July 1964 Boxwood Bulletin
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The July 1964 Boxwood Bulletin A QUARTERLY DEVOTED TO MAN'S OLDEST GARDEN ORNAMENTAL The Historic Box at "Oak Hill" near Petersburg, Va. Boyce, Va. Vol. 4 No. I Edited Under The Direction Of THE AMERICAN BOXWOOD SOCIETY The Boxwood President Rear Admiral Neill Phillips 1st V. P Mrs. William T. Seipp Bulletin 2nd V. P Dr. J. T. Baldwin, Jr. Secretary-Treasurer Mrs. Clay B. Carr July 1964 Vol. 4, No. 1 Mrs. Thomas De Lashmutt Co-Editors . Mrs. Chester L. Riley Mr. John Mitchell Mrs. Edgar M. Whiting Mr. Alden Eaton Directors: Dr. Henry T. Skinner Dr. J. B. Wilson Dr. W. R. Singleton (ex officio) CONTENTS Treasurer's Report 1 (Mrs. Clay Carr) Please address all communications, including manuscripts and change of address to the Boxwood Bulletin, Boyce, Va. The Hedge That Grew With Our Nation 2 (Raymond G. Perkinson) The Question Box 4 Transplanting, Pruning and The Editors solicit and will welcome contributions of articles, Fertilization 4 news notes, photographs suitable for reproduction, of box• Brick With Box 4 wood specimens, gardens, and plantings, and other items of probable interest to readers. It is requested that every item Try the Apple Test 4 of such material carry the name and return address of the (Dr. Claude Fordyce, Jr.) sender and be accompanied by an addressed envelope carry• Fourth Annual Meeting 5 ing the proper postage for return. While every effort always The President's Report 5 will be made for the protection of all material submitted for Dr. Francis De Vos 7 publication, the Editors cannot assume responsibility for loss Dr. Conrad B. Link 7 or injury. Mrs. David G. F. Holmes 7 Dr. Claude Fordyce, Jr. _ 8 Espaliered Box — A New Form 9 The Boxwood Bulletin is published four times a year by the Constitution of A. B. S 10 American Boxwood Society in the quarters beginning with Boxwood, A Poem 11 October, January, April, and July. (Louise Townsend Nicholl) A subscription to the Boxwood Bulletin is included as one of the benefits of membership in the American Boxwood The Story of Boxwood (concluded) 12 Society, with $2.00 of the dues of each member being allotted (Clara S. McCarty) for the Bulletin subscription. The Bulletin is $5.00 per annum to non-members in the United States and Canada; single numbers are $1.50 each. Reprints will be supplied to members and authors at cost but PHOTOGRAPHS should be ordered at the time of an article's acceptance for publication. Front Cover: The historic box hedge at "Oak Hill" Make cheques payable to the American Boxwood Society. The hedge today 2 The historic hedge in 1934 3 Entered as second-class mail matter at Post Office, Central path of hedge about 1900 3 Boyce, Virginia Copyright 1964 by the Mr. Alsop's wall-climbing box * 8 American Boxwood Society B. rotundifolia, espaliered 9 Printed in U. S. A. by Carr Publishing Co., Inc., Boyce, Va. TREASURERS REPORT COMING! Treasurer's Report as presented at the Annual In The October Issue — Meeting held May 13, 1964. A Complete Membership List Balance in the Bank of Clarke County, Since the list of Charter Members published in Berryville, Virginia as transferred by October 1961 (Vol. I, No. 1) the Society has grown considerably. For the information and convenience former Treasurer, Dr. Walter S. of our members, the October 1964 issue will carry Flory, Jr $1,760.29 an up-to-date list of members in all classes. Receipts: Your help is earnestly requested to make this Membership dues $1,025.00 list as complete and accurate as possible. Please, —• Single Bulletins sold 43.00 1,068.00 if you have been a bit slow in paying your dues, if you have changed your address, or if you have a $2,828.29 friend thinking of joining A. B. S., act now. The deadline date will have to be September 15th, and Checks on hand (membership dues) 93.00 the list will include all members in good standing at that time. $2,921.29 Also In The October Issue Expenditures: Postage (mailing Bulletins, A Symposium on Winter Care of Box membership statements, What do you do to get your Box ready for win• etc. —$ 51.10 ter? If anything has worked especially well for you, Copyrights (4 issues) 16.00 it could be a valuable tip to some other worried Office supplies 99.86 gardener. (stationery, envelopes, etc.) 1,185.93 In The January Issue — Balance $1,735.36 Dr. B. L. Wagenknecht, of Norwich University, formerly' of the Arnold Arboretum, has recently In Bank of Clarke County, completed "A Registration List of Cultivar Names in Berryville, Virginia Buxus L." This brings together information pre• May 12, 1964 $1,642.36 viously available only