy, but mahogany fall leaves gray white waxy bloom on many clones­ add a nice touch to the autumn landscape. are exceptionally juicy and sweet. Some In the wild, the three-eighths-inch red fruits

16 DECEMBER 1993 Left: Wild blueberry boasts pink and white flowers in spring and blue-black fruits in summer, but its red and orange fall foliage may be its most spectacular attribute. Above: Bearberry's urn-shaped light pink flowers brand it as a member of the heath family.

are devoured by animals within a few On the other end of the growth spectrum British Columbia and south to Maryland, weeks, but they can last until late Decem­ is the yellowroot, Xanthoriza simplicis­ Missouri, and New Mexico. Its origins in ber in a garden. sima. This rhizomatous woody creeper will temperate woodlands give it a liking for V. macrocarpon is native from New­ grow over two feet tall and will spread as rich, moist, slightly acid soil and light foundland to Saskatchewan, sourh to Min­ far as allowed. shade. Given those conditions, its spread nesota and North Carolina and is usually It's not a raving beauty. The ho-hum can become authoritative, making it a per­ found in low-lying areas, bogs, and on the little brown-to-purple flowers appear be­ fect choice for shaded areas. But as another edges of swamps. When cranberries are fore the leaves in terminal racemes, and the common name, meadow anemone, indi­ grown commercially, the bogs are flooded fruit is inconspicuous. The compound cates, it will also tolerate full sun and during the harvest to make the floating leaves remain light to medium green spread quickly to fill a field. This plant is berries easier to collect. But gardeners throughout the season, although it does almost foolproof. Propagation-if ever don't need to go to such extremes. The offer golden yellow fall foliage long after needed-is by division of the creeping root­ cranberry needs only a moist, well-drained other leaves have dropped. stock from May to September. soil with a pH of 4.0 to 6.0. It's pest-free Yellowroot's major attribute is its aggres­ Pe!ennial growers may be more familiar and needs no fertilizing, although it may sive spread and ability to grow almost any­ with the glossy-leaved European wild gin­ not be appropriate for large expanses of where. It likes moist soil, but is as effective ger (Asamm europaeum) than with our ground because it's so slow to spread. in hot, dry, compacted soil as in "perfect" native A. canadense, Canadian wild ginger Another well-behaved ground cover for conditions. Few pests bother it. It will grow or snakeroot. Growing from six to ten limited spaces is the evergreen Paxistima in full sun or light shade, and soil that is acid inches high, like other gingers it has three­ canbyi. This native, which grows slowly to or slightly alkaline. Native to most of to six-inch heart-shaped leaves. Borne on twelve inches, never fails to amaze garden­ eastern North America, it will grow as far long petioles, they're made ltlss shiny than ers when they see it for the first time. But north as Zone 3 and as far south as Florida. those of their European cousin by the short it's rarely seen in gardens, perhaps because Needless to say, it's easy to propagate. hairs that cover the whole plant. of its unappealing midwestern name of rat A nonwoody ground cover that can be Finding ginger flowers can be a challeng­ stripper. Nurseries that do offer it under­ almost as aggressive is the Canada anem­ ing rite of spring. The one-inch, purplish standably use another appellation, cliff­ ome, Anemone canadensis. Its leaves are brown, urn-shaped flowers appear in April green. Its flowers and fruit are sparse and mostly basal and compound, similar to or May, but because they're hidden by inconspicuous, but its foliage is dense and more familiar Anemone species like wind­ foliage near ground level, some searching striking. The inch-long leaves are thick, flower and pasqueflower. Growing to two on hands and knees is in order. The glossy, and serrated and borne along rather feet tall, in April or May it produces showy flowers' position creates perfect access for stiff, erect stems. It fits nicely into a plant­ buttercuplike white flowers with yellow cra wling insects. The slug, usually the ing of rhododendrons or other acid lovers, centers, up to two inches across and held gardener's foe, makes itself useful in the where if kept reasonably moist it should on stalks just above the foliage. ginger's case by serving as a pollinator. require little or no care. Its native range stretches from Quebec to Canadian wild ginger rhizomes are

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 17 <::eous perennial evergreen is native from Virginia to Georgia bur is hardy to Zone 3. From its clump of scaly rhizomes, clusters of leaves arise to form mounds six to twelve inches tall. The five-inch leaves are nearly round with scalloped margins. Glossy and leathery, the leaves are often used to pro­ vide foliage for flower arrangements, where they' re likely to outlast the flowers. Their own tiny white flowers are crowded along wandlike stalks up to thirty inches tall in Mayor] une. In fall, the leaves will be bronzed by frost. In addition to shade, it likes moisture and a<::id soil. Planted under rhododen­ drons, azaleas, or other heath relatives, it will spread at a moderate rate by under­ ground rhizomes. It can be divided in spring or early fall. Foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia, is an­ other woodland native requiring similar conditions. Native from Nova Scotia to Georgia and Alabama, it's hardy to Zone 3, but is evergreen only in the South. Its downy, maplelike leaves rise in mounded tufts six to twelves inches tall. The small white spring flowers, borne in dense ra­ cemes on slender eight-inch stems, may continue for a month. It derives its name from the Greek word tiara, referring to its crown-shaped fruit. Foamflowers will spread without assis­ tance by underground stems, but gardeners who want to hurry the process should strongly scented and can be dried and used Chrysogonum virginianum, commonly plant them twelve to eighteen inches apart. as a substitute for the unrelated spice gin­ called green-and-gold or golden-star. Na­ Shade should not be too dense or growth ger-a member of the genus Zingiber­ tive from Pennsylvania to Florida and Lou­ will be slow and uneven. In spring, clumps which grows in the tropics. isiana, it's evergreen or semi-evergreen in can be divided or seeds can be sown in a Asarum canadense is native to woodlands th{l South, but suffers in snowless winters protected area. from New Brunswick south to North Caro­ in Zones 4 and 5. A similar native-so similar that the two lina and Missouri. It requires shade, abun­ Both common names were inspired by genera have been interbred-is alumroot dant moisture, and slightly acid soil high in the star-shaped flowers, which are bright or coralbells. These durable members of organic matter. If spaced a foot apart, plants yellow with brown stamens and about an the Heuchera genus grow naturally on will cover a sizable area in a few years. They inch wide. They appear for weeks in spring cliffs, hills, and mountainsides, especially make a subtle, dependable ground cover and summer and reb loom later in the sea­ in the West. under deciduous azaleas and add texture to son. The plants are four to ten inches high There are some seventy species, known the woodland garden. Propagation is by and about a foot wide. The branching for their dense, spreading mounds of seeds or division of the creeping rootstock in stems sport fuzzy, oval, serrated leaves that rounded leaves that are usually lobed, and spring before new growth begins. can be one to three-and-a-half inches long. sometimes toothed, mottled, 0)" hairy. While the Canadian ginger's leaves disap­ Green-and-gold is at home in average Their wispy flower stalks delicately embel­ pear in winter; two other native gingers are soil with average moisture and finds a half lish mixed plantings. evergreen. British Columbia wild ginger (A. day of sun ideal. It will self-sow but isn't Hybrid heucheras are common in the caudatum) is hardy to Zone 4 and has flower invasive. A light pea gravel mulch will en­ nursery trade. But several of the native lobes that extend into long tails. A. courage seedlings, which can be easily species and their cultivars deserve to be shuttleworthii is native from Virginia to transplanted, or mature plants can be di­ included in native plant gardens or mixed Georgia and has attractive, glossy, mottled vided in fall or late winter every other year. perennial beds. foliage. It too can survive in Zone 4, but Cheery and informal, green-and-gold is The eastern species H. americana is a not surprisingly, it's more heat tolerant ideal for the edge of a woodland. real trouper in hot summers if given partial than A. caudatum. If you need a real shade lover, consider shade. Two to three feet high and eighteen Another good choice for southerners is wandflower, Galax urceolata. This herba- inches wide, it has heart-shaped evergreen

18 DECEMBER 1993 leaves with hairy undersides. Young foliage For a delicate, fernlike effect, there is Opposite: Shade-loving foamflower is marbled with purple. Deep purple veins Vancouveria hexandra, also called Ameri­ is a woodland native with maple like are a hallmark of the 'Sunset' cultivar. can barrenwort or Vancouver fern. One of leaves and small white spring flowers. Alpine enthusiasts appreciate the three species of North American This is a cultivar, 'Oakleaf. Below: densely tufted habit of H. bracteata, just Vancouveria, it hails from the Pacific Green-and-gold or golden-star gets its six inches high and wide, which hails from Northwest and is hardy to Zone 5. Each common name from the star-shaped the Rocky Mountains. It has kidney­ leaf on this twelve- to eighteen-inch plant yellow flowers. Bottom: The flowers shaped, lobed, and toothed leaves. is divided into three glossy leaflets that are of Canadian wild ginger, like those of The Northwest is home to H. cylinarica, slightly oval and an inch-and-a-half long. other gingers, are hard to find since which grows to two feet high and a foot Another common name is inside-out they are hidden under foliage. wide. Its deeply lobed, dark green leaves flower. In early summer, leafless flower are two to three inches across and the early stems put out panicles of ten to twenty summer flowers are creamy green. half-inch white flowers. The white sepals­ 'Greenfinch' grows slightly higher and has there are no petals-curl back, showing off greenish white flowers, while 'Green Ivory' long yellow stamens. has white flowers with a green throat. Rootstocks of American barren wort are H. villosa is a southeastern native that thick and creeping. It is an admirable col­ grows two to three feet tall with panicles onizer under large shrubs or trees or in of creamy white flowers in late summer. It shady perennial borders. It grows best in deserves to be grown by more gardeners woodland conditions of cool, rich soil and for its long-lasting bloom and vigor during shade, but will even tolerate dry shade. hot summers. Rootstocks can be divided in spring or fall. The densest, most attractive alumroots In seeking out these plants for your gar­ grow in filtered sunlight. In colder areas, den, remember that collecting from the wild they should be mulched after the soil disturbs the natural environment. In some freezes to prevent heaving. Flowering time areas, it's illegal. None of the plants men­ can be extended by removing their flower tioned is endangered, but all are easily prop­ stalks, which add a graceful note to mixed agated and available from commercial flower bouquets. sources. Nursery-propagated plants are apt The species can be propagated from seed to be healthier and better suited to garden or division, which should be done (lvery conditions than wild plants. three to four years to stimulate flowering. These are some of our showiest and most To help alumroots cover the ground adaptable native ground covers, but there qui€kly, they should be planted a foot to are many woody and herbaceous perennials eighteen inches apart. that slip nicely into a garden of natives, or If you feel that you absolutely must have integrate well with exotics to show the best pachysandra, you can choose a refined native features of both. Native ground covers are instead of the mass-produced, predictable, a natural choice for your American garden. and ubiquitous Japanese species, Pachysan­ d1'a terminalis. Alleghany spurge, P. pro­ Dr. Paul E. Cappiello is an assistant professor cumbens, is native to rich woods from of landscape horticulture at the University of Kentucky and West Virginia to Florida and Maine. Dr. Ken McPheeters is a horticulture Louisiana. It performs admirably to Zone specialist at the University of Illinois. 4, although it is deciduous in the North. The plants spread slowly to form two- to four-foot clumps six to twelve inches high. SOURCES Spoon-shaped leaves, mottled with gray and three to five inches long, appear Each of these sources has a large selection whorled at the end of erect stems. Five-inch of the ground covers in this article. spikes of creamy white or pink flowers arise Carroll Gardens, 444 East Main Street, from late March until May. They're fra­ P.O. Box 310, Westminster, MD 21157, grant, but sometimes hidden by leaf litter. (301) 848-5422. Catalog $2. This plant's favO!ite site is a shaded bed; Forestfarm, 990 Tetherow Road, Wil­ foliage will yellow under too much sun. liams, OR 97544, (503) 846-6963. Cat­ Plants shOl,lld be eight inches apart in alog $3. slightly acid to neutral, humus-rich soil, Roslyn Nursery, 211 Burrs Lane, Dix Hills, and get plenty of water until they're estab­ NY 11746, (516) 643-9347. Catalog $2. lished. Clumps can be divided in spring, or Russell Graham, 4030 Eagle Crest Road cuttings taken in spring and rooted in a N .W., Salem, OR 97304, (503) 362- moist and shaded mixture of sand and soil. 1135. Catalog $3.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 19 /sPeatPC.? In Europe, there's a clear case for bog conservation. In North America the issue remains murky.

B y ( H R s B R G H T

hould the peat in your garden have stayed in a bog? That's a question Europeans have been asking for several years, in response to controversy over the health of Europe's peat bogs. Now some American gardeners have begun to worry about our own use of peat. Many of Europe's peat bogs are in undeniably bad shape. In the Republic of Ireland,S where peat has been mined for centuries, mostly for fuel, about three-quarters of the bogs have been drain€d. Finland has drained about 45 percent of its bogs. In Denmark, only about 2 percent of the bogs remain in their natural state and in Germany, the figure is a tiny fraction of 1 percent. In the Netherlands, which once had nearly 445,000 acres of bog, there is now no virgin bog left at all. The controversy is most intense in Britain, where conservationists argue that peat producers are despoiling valuable wildlife habitat. For example, they blame the peat industry for the disappearance of the longleafed sundew from Thorne Moore, a bog near the Humber estuary on England's east coast. Critics also say the industry is wrecking an irreplaceable historical resource. Peat preserves just about everything that ends up in it-including people. Several years ago, an ancient cadaver was discovered in an English bog. The man, nicknamed "Pete Marsh," was preserved only above the waist: his lower half was apparently bagged and sold with the surrounding peat. The industry counters that most British peat cornes from bogs that were stripped long ago of vegetation, and that only peat producers have the resources to restore the bogs. Friends of the Earth (FOE) is an environmental group that has been particularly vocal on the peat issue in Britain. FOE spokesman Robin Maynard puts the anti-peat case this way: "When growers buy peat they are buying areas of wildlife habitats, unique records of value to scientists and bags of carbon which oxidize to carbon dioxide fueling the greenhouse effect." Could the same be said of American gardeners? Peat is the layer of dead mosses, sedges, and reeds that accumulates in certain types of wetlands. The United States has vast peat deposits. According to Raymond Cantrell, peat commodities specialist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines, about 150 million acres ofthe cOlmtry

A sphagnum bog encroaches on spruce forest in Ontario.

20 DECEMBER 1993 AMER ICAN HORTICULTURIST 21 are covered in peat-an area more than tic. And virtually all of the imported half­ twice the size of Arizona. In terms of peat over 99 percent of it-was Canadian reserves, that puts us in third place, after sphagnum. "About five years ago," says the countries of the former Soviet Union Cantrell, "the split was 38 percent Cana­ and Canada. Over 80 percent of our peat­ dian and the rest domestic. But the U.S. is land is in Alaska, but most American peat losing some production and the Canadians is mined in Michigan and Florida. Last are filling in the gap." Are the Canadians year, those two states accounted for some selling us a renewable resource or are big 64 percent of the 660,000 tons of peat the chunks of that country being transplanted country produced. under our petunias? But if you check the last bag of peat you Wet, treeless, and buggy, Canada's bought, you'll probably find that it came sphagnum bogs aren't a charismatic eco­ from Canada. There are several reasons for system. One unhappy adventurer cursed this. Cantrell says most American peat them as "smeared across Canada like lep­ doesn't make it to a national retail mar­ rosy .. . a rotting mushland of blackflies ket-it's usually consumed in the regions and mosqtlitos." But to a botanist, a bog is that produce it. And over 80 percent of U.S. a subtle and dynamic plant community production is either "hemic" peat, which is with a rich complement of beautiful plants, the remains of reeds and sedges, or like leatherleaf, bog rosemary, Labrador "humus" peat, which is so decomposed it's tea, ferns, and orchids. impossible to identify its origins. These And to an ecologist, a bog is one of the The bog-loving Virginia chain fern, peats usually wind up as soil amendments strangest places on the planet, because below, is rare in New Brunswick, a at nurseries, landscaping services, and two things happen there that rarely occur major peat producing province in other businesses. anywhere else. In a bog, most dead plant Canada. Many European bogs, like But for home gardeners, peat par excel­ material simply accumulates, in the form the Irish bog at right, have been mined lence is slightly decomposed moss of the of peat, rather than rotting away, as it for generations. Critics say the practice genus Sphagnum. Sphagnum, primarily a tends to do in other ecosystems. This has badly degraded wetland floras. northern plant, is the champagne of so il makes the bog a tremendous energy sink: amendments: it holds up to twenty times it's estimated that peat stores up to 70 its weight in water. It aerates and loosens percent of the solar energy the bog cap­ clay soil and binds sandy soil. It attracts tures by photosynthesis. The bog's other and holds nutrients. And like champagne, bizarre property is that it soaks up water it's really a foreign product: only 5 percent like a sort of infinite sponge. Instead of of U.S. peat production is sphagnum. balancing inflow and outflow, the grow­ Overall, Cantrell says, about half of the ing sphagnum is always drinking a little peat Americans used last year was domes- more water than it releases. Theoretically,

22 DECEMBER 1993 water will accumulate indefinitely in a bog, than it's being mined. "The rate at which because the sphagnum itself will accumu­ sphagnum is accumulating has accelerated late indefinitely. greatl y in the last century," he says. "No This is what scientists call a positive one knows why. It might be acid rain, or feedback mechanism-a self-stimulating climate change, or maybe the peatlands cycle of cause and effect. It begins when a have reached a stage where they're pro­ floating mat of sphagnum forms on a lake. motiflg their own growth." This mystery is As the sphagnum grows, the older moss of great interest to scientists studying cli­ dies and sinks to the bottom. After centu­ mate change. The NRRI is looking at the ries of growth, the lake is nothing but effects that global warming may have on sphagnum, from surface to bottom, but the peatl ands. Some scientists think there may moss continues to multiply. Absorbing the be a connecti on between paludification seepage and rain that once fed the lake, it and the beginning of a new ice age. forms a dome above the lake cavity. Eve n­ Weighed against such inexorable expan­ tually the dome may reach a kind of critical sion, what harm is there in using an occa­ mass and begin to grow outward, over sional bag of sphagnum? That's the view of what used to be dry land, as well as up­ Canadi an producers, who published a re­ ward. This process, called paludificati on, port last year to a ll ay any American con­ occurs when nearby drainages start to cl og cerns about the environmental effects of and pockets of moisture appear in the Canadi an peat mining. Entitled Canadian neighboring terrain. Soon sphagnum is Peat Harvesting and the Environment, the growing there too. report was written by David Keys, a geol­ As the bog g rows, the veget ati on ogist with Maritime Groundwater, a wet­ changes radica ll y. What was once a lake land s consulting firm in Fredericton, New Many of North America's most surrounded by boreal fores t becomes a Brunswick. It was paid for by the Canadian spectacuLar native orchids, like these bulging expanse of shrubs, occasional Sphagnum Pea t M oss Associati on, the white fringed orchids (Habenaria pools, and islets of dead or dying trees. main peat producers' trade group in Can­ blephariglottis), are bog pLants. Trees and other forest plants can't usuall y ada, and the Department of Natu ra l Re­ survive an encroac hing bog. It's too wet­ sources and Energy of New Brunswick, a by weight, the dome may be up to 98 major peat-producing province. percent water, which means it contains Keys says peat is accumulating in Canada fewer solids than milk. It's also too acid at the rate of 50 million metric tons a year, and too poor in nutrients. The only f1utri­ while onl y 700,000 to 800,000 metric tons ents available at the bog's surface are those are removed annually. The industry is brought in by dust and precipitation, be­ working onl y 0.02 percent of Canada's cause the dome is too thick to allow leach­ peatlands, which are so vast they account ing from the mineral-rich soil below the for 12 percent of the entire country. " It is peat. Bog vegetation is therefore a distinc­ very evident," Keys writes, "that Canadian tive and highly adapted community. peat moss harvesting is not contributing to You can see the results of the process best a decline in peatland functions or values on from above. " From the air, the dome will a national or global scale. There is room for be featherlike in shape, with the sphagnum further growth of the industry in a cooper­ branching out in ridges, and conifers grow­ ative, consultative manner with regulators iAg in between," says Tom Malterer, peat and environmental interes ts to ensure a bal­ program director for the University of ance between the needs of the environment Minnesota's Natural Resources Research and sustainable development." Institute (NRRI) in Duluth. At anyone But some scientists say the view from spot, Malterer says, peat is accumulating witl.!in the bogs is less clear. In 1991, for very slowly. It takes about a century to lay example, the little province of Prince Ed­ down two inches of it. ward Island (PEl), off Canada's east coast, The store of peat looks much different approved a proposal to mine the from a global perspective. According to Miscouche Bog, one of the largest bogs on Cantrell, a total of 1.1 billion acres, or the island. "The Miscouche was about the nearly 41i2 percent of the planet's land­ best assemblage of bog flora that we had," mass, are clothed in peat. Some 13 percent says Ian MacQuarrie, a botanist and pro­ of the Earth's entire carbon supply is fessor at the University of PEl. In the early locked up in peat, which means the bogs 1970s, MacQuarrie was on a scientific play a major role in determining the panel that recommended the Miscouche amount of carbon in the atmosphere. And for listing as an area of international eco­ Malterer says peat is growing much faster logical significance with the United Na-

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 23 PEAT SUBSTITUTES

ontroversy over the effects of peat mining has inspired a search for substitute three days inJuly 1991, got nati onal media growing media that are above environmental suspicion. But it's unlikely coverage. An other part of the mining Cthat any medium will emerge as an all-purpose substitute for sphagnum peat agreement required the province to turn moss. Chemical properties always vary somewhat from medium to medium, and over three smaller bogs to the INT for some substitutes have their own liabilities, like high cost or possible contamination, permanent protection. which may limit their usefulness. But for particular applications, researchers are Some saw the arrangement as a compro­ finding some unusual materials that could replace peat. Here are a few of the more mise that worked fo r both sides. "If any­ promising candidates: thing," says Keys, " it pro bably spurred A fiberglass-like material spun from blast furnace slag may prove useful as a provincial authorities to move ahead faster commercial growing medium. Despite its unglamorous origins, this by-product of with protecti on: the protecti on of other the steel industry has a high pH and good water and nutrient retention. It might be sites was part of the dea l. " But Griffin suitable for mass producing begonias, impatiens, chrysanthemums, and poinsettias. di sagrees . "To have lost an area of such Various agricultural wastes may make versatile media and some are already on importance is most unfortunate," she says. the market. A Texas company is selling composted cotton burrs, the by-product " And rescuing some individual pl ants of cotton ginning. In Louisiana, another firm is marketing rice hulls. Auburn doesn't make up for the loss. It's like put­ University in Alabama is testing broiler litte.t:=-=c hickc.ul droppings and bedding ting a Band-Aid on a machine gun bullet material. While they differ from each other ill various ways, such products share hole shot through your ches t. " The plants a higher nutrieRt value than peat. Peat's nutrient-holding capacity is high, bwt it themselves have had a mi xed reacti on to contains little nutrition itself. Agr:icultural by-products are being used in landscap­ their resettl ement. Griffin says the pitcher ing projects and in container media. pl ants, sundew, and bake apple will prob­ A by-product of tropical agriculture that interests Euwpean researchers is abl y pull through. The orchids survive d coconut husks, or coiro Once composted and milled, the coir's water: and nutrient last yea r but "orchids can look fin e for a retention is said to be 30 percent greater than peat. Coir may have a future as a few yea rs and then give up." As for the bog container medium component. birch, "I haven't checked it recentl y but 1 Wool makes good mulch, say British scientists, who hope to develop other didn't rea ll y ex pec t it to survive." applications for their wool mulch matting. The sci€ntists envisioR plant pots made Keys argues that the mining of the entirely from wool, and hope to wse it as a container a Fm er.Jdment as well. Proponents Miscouche benefited the province econom­ c!a~m wool dewmposes readily, improves water retention, and contains some ica ll y and did no se ri ous harm to the envi­ nutrients. Brown, rather than white, is the color of choice for horticultural wool. ronment. "There was nothing growin g For the home garden, compost is attracting increasing attention as a peat there that couldn't be found so mewhere substitute. Compos\' is generally richer than peat but it tends to decompose more else, " he says. "I think it's a questi on of rapidly, which means it won't give the soil as much " body." Compost is also usually bala ncing development with conserva­ cheaper than peat. You can make it at home for free, or you may be able to get it ti on." MacQuarrie doesn't think that argu­ for little or nothing from a municipal composting program. ment works on PEl, which has onl y a tin y The bogs themsdves may yield a peat substitute, in the form of living sphagnum, share of the country's peat bogs . "Most or "top moss." Tom Malterer, of the University of Minnesota's Natural Resources Ca nadi an peat is more accessible than Research Institute, says that a crop of live sphagnum could be pulled from a bog ours- yo u don't ha ve to take a ferry to get every five to sevtm years witm. owt damaging the bog's ecology. Top moss is not quite to it, " he says. "So it's rather a pity to as good at holdimg nutrients as sphagnum peat but is otherwise similar: to it. destroy an important natural area for some Malterer says tell" moss harvesting is already "a cottage industry" in Wisconsin. short-term jobs. We have a history here of The material is sold as a medium for hanging baskets. For broader applications, starting up little enterprises, funded by the top moss could be mixed with ordinary peat. Malterer thinks top moss could government, and then seeing them go eventually replace a quarter of the sphagnum peat market. -Chris Bright broke when the government says it's had enough. And I would be ve ry surprised if this wasn't one of them." Elsewhere in the Canadian maritime tio ns Intern ational Biological Program. uming machine sucks it up. The vacuuming provin ces , other bog battles are being Among the plants at Miscouche were the is repeated as often as the drying rate al­ fought. "We went through quite a battle a bog birch (B etula pumila), "which is quite lows. Before the process began at the couple of years ago to save the Bull Pasture a pretty little thing and rare on PEl," says Miscouche, a local conserv ation group, the Bog," says H al Hinds, a botanist at the M acQuarrie. "There were also pitcher Island Nature Trust (INT), rescued some of University of New Brunswick. Bull Pas­ plants, which aren't rare but a lot of bogs the rare and unusual plants. Diane Griffin, ture, just outside of Fredericton, is used by here don't have them, and orchids. 1 a botanist and the INT's executive director, the university to study bog ecology. The thought the Miscouche would have made says that in additi on to the bog birch, province approved a plan to mine it, says a good interpretive site. " specimens of round-leaved sundew (Dros­ Hinds, but eventually the proposal was When a sphagnum bog is mined, a net­ era rotundifolia), pitcher pl ant (Sarracenia dropped in the face of local opposition. work of drainage canals is cut through it purpurea), ba ke a pple (Rubus cham­ Bull Pasture has a large assemblage of or­ and the vegetati on is stripped off. The sur­ aemorus ), and the o rchid Calopogon chids, inc! uding the genera Calopogon, face is harrowed, and when the top inch or pulchellus were transplanted to other sites Calypso, Platanthera, and Pogonia. It also two has dried a bit, a tractor-drawn vacu- in the province. The rescue, which took has Splachnum , which Hinds defines as "a