by consultation of many dif• Checks on hand 93.00 ferent publications, and adds material not included in any of them. This is a most important and wel• $1,735.36 come addition to the literature of Boxwood, and we are pleased indeed to have its first appearance in the Outstanding account: pages of the Bulletin. Printer - April Bulletin $ 240.00 Envelopes 31.71 271.71 $1,463.65 American Horticultural Congress The 19th American Horticultural Congress, un• There are about 350 copies of The Boxwood Bulletin der auspices of the American Horticultural Society, on hand for resale. The sale price of these is $1.00 will be held September 30th through October 3rd, each. 1964, at the Hotel Commodore in New York. Those receiving the Boxwood Bulletin: One entire day will be spent at the New York 24 — Non-paying (Foreign government Botanical Garden, touring the Garden, Herbarium, departments of Agriculture, Library, Conservatory and Laboratory. Another will and garden editors) be "American Horticultural Society Day" at the 6 — Honorary Life Members World's Fair. The first American Horticultural Film 4 — Life Members Festival will be featured, with motion pictures in sound and color competing for awards. Many public 6 — Sustaining Members and private gardens will be visited on conducted 23 — Contributing Members tours. 467 — Regular Members For information, write Dr. Albert J. Irving, General Chairman, 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 530 — Total membership 20, N. Y. 1 The Hedge today, improved by topping, clearing and fertilization. THE HEDGE THAT GREW WITH OUR NATION By RAYMOND G. PERKINSON The boxwood hedge at Oak Hill was planted in My wife and I purchased Oak Hill in 1961. Since 1665 when George Archer owned the land. Records then we have given a vast amount of time to im• of Henrico County, Bristol Parish, show that on proving it, especially the hedge, which had been June 2, of that year, Archer owned 550 acres on the grossly neglected for a number of years. Vines of north side of the Appomattox River, next above the wild grapes, poison oak, and many other climbing old town. Petersburg, to which this reference was plants too numerous to mention, had choked it bad• made, had not then been given a name, nor had ly. These have been removed, decayed limbs have Chesterfield County been established. By May of been cut out, and the cuts covered to prevent fur• 1781, the hedge had grown to such an extent that ther decay. Fertilizer has been applied with much when Lafayette shelled the British, who then oc• care and study. Information gleaned from studies cupied Petersburg, gaps were cut in the hedge for made and published in the Boxwood Bulletin have gun emplacements. In 1934 the Colonel John Banis• been of great value. There is, however, still much ter Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, experimenting to be done. A great deal is already erected a monument on the lawn commemorating known about boxwood, but what is not known pre• the event. Tradition holds that the gaps were cut as sents a challenge. The results of labor are indeed stated on the marker. They exist to this day and quite evident. Despite an extremely severe winter, since there is a double row, it seems logical to followed by prolonged drought, improvement can suppose that they were cut. No better reason for be noted by new growth and a more vigorous ap• their existence can be given. pearance. For many years the hedge and its approach has If this hedge cannot lay claim to being the oldest been known as "Lover's Lane." In 1934 it was per• in the United States, it is at least very ancient. It haps the tallest in the United States, but since then has been said that the old hedge on Long Island was it has been topped and is now about seventeen feet planted "shortly thereafter" the acquisition of the at the highest. It is much more beautiful now, due to property in 1652. This is, indeed indefinite, and I its symmetry and more even height. cannot say that tradition of Oak Hill's hedge being 2 planted in 1665 is not equally hypothetic concerning its age. There is, however, only thirteen years dif• ference if we assume that both claims are valid. Again, we do not know how old the plants of either hedge were at the time they were set out. We do know that thirteen years difference is a short time compared with three centuries during which the boles have reached over twelve inches in diameter. So far, concerning the age, we have nothing but conjecture, but we will agree that there is, aside from carbon tests, one infallible method of deter• mining the age of a tree. That is by counting its annual rings.