24 DECEMBER 1993 pa inted moss that grows on moose dung." Hinds, who advises the New Brunswick In Nova Scotia, plans to mine peat for government on mining proposals, says the fuel at the Barrington Bog, near the south­ pressure to develop the bogs is intense. ern tip of the province, were ha lted by the "Peat is a multi-million do ll ar industry in Bog birch, below, and bake apple, discovery of the thread-leaved sundew New Brunswick, " he says. "We have seri­ bottom, were two species rescued (Drosera filiformis), says Alex Wilson, cu­ ous unemployment, with the east coast from a Prince Edward Island bog. rator o f bota ny at the Nova Scotia Mu­ fisheries falling apart, and many o f these se um. While the thread-leaved sundew is bogs are along the coast." Keys, who not rare in the United States, onl y four helped design New Brunswick 's pearland populati o ns are known in Nova Scotia, management plan, concedes that pearland and Barringto n is ho me to the la rgest. Wil­ development in the province exceeds the son thinks the Barrington decision is nearl y national rate of 0.02 percent. But the por­ unique. "There are very few cases in North ti o n in production, he says, " is still less America where a major industri al opera­ than 10 percent." tion was blocked because of the existence The industry a lso ma intai ns that mined of some little-known pl ant. " bogs ca n be restored to ecological hea lth. But Hinds a rgues th at savin g a few un­ The Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Asso­ usual bogs doesn't rea ll y address the prob­ ciati on has developed a recl amati on policy, lem. "The la rge bogs are the ones the whi ch it recommends to member compa­ industry is most interested in, " he says, ni es. And provin cia l a utho rities sometimes "and many o f these are environmentall y require a restoration plan before a bog ca n interesting areas that ha ve their fl ora and be mined. But as Keys' paper admits, " Rec­ fa un a intact." Some of that fl ora is rare, lamati on requirements for pearland deve l­ according to Hinds, who wrote a book on opments in Canada have not been clearl y New Brunswick's rare pl ants. Bog plants defin ed." One reason for this is that peat rare in New Brunswick include the Virginia mining is a ve ry slow process. " It takes chain fern (Woodwardia virginica), the abo ut a decade to take a meter o f peat off, " sedge Cm'ex lepidocarpa, and the Virginia Keys says. "There are bogs in New Bruns­ sc rewstem (Bartonia virginica), a semipar­ wick that have been in production for 40 asitic plant that attacks eri caceous shrubs or 50 years." Nati ona ll y, fewer than 4,000 like blueberries. acres of pearland have been exhausted.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 25 Bogs aren't just for plants: they're Because of this, most of the reclamation many species will meet Keys' schedule if also home to many small animals, work thus far has really been a form of they are coaxed back onto the bog with like the garter snake above. At right, research. Typically, restoration begins by additional nutrients. "But getting live volunteers remove rare plants from a plugging drainage ditches to restore the sphagnum back in takes longer"-a good Prince Edward Island bog scheduled water table. Lime and fertilizer may be ten years if the area is level, which would for mining. added and transplants introduced, or the allow more nutrients to reach it. "On area may be left to revegetate on its own. crowned bogs with low nutrient peat," he Researchers are looking into the possibility says, "it can take decades." Famous thinks of turnillg depleted bogs into forests, as has a better strategy is what he calls "sequen­ been done in parts of Europe, or into tial" restoration. "Just about every large marshes for waterfowl. But usually the bog operation has some areas that have goal is to encourage the return of the orig­ been exhausted," and restoration should inal flora. start on those areas as soon as the mining Can a mined-out bog become a bog stops. The first steps should be to reestab­ again? Griffin admits the possibility but lish the water table and to cover the ex­ says, "you and I aren't going to be here to hausted areas with the living sphagnum see it. We're not talking about grading a layer stripped from the next areas to be roadside and seeding clover. Bogs take mined. Famous recently collaborated on thousands of years to develop." Keys re­ two New Brunswick restoration plans that sponds that "the objective is to restore the incorporated these recommendations. function, not to restore the peat level. With But restoration has its limits. One way the proper conditions you can get a repre­ to describe what restorers do, says sentative sample of bog flora out there in Malterer, "is that they turn the clock back five to ten years." Some botanists aren't so about a thousand years and start the suc­ sure. "Bog flora is very complex," says cession over again." A restored bog, he Macquarrie, "and it strikes me as very says, "wo\>lld very much resemble what primitive biology to think that you could you've just mined, but it won't be the remove the insides of the bog and return same." So restoration is not a matter for the flora to its original state in a short man alone. We can patch a mined-out bog period of time." with water and plants, but it will take a Restoration may not work miracles but millenium to make it whole. it clearly has some healing power. Norman Famous, a plant taxonomist and consul­ Chris Bright is assistant editor ofAmerican tant on peatland restoration, says that Horticulturist.

26 DECEMBER 1993 GARDENING CHALLENGES TheirOw-n Private Idaho "A garden? " the rangers asked. "Up there? You're kidding. "

n o ur d rea ry middle years, my hus­ BY MARY JO CHURCHWELL that hunker down below peaks in the band, Stew, and I chucked o ur hectic 12,000-foot class. As could be expected, ca ree rs and left li fe as we knew it in extreme differences in elevation create di­ smog-enshrouded southern Califor­ Rockies, ye t vacationers come fr om afar to verse climates and vegetati on types. While ni a. In Ida ho, we wande red into a hike and ski its famous ranges: the Saw­ mountai ntops rece ive over fi fty inches of Iworld where li fe is still simple, where qu i­ tooths, the W hite Clouds, the Pioneers, the precipitati on annua lly, mile-high Chall is­ etness counts, where the days are un hazy Bo ulders, and the Big ho rn Crags. The the dries t reporting stati on in Ida ho- aver­ and, the nights starry bright. In a ca bin fa r peaks that ring o ur cabin belong to a range ages a scant seven a nd a ha lf in ches . removed fr om humankind, we chipped out that sha res its name with the ri ver it gives Temperatures at the highest elevations our ni che and developed a subs istence life­ birth to- a river that once ran red with drop to 50 degrees below zero in winter but style tied to hunting, fi shing, fo raging, and sa lmo n. soar to 100-plus in summer a long the gardening. The strand of asphalt that winds along Salmon. Down by the riverside, cotton­ Few roads penetrate the 20,000-square­ the Sa lmon River connects the town of woods meander through a gray sea of sage, mile vastness kn own as the ce ntra l Idaho Challis to severa l other sma ll se ttlements while conifers cover subalpine heights and

The author's Rocky Mountain hideaway as seen from her vegetable garden.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 27 aspens stand along the cree ks. Above the The geologic co llision and upheaval that timberline, bits of tundra cling to crannies created these mountains were accompa­ below high wa lls of rock carved by glaciers. ni ed by volcanic activity that enriched the At 7,000 feet, the climate on Sawmill soil. Unfortunately, our garden site had Creek ranges somewhere between these ex­ been thoroughly, thoughtless ly bulldozed tre mes. M y grow in g season is a mere clean of topso il when the land was leve led, month in length-in the best of yea rs. N ot then drive n over repeatedly during the that we weren't fo rewarned . The statisti cs ca bin-building yea rs. The compacted clay came from the Challis Nati onal Forest, had the consistency and fertility of concrete along with these di scouraging words from and wouldn't grow a turnip, eve n with staff members at the district ranger's offi ce: extensive reconditioning. The soil had to "A ga rden? Up there? You 're kidding. Let­ be replaced before we could pl ant. tuce, if you're lucky." With sticks, string, and much discuss ion, Stew and I confronted the demands of a we marked off most of the southern side of short growing season and other challenges the ya rd into a long, narrow rectangle. that would confound even well-seasoned With picks, shovels, and much grunting, sod busters, like winters with weeks of arc­ we hacked the clay a foot deep, fill ed the tic cold , like snowstorms in July fo ll owed wheelbarrow, and patched potholes in the by August drought. H ere, lettuce-loving driveway. We drove the pickup the hun­ deer roam in gangs and nocturna ll y raiding dred yards up and down the driveway doz­ rodents clear-cut entire plots. M y advan­ ens of times until the crater was fill ed to the tages ... I'm thinking . . . I'm thinking. brim with rich creekside topsoil squirming For one thing, from where I stand, I can with ea rth wo rms. We ra ked the soil look up fr om my labors and be knocked smooth, then subdiv ided the rectangle into breathless by the epic scenery. Van H orn pl ots, each three fee t across, several ya rds Pea k punctuates a skyline spiky with pines long, and se parated by walkways wide and snowcapped until June. To compete enough to work in . We read that ra ised with the grandeur of summits, hillsides beds grow more in less space, so we haul ed fl a unt their fl owers: showy daisies, moun­ dirt until plots were six in ches a bove tain bluebell s, sticky ge raniums, Indian ground level. paintbrush, sego lilies , lodge pole lupines, In this back-to-the-l and adve nture, we and canary yell ow arrow leaf balsamroot. coll aborate on many such projects, but in We feel no need for cultivated ornamentals our daily duties there is a suspect division when the meadows around us are spangled of labor. Stew has ass igned us separate with buttercups, monkey fl owers, and roles to suit our skills, meaning he gets to Rocky M ountain irises, and the air is per­ be constructio n forema n, master me­ fum ed with wild roses, lilies-of-the-va lley, chani c, and fearl ess hunter, while I am and phlox. ditch digger, go-fer, and camptender. I also

28 DECEMBER 1993 Far left: While the world outside is still snowbound, greenhouse seedlings get a jump on spring. Left: Protected from garden marauders by its toxic leaves, rhubarb is harvested in abundance. Above: Mary Jo Churchwell's mountain-grown elephant garlic far surpasses the store-bought version.

AMERICAN HORTICULTUR IST 29 get to be the gardener because 1 managed prune them to the stems. Deer so discour­ As 1 grow grayer with age, my taste for to keep a dozen potted begonias alive in aged the raspberries, strawberries, and as­ venison is dulled when 1 watch mother does Los Angeles for five years, although they paragus that they came back less and less teaching their spotted fawns how to nibble never bloomed. every year, then finally, not at all. beet tops. I find I am fonder of snowshoe My season begins with the coming of "Plant pickets." This is the sound that hares than the peas they chew up. Though seed catalogs by snowmobile, when wild Stew makes. My objection is strictly aes­ I have no raspberries, seed-stealing chip­ flowers are fantasies and garden plots thetic. A sky-scraping fence might make munks share their supply of wild currants thigh-high in the snow. Curled up near the deer better neighbors, but it would scar om with me, so it all works out in the end. wood-burning stove, 1 sigh as 1 thumb past mountainous vista. Aphids, flea beetles, grasshoppers, and pages of corn, squash, apples, and plums, "Try firecrackers," said the local game pretty but unwelcome white butterflies and order what 1 have learned will grow cop, handing us a bunch. The booming come out of the wilderness and into my here without miracles, without the fuss and M-80s and screaming rockets violated the oasis of exotic greenery. But predatory expense of row covers and black plastic mountain hush for a week but didn't faze wasps, lacewings, lady beetles, wrens, rob­ mulch. Some challenges are best met by the deer. When homemade hot pepper solu­ ins, and shrews are never far behind. The bowing to authority. tions and commercial repellents also failed, white butterflies of course will become cab­ 1 bow low but don't buckle. From com­ Stew and 1 dragged pillows and sleeping bage worms, a few of which will be un­ panies catering to high-altitude growers bags out to the berry bushes and watched avoidably tossed in salads served to come varieties bred for short seasons. My stars fall while deer crept undetected into summer guests. "Spit 'em out!" Stew own rows of potatoes and peas supply the lettuce beds. When sunrise disdosed the again-a man of few words. Turnips, too, better seeds still. Victories and defeats fill des truction, Stew had to remind me about host the worms and by late August, lettuce the pages of my journals, as do sketches of the California man who took a piFe wrench leaves have their centers chewed away. Yet plots with crops that thrive on adversity: and beat a deer that had acquired a taste for insect pests have never completely wrecked root vegetables, cabbages, spinach, kale, his pampered posies. The man was arrested, a crop (or a guest for that matter). mustard greens, and yes, lettuce. found guilty of animal cruelty, and sen­ My ethics disallow all poisons, so I Wondering if sunflowers would survive, 1 tenced to a year in jail. smother weedlings with blankets of spoiled planted a dozen and was surprised to see their Stew and 1 never wanted the wildlife to hay hauled home from the county dump. golden rays tower above the potato plants. suffer from our intrusion, so the neighborly The earthworms kidnapped from the creek Then autumn froze their flower heads and solution was to double-up on lettuce. From turn this trash into food the plants can use. undeveloped seeds. The Jerusalem attichokes former asparagus and berry beeds, 1 now (I don't use synthetic fertilizers either.) And likewise thrived but produced tubers too harvest the rhubarb that only we seem to with the hay came spores of shaggy-maned stunted to make digging worthwhile. The savor. Coyotes and foxes, garter snakes mushrooms that fruit for a sauteed side five-year-old, winter-tough fruit bushes arod hawks also help out with pest control, dish that Stew serves over rice. might bear plums, cherries, and elderberries preying on garden-ravaging wood rats, Mulch retains moisture, but in this land if deer didn't deflower the branches and porcupines, and voles. of little rain, never enough to forgo irriga-

30 DECEMBER 1993 State' tomatoes developed specifica ll y for the northern Rockies by the University of Id aho. In mid-April, I seed the remaining fl ats with the cabbages, beets, storage on­ ions, culinary herbs, and le af lettuce that will go into plots the first warm week in Far left: A least chipmunk savors the June. Until Jul y, sunsets turn the spa into a wiLd currants that Churchwell aLso refrigerator, so fl ats spend ni ghts in a spare gathers. Left: In the Idaho Rockies bedroom. This is back-busting work when nature provides ornamentaLs Like this the shuttle includes over twenty jumbo­ sticky geranium. BeLow: Time out sized pots teetering with tomato and pep­ from the rugged miLe-high life for an per plants towering over their sta kes. The impromptu coffee kLatch. Bottom: effort must be worth it. Why else would I Another Idaho eye-catcher, Indian do it every year? paintbrush. "Why do any of it?" friends in Challis want to know as they ply us with their surplus corn, squash, apples, and plums. How do I explain to these USDA Zone 3 gardeners, who should know better than to ask? I garden for hea lth and se lf-sufficiency, to fill the root cell ar with carrots (some­ w hat slim ) and beets that would be bigger if the tops were a ll owed to grow unchewed. Most yea rs, we store fifty pounds each of oni ons, turnips, beets, and parsnips, and up to a hundred pounds of potatoes (some tion. To bring water from the creek to the notched by tiny teeth). Pantry shelves hold house and garden, Stew built a hydraulic jars of grated, homegrown horseradish, ram pump with pipe and fittings from the rhubarb sy rup, rhubarb sauce, rhubarb ha rdware store. This centuries-old inve n­ jam, a nd plastic bags stuffed with snow tion uses grav ity and simple hydraulics to peas, cabbage leaves, and kale that rehy­ lift a sma ll amo unt o f water higher than its drate in soups a ll winter long. For taste, source-abo ut thirty fee t up the hillside in there is lemon ba lm , dill seed, sage, and our case. Stew says someday soon he will garlic better than sto re- bought. Stew sup­ build a 700-gall on cement ho lding tank plements our garden harvest with lake into the hillside above the house to provide trout, deer, elk, and bear meat, and I collect enough water pressure for a sprinkling sys­ pounds of mushrooms, berries, and greens tem. For now, I supply each plant with a along Sawmill Creek. We buy in bulk and personal shower and am thankful I don't onl y staples such as beans, flour, oats, have to tote buckets from the creek. sugar, and salt. Our grocery bill runs under The creek is small and won't float a fish. $400 a yea r. Sometimes it only trickles between the wil­ Even if it weren't absolutely necessary, I lows, into the diversion dam and then into would garden because it gets me outdoors, the ram pump, which thuds rhythmically as away from my ho usework, when the air is it pushes water through a pipe to 55-gallon soft and fragrant with April. If I didn't have plastic storage barrels in the greenhouse rows to hoe, I might miss the migratory adj oining the kitchen. Another pump deliv­ birds winging their way back to breed in ers water from the barrels to the kitchen my canyon, or the male mountain bluebird sink, where I fill a watering can for the that perches on the pitchfork stuck in a bale greenhouse plants: hot peppers, tomatoes, of hay, or the calliope hummingbird that watercress, and the nasturtiums that jazz up zips through hillsides scarlet with gilia. our salads with their bright red petals. I garden this mountainous terrain in spite Around the first of March, when out­ of a few challenges. Beyond a doubt, I reap door temperatures seldom climb above rewards that few gardeners will ever know. freezing, the sun-drenched greenhouse bakes at more than 80 degrees. Here I sow Formerly a bank officer in Palm Springs, fl ats of jalapenos, serra nos, and rellenos California, Mary Jo Churchwell now lives that will go into the spicy Mexican fo od and writes in Sawmill Creek, Idaho, where, that Stew acquired a craving for in Califor­ she says, "it's an adventure just going the ni a. Now's a lso the time to start the 'Gem mile for the mail. "

AMERI CAN HORTICULTURIST 3 1

Below: Seed propagation at Yucca in him sprouted. The professor became a than fifty mature trees, including thirty­ Do spills out of a permanent structure gardener. In honor of the abundant wood­ eight pines. I looked at the garden for two into plastic-covered hoop houses. peckers-downy, pileated, and many other or three days and realized it wasn't going Bottom: Ruellia brittoniana, a Mexican species-he named his new property to correct itself." native, can be invasive. But 'Katie', Peckerwood Gardens and started planting Fairey hired two university students to selected by Texas nurserywoman a variety of trees and shrubs to screen the cut and clear damaged limbs. Schoenfeld, Katie Ferguson, is well-behaved and house from the road. a philosophy major, ended up staying on. blooms from summer to fall. Driving into Peckerwood Gardens today, "Carl says he learned more here in one Opposite: Tecoma alata can't tolerate it's hard to imagine how it must have looked month of working than he did in four years cold but thrives in drought and is a when Fairey first saw it. The driveway, of school," Fairey says. hummingbird magnet. hidden beneath a verdant arch of maples, Many of the young trees Fairey had oaks, and Cherokee roses, leads to an Eden. planted were flexible enough to withstand Fairey and his partner Carl Schoenfeld­ the tornado. But removing the dead or both trained as artists-have created a hor­ mangled canopy trees-a project that took ticultural oasis of light and shadow so· five years-exposed the once-protected balanced, so soothing, that it slows your understory to the Texas sun. Fairey and pulse, quickens your senses, and reminds Schoenfeld had to rethink Peckerwood you that the concerns consuming you most Gardens. By opening up the woodland, days are not really important in the Grand the storm opened up landscape possibili­ Scheme of Things. It's both a very personal ties as well: more light for a greater variety space and a test site for some 3,000 species of plants, wider spaces to create paths and and cultivars of natives and their Asian and exterior rooms. Mexican counterparts. Fairey's thirteen years of gardening in What Fairey is doing in his six-acre land­ the Houston area's humid a@d hellishly hot scape is art. But the business he and climate had taught him that natives were Schoenfeld have established on the remain­ more often than not the best choice. At that ing acre represents a philosophy. Yucca Do time few were offered in the nursery trade, Nursery is not only making little-known and Fairey and Schoenfeld thought they Mexican plants available to American gar­ could improve that situation. In 1987 they deners, but is possibly saving some of them launched Yucca Do Nursery to propagate from extinction. plants for the garden and for sale. The genesis of both the current garden The search for interesting, heat-tolerant and the nursery enterprise was a tornado, plants led Fairey and Schoenfeld to accom­ which in 1983 ravaged ten years of Fairey's pany Lynn Lowery, a now-retired Houston landscaping. "The tornado hit while I was nurseryman, on one of his many botanical out of town," Fairey says. "When I came expeditions to northern Mexico to collect back, it had taken down or damaged more seeds and cuttings. "The direction of the nursery became more focused after the first trip to Mex­ ico," Schoenfeld says. They started propa­ gating Mexican natives, many of which are adapted both to the heat of deserts and the cold of mountains. After a few more trips with Lowery, Fairey and Schoenfeld began organizing their own collecting expeditions to the Si­ erra Madre Oriental in the Mexican states ofTamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Le6n. ' All told, they've made nearly fifty trips, sometimes traveling alone, sometimes with botanists and horticulturists who want to learn about the little-studied region. One horticulturist who joined an expe­ dition was Brett Hall of the University of California Arboretum at Santa Cruz. "I've never seen any team as efficient and pro­ ductive in their approach," says Hall, who is testing about 100 plants grown from seed Fairey and Schoenfeld have collected. "And what they're doing is remarkable

34 DECEMBER 1993 and important. No one else is doing that type of work for that region." Horticulturist Martin Grantham con­ curs: "It's a region that's not well-docu­ mented botanically. People don't know what's there." Grantham, who runs the Meso-American section of the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, has also traveled with Fairey and Schoen­ feld . After the botanical garden suffered a devast a ting freeze three years ago, Grantham wanted plants from mountain­ ous northern Mexico, where cold weather common in the high altitudes naturally selects for hardiness. The Yucca Do catalog shows th e results of the expediti ons . Of the 186 trees a nd shrubs now offered, Fairey and Schoenfeld have collected seventy-one in Mexico. Twenty-three of those, to the best of Fairey's and Schoenfeld's knowledge, are pl ants never offered for sa le elsewhere. The ca ta­ log also includes fifty-six Mexican natives among its 141 perennials, sixteen of which are introductions, and thirty-six Mexican natives among its eighty-six woody lilies and palms. Yucca Do also sells vines, coni­ fers, and bulbs-all heat tolerant-as well as cacti and succulents. The Fall 1993- Spring 1994 catalog includes 182 new of­ ferings. "We don't try to market things you can find in a regular catalog," Fairey says, "unless we think it's exceptionally fine." Some expeditions have yielded remark­ able finds. Last summer, for example, they make seed available to researchers at Fairey and Schoenfeld are careful not to came across a wild population of Echeve­ North Carolina State University, Harvard contribute to the problem. They never col­ ria runyonii, a cultivated succulent peren­ University's Arnold Arboretum, Chollipo lect whole plants-just seeds and cuttings. nial thought to have disappeared from the Arboretum in Korea, and others, who When Hall of the Santa Cruz arboretum wild at the turn of the century. They spot­ plant them in their research and public traveled with them, he admired their con­ ted it on the north face of a granite moun­ gardens and distribute seeds to collectors. servative methods. "They don't just go in tain 200 miles southwest of where it was "The importance of what we're doing is and clea n out a ll the seed of a rare popula­ discovered in 1907 in Matamoros. Until that we're preserving and distributing this tion," he says. "They ma ke sure to leave a they discovered a colony of Mexican witch seed," Fairey says. "A great deal is being good amount behind." hazel (Hamamelis mexicana) in Tamau­ destroyed in the wild." The mountains they Fairey and Schoenfeld aren't the first to lipas, the rare shrub was known to grow explore, once considered uninhabitable, explore the region, but are among the best­ on only one site. And they've found a are now being settled by farmers who've organized. "M any of these seeds had bee n species of rain lily (Zephyranthes spp.) that been relocated from the south. Their live­ collected here and there in the early 1900s, two experts believe is new. Fairey describes stock graze on flowers, seedheads, and but had been lost," Schoenfeld explains. it as one of the most beautiful rain lilies he young tender seedlings. "There wasn't a constant and intense effort has ever seen, with large clear pale pink Fairey estimates that only 5 percent of to collect and distribute them. And the petals that are drooping and slightly re­ the plant populations he sees can regener­ collectors never kept records." curved, and more intensely colored on the ate. "Every year we see something that's The Yucca Do partners keep detailed re­ edges. It has no species name as yet, but is been lost-we'll go back to collect the seed cords on where seeds and cuttings were col­ being called 'Labuffarosa' for the moun­ and it's been devoured," he says. "But the lected, growing conditions, companion tain where they saw it. cows, goats, and horses don't scare me plants, soil type, and altitude. Says Fairey: Fairey and Schoenfeld are conscientious nearly as much as United States technology "It's important that we observe a plant's about making sure their discoveries benefit and greed." There are plans for a major microclimate closely. Just because a plant'S in the horticultural community. In addition to timbering project in the Nuevo Leon area, a desert doesn't mean it's growing in dry, the arboretum at Santa Cruz and the bo­ he says, although a number of environmen­ sandy conditions. It could be in a rock crevice tanical garden at Berkeley, they regularly tal groups are trying to halt it. that catches water and has good soi l. "

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 35 OFFERINGS FROM THE y u C C A o 0 CATALOG

ost of Yucca Do's plant offerings are adapted to and smooth and vary from dark green to bluish greel'l. USDA hardiness Zones 7 to 10, although some are Drowght-tolerant, it is probably rhe 11i\0st widely grown of the M hardier farther north. Many of the plams have sur­ Mexican oaks in Texas. vived to 4 degrees at Pechrwood Gardens. Q. rhizophylla. Also drought-tolerant, the loquat oak is Because the plants are often new to cultivation-some are large and fast-growing, with lea¥es that aR glossy, olive green, still unnamed-Fairey and Schoenfeld are interested in heaMing and heavily textured. from their customers about their observatiol'ls of Yl!lcca Do Styrax glabr.escens var. pilosus. This rare, small tree was plants in different climates and soils. found three years ago aI1ld idenuified a year later from photo­ Their catalog says their goal is providing "unusual aI1ld graphs afld herbarcium pressings. Its leayes are larger thal'l those rare plants for the collector and discriminatiI1lg gal'dener." or the mOF@common SI1lowb@ll, S. grandifotius, and its flowers In many cases, it describes the setting where the plant was mote F1umerous and two to l"mree rimes larger. found, including elevation, soil, and exposure, lettil'lg cus­ tomers decide if the plant would be appropriate to a location Petennials in their own gardens. Callir.hoe involuorata Var. tenuissima. Fairey says that this deJ'Ise, grou9d-hugging e:vergr@el'l attracts F\ilOfe interest than Trees and Shrubs any other introciucti0n frorn Mexico. II' has finely dissected Acer skutchii. A very rare and unusual sugar mapl@ from the clark greel'l foliage veined blue-green, and ddicau@ vi01et fl0W­ cloud forest, with bright pink new growth cha!l'lgiIag to red, afld ers shaped like wine cul1's that last most of the Slilffifliler. In fall foliage usually yellow to oral'lge. winter itS leaves pull in to make a tigh.t ball. Carpinus sp. Fairey and Schoenfeld are growil'lg five other Eryngium umbelliferum. Amol'lg the many Eryngium species species of the Mexican horI1lbeam, b'l:lt they feel one still the team has fmmd and cultivated, they consider the foliage of unidentified species is the most beawtiful, with its serrated th.is one exceptiol'lal. Its delicate silver green leaves interweave leaves, pendulant habit, smooth twisting trunk, a9d bronzy to give a spiky, sculptural effect. Only six to eight inches tall pink l'lew foliage. al'ld eight iFlches wid@, it lilas bll1@-pl1rple blooms and iMerest­ ing seeQ spikes. Monarda pringlei. This species was grown from a small quantity of seed cotlected on their first Mexican expedition in 1938. Irs large scadet flowers begin op>ening on sturdy fifteen­ inch spikes in mid-April and COI1Itinue through May. Unlike other m0nardas it stands up to Texas h@at. Salvia blepharophylla 'Sweet Numbers'. This year's catalog offers fiftY-four salvias. The flowers of this one, found i9 the remote village of Dulces Nombres in the state of Tamal11ipas, are large and brilliant red. With a magnifying glass, tiny hairs can be seen around the edges of each green leaf. S. madrensis. This forsythia salvia, collected in Mexi(;:Q by English plantsmanJamie ComptoI1l, has deep purple markings on its stems.

Woody "Lilies" Salvia madrensis. Nolina nelsonii. Tlte catalog h.as nine representatives of this genus, evergree9 yucca relatives with delicate, threadlike fo­ Clethra pringlei. When this rare, small evergreen t.ree blooms liage. This species is fifteen feet tall wi·th silver bll1e blades. Its its long racemes of delicate white flowers fill the garden with tm.ree-to-four-foot bloom stalk pfodl1ces thousands of tiny the aroma of cin9amon. The seHated fol'iage cha9ges from white flowe),'s that change to green and then light bl'own. bronze to dark green. Yucca rostrata. The catalog has Flineteen yuccas. This one Comus florida smbsp. urbiniana. Sleeds for these Mexican has soft:, undulating blue foliage and is hardy to Zone 7. dogwoods were collectlld from sixny-foot trees Ol'l a northem site at migh altitude. The leaves have a bluish cast wtth Wink Conifers petioles and the bracts of the large white blooms are held Juniperus flaccida. CoHec.ed at 6,000 feet, this juniper has gray together in an open sphere. gJ.'een weeping foliage and is exceptioFlaUy drought tab·ant. Philadelp hus coulteri 'Bull's Eye' (1". maculatus). The cu rrent Pinus maximartinexii. A blue-green pinon tnat produces catalog offers seventeen mock oranges. This one is exception­ espeoially large and tasty nuts indispensable for pesto. "The ally rare. Each one-inch beH-like white flOW@f has fringed petals magnificent cones," says rhe catalog, "are also in demand." with a maroon pink eye a9d al'l i9credible orange fragrance. Dense and rounded, it matHres at thirty to forty feet i9 the wild. The leaves are small and the form is delicate a9d peI1ldantr. Quercus polymorpha. The currel'lt catalog lists twenty-three Write Yucca Do Nursery at P.O. Box 655, Waller, TX 77484. oaks. The leaves of the large-growing Monterey oak a),'e thick The catalog is $3.

36 DECEMBER 1993 Indeed, the expeditions have shown that climates and microclimates aren't always straightforward. Once, for example, after collecting on a dry mesa at 6,000 feet, they climbed a road ten miles and 2,000 feet into the mountains and found a pine forest where they could look down on the desert they'd just left. They ca mped there that ni ght, awakening the next morning to dis­ cover ice on their tents. Another time, they noticed a cloud hang­ ing over a mountain pass in the Jaumauve Dese rt. They headed for it and found a misty spot. From there they fo ll owed a trickl e of water, eventua ll y discovering the juncti on of two rivers th at ori ginated underground. "That's the sort of contrast we find out th ere in pure desert," Schoenfeld says. These many mi croclimates, combined with the a bse nce o f an ice-age di e-out o f from at least fi ve trips. They've also started pl a nt species in M exico, acco unts fo r its a practice that some oth er specialty nurs­ asto ni shing pl a nt di ve rsity, says Fa irey. eri es have copied: charging for educati onal He notes tha t Mexico has some 400 oak tou rs of their gardens. spec ies, compa red to fifty-six in the Fortunately, Yucca Do's mail -order busi­ United Sta tes . ness is growing; Schoenfeld estimates that The pair say that the mysteri ous and orders nea rly double every six months. Most bea utiful mo untains of the Sierra Madre of Yucca Do's customers are collectors and Orienta l still fill them with wonder. That ga rdeners in Texas and Ca li fo rnia, botanical and the o pportunity to distribute seeds of gardens, and Florida's Cooperati ve Exten­ ra re and endangered plants compensa te for sion Service, whi ch is studying plants with the difficulty and expense of their expedi ­ low-water requi rements. tions. The partners usuall y go in the spring This year, Schoenfeld took over most of to hunt for unusua l plants in fl ower, then the business res ponsibilities, as Fairey pre­ go back to coll ect seed when they think it pared to expa nd Peckerwood Ga rdens will be ripe. If they're too earl y, they have onto twenty-seven acres of adj acent pas­ to return a few weeks later. If they're too tureland. Short-term pla ns call fo r creating late or if cattle have eaten the seed, they a berm to scree n o ut noise from an increas­ have to wait another year. ingly busy hi ghway. The long-term pl ans Often, they travel on rocky, one-l ane dirt are described o nl y as " a meadow for roads, covering onl y thirty bouncy miles a trees ." But ifPeckerwood could go in seven day. Sch oenfeld recalls one trip when their yea rs from a tornado-ravaged woodland to IsuZll Trooper slid off a muddy road and being featured in Rosema ry Verey's 1990 became stuck in a ditch. Fairey stayed be­ The American Man's Garden, the mind hind to look for plants while Schoenfeld reels at what Fairey may eventuall y ac hieve walked in the rain to the nearest vill age. in four times as much space. For an hour its residents fed him and as ked Yucca Do still operates in the red, and of him questi ons, finally loaning him a burro course Fairey looks forward to the day Top: Inside the Yucca Do propqgation to carry him back on a high, narrow trail , when that changes. But profit isn't his mo­ house. Fairey and partner Carl accompani ed by a farmer and a team of tive. "Yesterday," he said recently, "I spent Schoenfeld collect only seeds or oxen to pull out the Trooper. Fairey tells of an ho ur on the telephone with a man fr om cuttings of the unusual plants they saving a man whose truck was dangling the N ational Arboretum. He'd ju st found find. Above: Ipomoea fistulosa is a over a 1,500-foot precipice, and moving out about our work and was talking about desert subshrub from northern the stall ed car of a woman and child just beginning a germplas m bank. I want mo re Mexico. In any but the driest, sandiest before an avalanche buried the spot where people to be aware of these plants, but that soils it can become overly aggressive. they'd been stranded. takes a long time to materiali ze. That's why Fairey es timates that each trip costs well I donate seeds to botanica l gardens. That's over $1 ,000. Nursery sales help cover some my little bit." of the expense. And Fairey and Schoenfeld have begun selling "seed shares" in their Erin Hynes is a free-lance writer living in expeditions; for $300, subscribers get seeds Austin, Texas.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 37 Crystal Bridges and DoW"n-Home Domes Conservatories of all shapes flourish in the Plains states.

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS B Y ART o 0

he major cities of America all tions. Inexplicable as it may sometimes have their fantasy-land con­ seem, our culture continues to aspire to the servatories. The grand tradi­ European tradition of displaying exotic tion goes back over a century plants of the world and organizing sea­ to the Crystal Palace of Lon­ sonal flower shows for the delight and Tdon and the Victorian glasshouses of Kew edification of the populace. Over the years, Gardens, established at the zenith of both conservatories and botanical gardens have the British Empire and the Industrial Revo­ been as important to the cultural image of lution to serve as repositories for the botan­ American cities as zoological gardens, sym­ ical wonders of Britain's tropical colonies. phony orchestras, libraries, museums, and Some of these grand glasshouses, like the of late, sports teams. New York Botanical Garden's Enid A. But what about the smaller cities and Haupt Conservatory, are marvelous resto­ towns, the down-home places where big city rations of turn-of-the-century extravagan­ folks would never expect to see an epiphytic zas. Some are twentieth-century orchid or a lavish holiday floral display? architectural marvels: Mitchell Park Con­ Surprisingly, there are many glasshouses, servatory in Milwaukee, the new conserva­ often virtually unknown outside a small re­ tory of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the gion, where the conservatory tradition flour­ Climatron of the Missouri Botanical Gar­ ishes, albeit sometimes on a scale den, or the Lucile Halsell Conservatory of commensurate with the smaller population. the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Some are romantic, some are nostalgic, some Whimsical and impractical as they usu­ are a little silly. But they are all interesting and ally are, conservatories continue to be con­ most are worth a turn off the interstate. structed or restored all across the United In the movie " Field of Dreams," when States. Some of these expensive projects the ghost of Chicago Black Sox outfielder grew primarily from the interest and phi­ Shoe less Joe Jackson finds himself in a lanthropy of a single person; some are the makeshift ball field built by the rural mys­ result of civic pride and ambition; a few are tic played by Kevin Costner, he asks, "Is driven by education and science. But most this heaven?" Costner answers: "No, it's arise out of a mix of these needs and emo- Iowa." Indeed, that land of pastoral beauty Des Moines Botanical Center Conseroatory. Inset: The Bolz Conseroatory at Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison, Wisconsin.

is pro ba bl y close to pa radise, but you changes alm ost magica ll y w hen viewed fro m o ur previo us stop in Davenpo rt. might not expect to find a first-cl ass mod­ fr om di ffe rent va ntage points. A si de trip to Madison's O lbric h Bo tan­ ern conserva tory there. Iowa has another, a lbeit less ambitious ical Garden and Bo lz Conservatory is likely Yet there is one, at the downtown Des conserva tory in Davenport's Va nderVeer to take big city horticultura l sophisti cates M oines Botanical Center. Described by its Pa rk . This is an old city pa rk, well cared down a peg or two (a ltho ugh they proba­ architect as a "crys togon," it looks to the fo r with outdoor dis pl ays of colorful annu­ bl y won't admit it). The conservatory is not uninfo rmed exactl y like a geodes ic dome. als and perennial, herb, and rose ga rdens. la rge, a t a relati vely compact 10,000 It's constructed o f pl astic and stee l, 150 feet The VanderVeer Conse rvatory is an o ld, square fee t and onl y fifty feet high, but it is in diameter at its base and eighty feet tall. rather undistinguished curve d-eve glass­ the epitome o f scientific and practi ca l de­ It houses a fin e coll ection of tropical a nd ho use that was expa nded and " modern­ sign, with a utomati c controls fo r tempera­ subtropical pl ants, waterfa ll s and over­ ized " in the 1950s. It exhibits economi c ture, humidity, fe rtilizati o n, watering, a nd looks, and its seasonal fl ower shows a re a plants such as coffee and cocoa, the usual shading. And it houses an im macul ately regional attracti on. philodendrons and aroids, palms, fe rns, tended tropical coll ec ti on, w ith the educa­ Coll ecting unusual species is a cornerstone and gesneri ads. There are many house ti onal emphasis on economic pl ants and of the accession poli cy at Des M oines . They plants of ancient lineage, whi ch one sus­ rain fo rest ecology. ha ve " practicall y every A calypha and pects may have been do nated by dowagers The conservatory was built in 1991 fo r Pseuderanthemum in existence," according o f the grand old houses surrounding the $4.5 millio n, funded by a majo r gift fro m to Director M att Rosen, extensive coll ections pa rk before they were turned into multi­ the local Bolz famil y, other public gifts, and of unusual orchids, bromeli ads, cacti and famil y homes . There is no grandeur here, $1 million in city funds, according to Di ­ succul ents, and one of the best bonsai co llec­ but the atmosphere is pleasant and homey. rector Nancy Ragland. Beautifully join ed tions in the Midwest. The conservatory ex­ It makes a relaxing stop during a hot after­ to a n existing educati onal complex of na­ hibits re fl ect the w o rld 's eco logica l noon drive down the interstate, particu­ ti ve stone, it evokes the pra iri e school of complexity thro ugh canopy, understory, la rl y with a fast-food lunch to consume in a rchi tecture. Its site, overlooking Lake ground cover, and epiphytic plantings. the o ld-fashioned park and ga rden setting. M endota and surrounded by elegant gar­ This facili ty, operated by the Des M oines As Iowa is known for corn, Wisconsin is dens and promenades, makes it an eye­ Department of Parks and Recreation, is com­ known fo r bee r, cheese, and its no rth popping ho rtic ultu ral experience. plemented by o Lltside gardens and a spectac­ woods. But Wisconsin is rea ll y ve ry cosmo­ Its ed ucati onal programs emphasize the ul ar sculpture, "Spectral Liberati on," by politan, particularl y the southeast q uad­ impo rtance of tropical rain forests and the Christiane T. M artens. M ade of steel and rant o f the state, w hi ch is only an hour ecologica I interconnectedness of all regions painted in rainbow colo rs, its perspecti ve away from Chicago and about three hours of the world. Teaching ch il dren environ- mental good citi ze nship is a majo r goa l; klin Rossant Architects, who grew up in they can ta ke home cuttings o f conse rva­ Hubell , Nebraska, populatio n eighty, and tory pl ants in recycled plastic containers. who now has an offi ce on Park Avenue in At the opposite climatic end of mid­ N ew York Cit y. Ameri ca from woodsy Wisconsin is Okla­ You may search the world, but you w ill homa, o il and cattle country, a windswept, neve r, ever, see a conse rvatory remotely even wild pl ace with a few large metropo l­ like this o ne. [t is fill ed, like a bottle terrar­ ita n a reas and wide open spaces in betwee n. ium, with a fine co ll ection o f tropical, sub­ Since the dust bowl days, Oklahoma City tro pical , and d ese rt pla nts. Th e has been a boom-and-bust town, usuall y conserva to ry has three di stinct climati c refl ecting the cycl es of its agriculture- and zones and boasts excell ent displ ays o f or­ o il -dominated economy. It is a city with chids, brome li ads, palms, and cacti , assem­ grand visions and just as often, grand defeats. bled by ho rticulturist Mike Bu sh. When it was booming in the petroleum­ While M yri ad Gardens is still a' build­ drive n 1970s and the federal spigot was still ing, the Crysta l Bridge is a rea lity. They fl owing with urban renewal money, it began alo ne are worth a trip to Oklaho ma City, a horticultural spectacular, the M yri ad Gar­ where you can a lso check o ut the Cowboy dens. A surreal pl ace of sunken lakes and H a ll of Fa me, with its o utstanding coll ec­ suspension bridges, M yriad Gardens is a sort ti on of Frederic Remingto n sculptures and of in ve rted Babylonian fantasy, all connected other western a rt. to the city ce nter by underground tunnels and [ have become pretty adept at finding glass-enclosed atriums. o ut-of-the-way conse rva to ries, but [ a m [n the midst o f this still-unco mpleted sure there are many I have missed, partic­ wonderl and stands the Crysta l Bridge, an ul arl y entities that perhaps do n't rea li y immense cylinder o f steel trusses a nd qualify as conse rva tories, but through dint acryli c panels 224-feet long and seventy of imaginati on and effort function as such. feet in diameter, knocked over on its side I am thinking o f pl aces like the li ke some cl assical temple ruin, spanning a Bickleha upt Arbo retum in C linton, Iowa , concrete canyon. This singular structure which has converted an indoor swimming was designed by William Conklin of Con- pool into a place for tropical pl ants, and Myriad Gardens' CrystaL Bridge in OkLahoma City, OkLahoma. Inset: Davenport, Iowa's, VanderVeer Conservatory.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

~ Bicklehaupt Arboretum, 340 South 14th Street, Clinton, IA 52732, (3 19) 242- 4771. Open sun-up to sundown dail y. Free admission. Sallows Conservato ry in Alliance, Ne­ seemed to me patently ridiculous, since it 'i' Des Moines Botanical Center, 909 braska, which was built painstakingly was built of pretty fireproof materia ls­ East River Drive, Des Moines, IA 50316, from old greenh o use pa rts, but happily cast iron and glass. I have always envi­ (515) 283-4148. Open Monday through holds seasona l fl ower shows for a grateful sioned it slowly melting, in ho rro r-film Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. public in this town of 9,000 in the middl e spl endo r, li ke a giant uga r Easter egg o n a to 9 p.m., weekends and holidays 10 a.m. of nowhere, 100 mil es east of Cheyenne, hot stove top. Wh y in the world do we to 5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, Wyoming. (If yo u somehow find yourse lf continue to build such frivolous structures? and New Year's Day. Sma ll adm ission in proximity to Alliance, be sure to see not Every society has its traditions and its charge. only the conservatory, but Carh enge, a sy mbo ls, withour which it would be sorely ~ Myriad Gardells, 100 Myriacl Gar­ thoro ug h I y hila rious rep rod uctio n of impove ri shed. Ours sees its cities as places dens, Oklahoma City, OK 73102, (405) England 's Stonehenge, bui lt from junked of adventure and cu lture, with streets of 427-5461. Near 1-35 on Reno. Open daily automobiles by some o bvio usly beery local gold and temples of marble-places of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Christmas. Sma ll artisa ns. It's right out there on the prairie wonder and science, where dreams come admission charge. for a ll to enjoy; if it were in New York City, true. Never mind that they are far from th at. ~ Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Bolz you'd pay $20 for a peek.) Our conservatories, great a nd sma ll , are Conservatory, 3330 Atwood Avenue, Conse rvatories ha ve a lways bee n ex­ part of that tradition. In them we vicari­ Maclison, WI 53704, (608) 246-4551. travagant, impractical, and horticulturall y o usly visit far-away places, engulf o ur­ Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. cha ll engin g, to say the least. The average selves in the beauty of nature, lea rn a bout to 4 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed useful lifespan of these humidity- fill ed our natural world, get in out o f the cold on C hristmas. Free admission Wednesday, structures is about twenty yea rs, at which a blustery day and emerge miracul o usly Saturday mornings. Sma ll admission time they will usuall y need ei ther restora­ into spring. We see them as crystal pa laces charge other days. tion or demolition. The New York Botan­ in the emerald cities of our dreams . Would ~ Sallows Conservatory, P.O. Drawer D, ica l Garden conse rv atory, for instance, was that there were more crystal bridges to Ci ty of Alliance, Alliance, NE 69301, (308) built in 1898, restored in the 1930s, the magically span the chasms that sepa rate us 762-7422. Eleventh Street and Nebraska. 1950s, again in 1976 at a cost exceeding from each other. ~ VanderVeer Park Conservatory, 215 $10 million, and is presently undergoing West Central Park, Davenpo rt, lA, 52803, yet another $21 million restoration. Dr. Arthur H. Ode}r. is presidentofQuer­ (319) 326-7818. Open Tuesday through The very fir st conservatory, London's cus Associates, Inc., fund-raising and plan­ Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Open holid ays. Crys tal Palace, burned down a few yea rs ning consultants for environmental Small admission charge fall through after it was built in the 1850s. This has institutions and historic sites. 1993 INDEX

Glattstein, Judy. Zen and the Art of AUTHOR Pruning. Apr., 35. Halpin, Anne. Review: American Mixed Bonta, Marcia. Just Dandelions. Jun., 33. Border, The. Oct., 13. Bright, Chris. Chemistry of Catnip, The. Hana,Jeremiah. Neighbors. Aug., 5. Aug., 37; Customized Chromosomes. Heffernan, Maureen. Review: Thunder Apr., 28; Is Peat P.C? Dec., 20; Peat Tree, The. Aug., 1I. Substitutes. Dec., 24; What the Writers Helsley, Calvin. Drainage is Critica l for are Reading. Aug., 32; Your Reference Handling Lilies. Feb., 24; Proven Shelf. Aug., 31. Performers: Lilies. Feb., 2I. Bright, Chris and Chantal Pare. Stalking Hockaday, Joan. American Roots in Dracula. Oct., 16. British Soi l: Colonial Coll ecting. Jun., Bruce, Carol. Plenty of Light Means 14; American Roots in British Soil: Plenty of Flowers. Feb., 18; Proven From Aster to Vancouveria. Jun., 19. Performers: African Violets. Feb., 17; Hynes, Erin. Treasures of the Sierra Pursuing the Ye llow Violet. Feb., 19. Madre. Dec., 33. Cappiello, Paul E. and Ken McPheeters. Keyser, Joseph. Review: Passalong Undercover Natives . Dec., 14. Plants. Dec., 8. Carlock, Marty. Garden With an Altitude, Kourik, Robert. Drip Rationale. Feb., 34. A. Aug., 22; Wooing Pitchers. Oct., 29. Kunst, ~cott G. Review: Keeping Eden: Cathey, H. Marc. Review: Gentle A History of Gardening in America. Conquest. Dec., 8. Feb., 1I. Christie, Barbara Overton. Chance Lawrence, Cheryl M. Iris Man of Baton 'Tango'impatiens, October. Worth Taking, The. Oct., 7. Rouge, The. Apr., 16; What is a Churchwell, Mary Jo. Their Own Private Louisiana Iris? Apr., 20. Loewer, Peter. Fabulous Garden Tour!, A. Idaho. Dec., 27. Lee, Rand B. Growing Dianthuses, Dec., 6; Moonlight Garden, The. Jun., Creech, John L. Small Flowering Cherry Feb., 15; Proven Performers: 37; World in My Garden, The. Apr., 6. for the Future, A. Apr., 39. Dianthuses. Feb., 12. Martin, Tovah. Review: New Houseplant, Crotz, Keith. Review: Breed Your Own The. Oct., 10. Vegetable Varieties . Oct., 12; Sh hhh! A McDonald, Elv in . Review: Hortica. Pro's Library Secrets. Aug., 28. Aug., 10. Davolt, Steve. Of Bladderworts and Bog McGourty, Frederick. Review: One Monsters. Oct., 26; Review: Natural Man's Garden. Feb., 10. Affairs. Aug., 8. McPheeters, Ken and Paul E. Cappiello. Eskilson, Melissa Dodd. Men Who've Undercover Natives. Dec., 14. Loved Lilies. Feb., 26; Protecting Ode, Art. Crystal Bridges and Down­ Future Lilies. Feb., 28. Home Domes. Dec., 38. Favretti, Rudy J. Review: Penelope Pare, Chantal and Chris Bright. Stalking Hobhouse's Gardening Through the Dracula. Oct., 16. Ages. Jun., 12. Peigler, Richard. Defense of Ailanthus, Fisher, Kathleen. Cottonwood, The: Not A. Feb., 38. in My Back Yard. Aug., 40; Gray­ Pelczar, Rita. Prodigal Sunflower, The. Flowering Cherry From the Distant Aug., 15. Past, A. Apr., 42; Incidental Pyle, Robert Michael. Plains Cottonwood, Ornamental, The. Oct., 32; Review: The. Aug., 39. Noah's Garden. Jun., 10. Rackemann, Adelaide C. Kentucky Frett, Jeanne S. Review: Growing and Coffee Tree, The. Oct., 4I. Propagating Showy Native Woody Reddell, Rayford. Englis h Roses-Jolly Plants. Apr., 10. Good? Jun., 26. Fuchs, Lucy. Irises for Autumn. Apr., 23. Stewartia malacodendron,June. Robinson, Frank. Review: Garden

42 DECEMBER 1993 Shrubs and Their Histories. Apr. , 10. Fatal Attraction. Oct., 22. Sheldon, Elisabeth. Catmint Muddle, Garden With an Altitude, A. Aug., 22. The. Aug., 34; Help. Feb., 8. Gray-Flowering Cherry From the Distant Stein, Sara. What Breeders Can't Know. Past, A. Apr., 42. Jun., 6. Growing Dianthuses. Feb., 15. Tynan, Chip. Review: Gardener's Guide Help. Feb., 8. to Plant Conservation, The. Oct., 13. Incidental Ornamental, The. Oct., 32. Watson, Harriett. Review: Trees. Aug., Irises for Autumn. Apr., 23. II. Iris Man of Baton Rouge, The. Apr. , 16. Wiesner, Mary Beth. Reviews: Is Peat P.C? Dec., 20. Adventurous Gardener's Sourcebook Just Dandelions. Jun., 33. of Rare and Unusual Plants, The. Kentucky Coffee Tree, The. Oct., 41. Aug., 13; American Wildflower Men Who've Loved Lilies. Feb., 26. Fl01'ilegium. Jun., 13; Evening Garden, Moonlight Garden, The. Jun., 37. The. Apr., 13; Hedgemaids and Fairy Neighbors. Aug., 5. Candles. Dec., 10; Wildflowers in Peat Substitutes. Dec., 24. Your Garden. Dec. , 13. Plains Cottonwood, The. Aug., 39. Zauner, Ph ylli s. Fatal Attraction. Oct., 22. Plenty of Light Means Plenty of Flowers. Feb., 18. Prodigal Sunflower, The. Aug., 15. Protecting Future Lilies. Feb., 28. TIT L E Proven Performers: African Violets. Feb., 17. American Roots in British Soil: Colonial Proven Performers: Dianthuses. Feb., 12. Collecting. Jun., 14. Proven Performers: Lilies. Feb., 21. 'Connecticut King' lily, February. American Roots in British Soil: From Pursuing the Yellow Violet. Feb ., 19. Aster to Vancouveria. Jun ., 19. Shhhh! A Pro's Library Secrets. Aug., 28. Bog Gardens. Wooing Pitchers. Oct. , 29. Catmint Muddle, The. Aug., 34. Small Flowering Cherry for the Future, Bogs. Is Peat P.C? Dec., 20. Chance Worth Taking, The. Oct., 7. A. Apr., 39. Bond, John. American Roots in British Chemistry of Catnip, The. Aug.) 37. Stalking Dracula. Oct., 16. Soil: From Aster to Vancouveria. Jun., 19. Cottonwood, The: Not in My Back Their Own Private Idaho. Dec., 27. Book Collecting. Shhhh! A Pro's Library Yard. Aug., 40 . Treasures of the Sierra Madre. Dec., 33. Secrets. Aug., 28. Crystal Bridges and Down-Home Undercover Natives. Dec., 14. Book Reviews. Adventu1'Ous Gardener's Domes. Dec., 38. What Breeders Can't Know. Jun., 6. Sourcebook of Rare and Unusual Customized Chromosomes. Apr., 28. What is a Louisiana Iris? Apr., 20. Plants, The. Aug., 13; American Defense of Ailanthus, A. Feb., 38. What the Writers are Reading. Aug., 32. Mixed Border, The. Oct., 13; Drainage is Critical for Handling Lilies. Wooing Pitchers. Oct., 29. American Wildflower Florilegium. Feb., 24. World in My Garden, The. Apr., 6. Jun., 13; Breed Your Own Vegetable Drip Rationale. Feb., 34. Your Reference Shelf. Aug., 31. Varieties. Oct., 12; Evening Garden, English Roses-Jolly Good? Jun., 26. Zen and the Art of Pruning. Apr., 35. The. Apr. 13; Gardener's Guide to Fabulous Garden Tour!, A. Dec., 6. Plant Conservation, The. Oct. ) 13; Garden Shrubs and Their Histories. Apr., 10; Gentle Conquest. Dec., 8; SUBJECT Growing and Propagating Showy Native Wo ody Plants. Apr. , 10; African Violets. Proven Performers: Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles. Dec., African Violets. Feb., 17. 10; Hortica. Aug., 10; Keeping Eden: African Violet Society of America. Proven A History of Gardening in America. Performers: African Violets. Feb., 17. Feb., 11; Natural Affairs. Aug., 8; Ailanthus. Defense of Ailanthus, A. Feb., New Houseplant, The. Oct., 10; 38. Noah's Garden. Jun., 10; One Man's American Dianthus Society. Proven Garden. Feb., 10; Passalong Plants. Performers: Dianthuses. Feb., 12. Dec., 8; Penelope Hobhouse's Austin, David. English Roses-Jolly Gardening Through the Ages. Jun., Good? Jun., 26. 12; Thunder Tree, The. Aug., 11 ; Bartram, John. American Roots in British Trees. Aug., 11; Wildflowers in Your Soil: Colonial Collecting. Jun., 14. Garden. Dec., 13. Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. Garden With Carnivorous Plants. Fatal Attraction. an Altitude, A. Aug., 22. Oct., 22; Wooing Pitchers. Oct., 29. Blansit, Nolan. Pursuing the Yellow Catmints. Catmmt Muddle, The. Aug., 34. Violet. Feb., 19. Catnip. Chemistry of Catnip, The. Aug., 37. Bloom, Adrian. American Roots in Chelsea Physic Garden. American Roots British Soil: From Aster to in British Soil: Coloni al Co ll ectin g. 'Suky' iris, April. Vancouveria. Jun., 19. Jun., 14.

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 43 Cherries. Sm all Flowering Cherry fo r the Future, A. Apr., 39. Colorado-Public Gardens. Ga rden Wi th an Altitude, A. Aug., 22. Compton, Henry. Ameri ca n Roots in Brit­ ish So il : Coloni al Collecti ng. J un ., 14. Conservatories . Crystal Bridges and Down-Home Domes. Dec ., 38. Cottonwood, Plains. Plains Cottonwood, The. Aug., 39. Dandelions. Just Dandeli ons. Jun., 33. De Graaff, Jan. Men Who've Loved Lili es. Feb., 26. Des Moines Botanical Center. Crystal Bridges and Down-Home Domes. Dec., 38. Dianthus. Proven Performers: Dianthuses. Fe b. , 12. Drip Irrigation. Drip Rationale. Feb., 34. Evening Gardens. Moonlight Ga rd en, The. Jun., 37. Fairey, John. Treasures of the Sierra M adre. Dec., 33. Common sunflower, August. Ford (Betty) Alpine Gardens. Garden With an Altitude, A. Au g., 22. McRae, Edward. M en Who've Loved British Soil: Colonial Collecting. Jun ., Freimann, La Vern. Men Who've Loved Lili es. Feb., 26. 14; Incidental Ornamental, The. Oct. , Lilies . Feb. , 26. Mertzweiller, Joseph. Iris Man of Baton 32; Treasures of the Sierra Madre. Fritch, Helen. Garden With an Altitude, Rouge, The. Apr., 16. Dec., 33; Stalking Dracula. Oct. , 16. A. Aug., 22. Moon. Moonlight Garden, The. Jun., 37. Proven Performers. Afri can Vi olets. Feb., Gardening Challenges. Their Own Myriad Gardens. Crystal Bridges and 17; Di anthuses. Feb. , 12; Lilies. Feb., 2l. Private Idaho. Dec., 27. Down-Home Domes . Dec ., 38. Pruning. Zen and the Art of Pruning. Genetic Engineering. Customi zed Native Plants. America n Roots in British Apr., 35. Chromosomes. Apr., 28. Soil: Coloni al Collecting. Jun., 14; Roses. Engli sh Roses-Jolly Good? Jun., 26. Greisbach, Robert. Customi zed American Roots in British Soil: From Schoenfeld, Carl. Treasures of the Sierra Chromosomes. Apr. , 28. Aster to Vanco uver ia. Jun., 19; M adre. Dec ., 33. Ground Covers. Undercover Nati ves . Undercover Nati ves. Dec., 14. Scorza, Ralph. Customized Chromosomes. Dec., 14. New Guinea Impatiens. Incidental Apr. , 28. Hall, Earl. Irises fo r Autumn. Apr., 23. Ornamental, The. Oct., 32. Sunflowers. Prodiga l Sunflower, The. Higgins, Joseph. Incidental O rnamental, Newman, George. Wooing Pitchers . Aug., 15. The. Oct. , 34. Oct. , 29. Tradescant Trust Garden. American Roots Idaho-Private Gardens. Their Own Niswonger, David. Irises for Autumn. in British Soil : Coloni al Coll ecting. Private Idaho. Dec., 27. Apr., 23. Jun., 14. Impatiens, New Guinea. Incidental North American Lily Society. Proven Tree-of-Heaven. Defense of Ail anthus, A. Ornamental, The. Oct., 32. Performers: Lilies. Feb. , 2 l. Feb., 38. Iowa-Public Gardens. Crystal Bridges Offshoots. Chance Worth Taking, The. VanderVeer Conservatory. Crystal Bridges and Down-Home Domes. Dec., 38. Oct., 7; Fa bulous Garden Tour! , A. and Down-Home Domes. Dec., 38. Irises. Iri ses for Autumn. Apr., 23; Iris Dec., 6; Help. Feb., 8; Neighbors. Aug., Verey, Rosemary. American Roots in M an of Baton Rouge, The. Apr., 16. 5; What Breeders Can't Kn ow. Jun., 6; British Soil: From Aster to Japan. Small Flowering Cherry for the World in My Garden, The. Apr., 6. Vancouve ri a. Jun., 19. Future, A. Apr., 39; Zen and the Art of Oklahoma-Public Gardens. Crys tal Weiler, John. Irises for Autumn. Apr., 23. Pruning. Apr., 35. Bridges and Down-Home Domes. Winters, Harold. Incidental Ornamental, Jones, Marty. Ga rden With an Altitude, Dec., 38. The. Oct., 32. . A. Aug., 22. Olbrich Botanical Garden and Bolz Wisconsin-Public Gardens. Crystal Kentucky Coffee Tree. Kentucky Coffee Conservatory. Crystal Bridges and Bridges and Down-Home Domes. Tree, The. Oct., 4l. Down-Home Domes. Dec ., 38. Dec., 38. Lancaster, Roy. American Roots in British Orchids. Stalking Dracula. Oct., 16. Woodland, Dennis. America n Roots in Soil: From Aster to Vancouveria. Jun., 19. Pearson, Robert. American Roots in British Soil: From Aster to Lilies. Men Who've Loved Lili es. Feb., British Soil: From Aster to Vancouveri a. Jun., 19. 26; Proven Perfo rmers: Lilies. Feb., 2l. Vancouveria. Jun., 19. Woodriff, Leslie. Men Who've Loved Luer, Carlyle. Stalking Dracu la. Oct., 16. Peat. Is Peat P.C? Dec., 20. Lilies. Feb. , 26. Lundevall, Carl-Frederik. Just Dandeli ons. Peckerwood Gardens. Treasures of the Yucca Do Nursery. Treasures of the Jun., 33. Sierra Madre. Dec., 33. Sierra M adre. Dec. , 33. Mahan, Clarence. Irises for Autumn. Pitcher Plants. Wooing Pitchers. Oct., 29. Zurbrigg, Lloyd. Irises for Autumn. Apr., 23. Plant Hunting. American Roots in Apr., 23.

44 DECEMBER 1993 CLASSIFIEDS

1994 EARTH FRIENDLY

Classified Ad Rates : $1 per word; miOl ­ BULBS GARDENING CALENDAR mum $20 per in sertion. 10 perce nt dis­ Dutch bul bs for fa ll planti ng, 12cm Tulips, DN1 WRITTEN BY ELLEN HENKE count fo r th ree consecutive ads using the Daffod ils, Hyacinths and M iscellaneous. Cata­ sa me copy, provided each inserti on mee ts log Free. Paul a Parker DBA, Mary Mattiso n Va n The American Harticultural Society is pleased to Sc ha ik, IMPORTED DUTCH BULBS, P.O. Box the $20 minimum after discount. Copy and 32AH, Cavendish, VT 05142. (802) 226-7653. offer "Earth Friendly Gardening " as its 1994 prepayment must be rece ived on th e 20th calendar selection . This beoutiful wall ca lendar day of the month th ree mon ths prior to CARNIVO ROUS PLANTS provides monthly advice on choosing notive plants pu bli cati on date. Send o rd ers to: AHS Ad­ CA RN IVO ROUS (Insectivorous) PLANTS, and time-honored hardy plants, "ecoscaping," vertising Department, 2300 So uth N inth seeds, suppli es, and books. Colo r brochure free. composting for good soil, nurturing pesticide·free Street, Suite 501, Arli ngton, VA 22204- PET ER PAULS NURSERIES, Canandaigua, NY 14424. 2320 or ca ll (703) 892-0733. vegetables, and more-o il the information a gardener needs to create an earth·friendly garden . EMPLOYMENT As "America's Plant Doctor," Ell en Henke is well THE AVANT GARDENER "SIMPLE," THE ROVING GARDENING FOR THE GA RDENER WH O WANTS MORE ART IST speciali zi ng in hortic ul tural art, garden known to television and radio audiences. Now FROM GARDEN ING! Subscri be to T H E illusion, facade, topiary, trompe l'oei l, espalier, Hen ke, who hold s a doctorate in botany from AVANT GARDENER, the li ve li est, most usefu l trelli s work, persona li zed teachi ng and trainin g. Columbia University, has created an informative of a ll gardening publi cati ons. Eve ry month this Box 69AH, Honey Brook, PA 19344. unique news service brings yo u the newest, most colendar for both novice and veteran gardeners. PROFESSIONAL CARETAKER AVA ILABLE. practi cal in fo rmation on new plants, products, tec hniques, with sources, fea ture articles, special Expert property ca re. Horticu ltu ra l expertise. The calendar is 14/1 x lOW' and includes 12 Upkeep and improvement sk ill s. Estate, farm or issues . 25th yea r. Awa rded Garden Club of full color photographs by George M. Henke . One America and Massachusetts Horticultural Soci· ranch position sought in Rural West or Rocky Mounta in States. L.S ., P.O. Box 761, O jai, CA calendar is just $11 postage paid for AHS memo ety medals. Curious) Sample copy $]. Serio us? $12 fu ll year (reg. $18). THE AVANT GAR· 93024. bers. Each additiono l ca lendar is on ly$9 .50 post· DENER, Box 489M, New York, NY 10028. We at the American Horticultural Society are age paid. Virginia residents pleose add 41;2% often as ked to refer individuals to significant sales ta x. BOOKS horticu ltural positions around the country. We H O RTICA- ALL Color Cyclopedia of Gar­ are not in a positi on to offer full placement To order Ea rth Friendly Ga rde ning 1994 fill in den/Flora, w ith H ardiness Zones, also IN­ services to candidates or employers. H owever, DOOR PLANTS, 8,100 photos, by Dr. A. B. as a service to our members-jobseekers and the coupon below ond mail to AHS Ca lendars, Graf, $238. T RO PI CA 4 (1992), 7,000 Color employers a li ke- we welcome the resumes and 7931 East Boulevard Drive, Alexandria, VA photos of pl ants and trees for wa rm environ­ cover letters of in dividuals seeking job changes 22308·1300. Or ca ll toll·free, (800) 777-7931 . ments,$165. EXOTIC HOUSE PLANT S, 1,200 and employers seeking candidates. All responsi· photos, 150 in color, wi th keys to care, $8.95. bility for checking references and determining Circul ars gla dl y sent. Shi pping additio nal. the appropriateness of both positi on a nd candi ­ ROEH RS CO., Box 125, East Rutherford, NJ date rests with the individuals. AHS's participa· Iwou ld like to order calendars. 07073. (201) 939-0090. Amount due: The Second Ed ition of North American Horti­ D Check enclosed culture: A Reference Guide, edited by T homas M. Ba rrett, is avail able from the AHS H orticul­ GARDENING QUESTIONS? o Charge my: tural Book Service. Compil ed by AHS, the re­ vised and expanded reference guide is the most D Maste rCard D Visa Exp. Date: comprehensive directory of u .S. and Canadi an Call the American Horticultural Society's Acco unt #: horticultural organi zati ons and programs. New Gardeners' Information Service secti ons in this edition include native plant soci­ Your daylilies are drooping and there are spots on Signature: eti es and botanical cl ubs; state, provin cial, and the leaves of your ro ses. Amysterious weed-ilr local horticultural organizations; and historical Na me: horticulture. Thousands of organizations and is it a wildflower? - ju st appeared in the peren· Add ress: programs are arranged in twenty-eight catego­ nial bed. You covet your neighbor's scarlet tu lip s, ries, including: conservation organizatio ns, in­ but where can you buy the bulbs? GIS can help. City / State / Zip: ternational registration authoriti es, botanical gardens, arboreta, conservatories, and other Call toll-free (800) 777-7931 between Daytime Phone: public gardens. T he volume is avail able to AHS 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST. members fo r just $78.50 postpaid. To order, send a check to AH S H O RTICULTURAL BOOK SERVICE, Dept. 1293, 7931 East Bou­ levard Dr., Alexandria, VA 22308-1300. Vir­ gi ni a residents add 41/2% sales tax. m

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 45 tion in this activity is only to serve as a connect­ PALMS ing point for members of the Society. Inquiries and informational materials should be sent to RARE AND EXOTIC HAWAIIAN-GROWN HORTICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT­ PALM AND CYCAD SEEDLINGS from around the world-Carefull y sh ipped to any­ AMERICAN HOTICULTURAL SOCIETY, LET'S where in the USA. Please send for price list­ Dept. 1293, 7931 East Boulevard Dr., Alexan­ KAPOHO PALMS, P.O. Box 3, Dept. A, Pahoa, dria> VA 22308-1300. HI 96778. (808) 936-2580. FLORAL NOTES GROW DISTINCTIVE FLORAL NOTECARDS-Six PERENNIALS hand-painted, original-design cards with enve­ BEAUTIFUL PERENNIALS at a pleasing price. lopes, $4. Hand-painted bookmarks and book­ We at Bluestone have grown and shipped our plates also. Check/money order accepted. Free specialty perennials for over 20 years. Let us TOGETHER brochure availab le upon request. BETH help beautify your home with our economical MOHANNY, 14660 Balsam St., Woodbridge, plants, bulbs, and shrubs. Write today for our VA 22191. (703) 494-2611, after 4 pm. FREE color catalog. BLUESTONE PERENNI­ HOUSE PLANTS ALS, 7201 Middle Ridge, Madison, OH 44057. ORCHIDS, GESNERIADS, BEGONIAS, OUR LARGE, FULL-COLOR CATALOG tells CACTI & SUCCULENTS. Visitors welcome. you how to grow plants, not just how to buy 1992-1993 catalog, $2. LAURAY OF SALIS­ them. Complete descriptions and helpful advice BURY, 432 Undermountain Rd., Salisbury, CT on over 1,000 varleties of peren ni al flowers, 06068. (203) 435-2263. ornamental grasses, prairie wildflowers and dec­ NURSERY STOCK orative vines. Cata log sl!lbscription, $l. CHOOSE FROM 1,500 VARIETIES of exciting MILAEGER'S GARDENS, 4838 Douglas Ave. and hardy plants. Many exclusives. Rhododen­ Dept. AH, Racine, WI 53402-2498. (800) 669- drons, azal€as, conifers, shrubs, trees, perennials 9956. and much more. Mail-order catalog, $3. ROS­ PLANTS (UNUSUAL) LYN NURSERY, Dept. AH, Box 69, Roslyn, NY 11576. (516) 643-9347. DWARF & RARE CONIFERS, ALPINE & ROCK GARDEN PERENNIALS, PLANTS for WHOLESALE. Tree and shrub seedlings. Beautify Bonsai. join us in the search for the rare and Property. Make Money Growing Christmas Trees, unusual. Catalog: $4, refundable with first Ornamentals, Nut Trees, Timber. Windbreaks, order. PORTERHOWSE Farms, 41370-P S.E. SHARE THE JOY OF Noise Barriers, Wildlife Food/Cover. Easy Instruc­ Thomas Rd., Sandy, OR 97055. tions, Guaranteed. Free Color Catalog. CARINO GARDENING WITH OTHERS. NURSERlES, Box 538j, Indiana, PA 15701. OVER 2,000 KINDS of choice and affordable plants. Outstanding ornamentals, American na­ GIVE A MEMBERSHIP IN tives, perennials, rare conifers, pre-bonsai, wi ld­ THE AMERICAN life plants, much more. Descriptive catalog, $3. Embroidery ~tudio FORESTFARM, 990 Tetherow Rd., Williams HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Offering a unique collection of totes, T-shirts, OR 97544-9599. sweatshirts, and turtlenecks with embroidered Share the unique range of AHS member­ botanical designs. Send $1 for a color brochure. RARE PLANTS RARELY OFFERED SOUTHEASTERN NA­ P. O. Box 5729, Greensboro, NC 27435 ship benefits with your family and TIVES, woody, herbaceous, nursery grown. Phone/Fax (919)273-8941 friends: informative American Horticul­ Many hardy northward. Also newly intwduced exotics se lected for Southern gardens. Send $2 turist, toll-free Gardeners' Information for extensive mail-order list. WOOD LANDERS Gardener's Pin AH, 1128 Colleton Ave., Aiken, SC 2980l. Service, Annual Free Seed Exchange, actual size Educational Programs, Horticultural The classic English watering WE SPECIALIZE IN THE GENUS FICUS. can in sterling silver, $95. Rare, unusual xerophytics, bonsai, tropicals. Employment Service, Horticultural 14K gold, $42-5. Send $1 and SASE to BOB'S, Rt. 2, Box 42, $4 shipping. In . Wingate, TX 79566. Book Service, Environmental and Con­ NY add tax. OUaIogue 0n request. ROSES servation Programs, Official AHS VISAIMelAMEX: Membership Card, special events at .';16-734-4002. Or send . HORTICO'S LARGE CROP of heavy roses EAST END SILVER available from mid-November on. Over 700 River Farm, our Society's headquarters Dept. A6, P.O. Box 151, varieties, including: new show roses and ground covers; English garden roses by David Austin; in Alexandria, Virginia, and much Pioneer roses; antique and classic roses by Peter more. Plus New Member Dues are dis­ Beales; miniatures by Rennie; 6 thornless HT European Garden Tours varieties; hardy types-Ortawa Explorers, Man­ counted to only $35! itoba Parkland roses, and the fabulous Pave­ in 1994 ment roses. A superb collection from our fields It's so easy to give an AHS membership! The Gardens of Italy: explore the flnest that are known to be virus-free. Orders shipped gardens of the Italian Lake district and by our temperature-controlled truck to UPS de­ pots in the USA for local distribution. Catalog Simply call our Membership Depart­ Tuscany and eFijoy 2-3 night stays in $3 . Separate catalogs for roses, shrubs (& lin­ Venice, Florence and Rome. menttoll-free at (800) 777-7931 to ers), and perennials. HORTICO lNG., 723 Rob­ place your gift membership orders. The Chateaux and Gardens of France: son Rd., Waterdown, ON LOR 2Hl. (416) experience the most beautiful gardens 689-6984. Fax: (416) 689-6566. of Northern France,the castles of the Loire Valley, sightseeing in Normandy SWEATSHIRTS and the enchantment of Paris. '''OLD GARDENERS NEVER DIE' They just go to seed!» is just one of our humorous CaD John Bradfield at TOC SWEATSHIRT designs. Sunflowers, roses, hum­ (800) 505·25m; or (916) 737·0632 mingbirds, kids' shirts and more. FREE CATA­ LOG, (800) 284-2899.

46 DECEMBER 1993 PRONUNCIATIONS

Acalypha ah-kah-L1E-fuh Acer skutchii AY-ser SKUCH-ee-eye Anemone canadensis ah-NEM-oh-nee kan-am-DEN-siss Arctostaphylos uva-ursi ark-toe-STAFF-ih-Ios yew-vuh-ER-sigh Asarum canadense AS-uh-rum kan-ah-DEN-seh A. caudatum A. kaw-DAY-tum A. europaeum A. yur-oh-PEE-um A. shuttleworthii A. shut-uhl-WORTH-ee-eye Bartonia virginica ba r-TONE-ee-uh vir-J IN-ih-kuh Betula pumila BET- yew- Iuh PYEW-mih-Iuh Callirhoe involucrata var. tenuissima kah-LIR-oh-ee in-vol-yew-KRAY-tuh va (. ten-yew-IS S-ih-muh Calopogon pulchellus kal-o h-POH-gon puI-KEL-us Calypso kah-LIP-so Carex lepidoca;rpa KAY-reks leh-pid -oh -KAR -pu h Carpinus kar-PIE-nus Chrysogonum virginianum krih-SOG-on-um vir-jin-ee-A N -um Cimicifuga racemosa sih-mih-SIF-yew-guh American barrenwort or Vancouver fern is a native ground cover that grows ras-eh-MOH-suh well under large shrubs or trees in woodland conditions. Clethra pringlei KLETH-ruh PRING-glee-eye Juniperus flaccida joo-NlP-er-iss S. madrensis S. mah-DREN-siss Comus canadensis KOR-nus FLAK -sih-d uh Sarracenia purpurea sar-uh-SEE-nee-uh kan-ah-DEN-siss Monarda pringlei moh-NAR-duh per-PER-ee-uh C. florida subsp. urbiniana C. PRING-glee-eye Sphagnum SFAG-num FLOR-ih-duh subsp. er-bin-ee-AN-uh Nolina nelsonii no-L1E-nuh nel-SOWN-ee-eye Splachnum SPLAK-num C. suecica C. SWEE-sih-kuh Pachysandra procumbens Stewartia malacodendron Drosera filifonnis DROS-er-uh pak-ih-SAN-druh pro-KUM-benz stew-AR-tee-uh mal-ak-oh-DEN-dron fil-ih-FORM-iss P. terminalis P. rer-mih-NAL-iss Styrax glabrescens var. pilosus STY-raks D. rotundifolia D . roe-tund-ih-FOE-Iee-uh Paxistima canbyi pak-SISS-tih-muh glab-RES-senz var. pih-LOW-sus Echeveria runyonii ech-eh-VEER-ee-uh KAN-bee-eye S. grandifolius S. gran-dih-FOE-Iee-us run-YON-ee-eye Philadelphus coulteri fil-ah-DEL-fus Tecoma alata reh-KOH-muh ah-LAY-tuh Eryngium umbelliferum air-IN-jee-um COOL-rer-eye Tiarella cordifolia tee-ah-REL-Iuh um-bel-L1F-er-um P. maculatus P. mak-yew-LAT-us kor-dih-FOE-Iee-uh Galax urceolata GAY-Iaks er-see-oh-LAY-tuh Pinus maximartinexii PIE-nus Vac~inium angustifolium vak-SIN-ee-um Habenaria blephariglottis hab-eh-NAY-ree-uh mak-sih-mar-rin-EX-ee-eye ang-gus-tih-FOE-Iee-um bleh-far-ih-GLOT-iss Platanthera plah-TAN-rher-uh V. macrocarpon V. mak-ro h-KAR-pon Hamamelis mexicana ham-ah-ME-liss Pogonia poh-GO-nee-uh Vancouveria hexandra van-koo-VEER-ee-uh mex-ih-CAN-uh Pseuderanthemum soo-der-AN-theh-mum hek-SAN-druh Heuchera americana HYEW-ker-uh Quercus canbyi KWER-kus KAN-bee-eye Veronica officinalis ver-ON-ih-kuh ah-mer-ih-KAH-nuh Q. polymorpha Q. pol-ee-MOR-fuh oh-fiss-ih-NAL-iss H. bracteata H . brak-tee-AY-tuh Q. rhizophylla Q. riz-OFF-ih-Iuh Woodwardia virginica wood-WARD-ee-uh H. cylindrica H. sih-L1N-drih-kuh Rubus chamaemorus ROO-bus vir-JIN-ih-kuh H. villosa H. vil-LOW-suh kam-eh-MOR-us Xanthoriza simplicissima zan-rh o h-RIE-zu h Impatiens balsamina im-PAY-shenz Ruellia brittoniana roo-EL-ee-uh sim-plih-S ISS -ih-muh ball-suh-MEEN-uh brir-tone-nee-AN-uh Yucca rostrata YUK-uh ros-TRAY-tuh Ipomoea fistulosa ih-poh-ME-uh Salvia blepharophylla SAL-vee-uh Zephyranthes zef-ih-RAN-rh eez fis-ryew-LOW-suh blef-ah-roh-FIL-uh Zingiber ZIN-jih-ber

AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST 47