Growing Interests Watnong Chapter, North American Rock Garden Society Ë Volume XLI Ë Late Spring 2017 Ë Number 4 Ë

Upcoming Programs Field Trip! Saturday, June 17, 2017, 10 a.m. ‘ of the Pinelands, Wild and Tame’; details at right.

Sunday, June 25, 2017, 9 a.m. Setting Tufa at the Laurelwood Arboretum 725 Pines Lake Drive West, Wayne, New Jersey, 07470 See page 4 for more details.

Annual Picnic, for members only! Saturday, August 5, 2017, at noon The Cross Estate Gardens, 61 Jockey Hollow Road, , Rose Pogonia. Photo Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924. by Janet Novak. RSVP to Noel Schulz by July 28. Plants of the New Jersey See page 2 for more details. Pinelands, Wild and Tame

Saturday, September 9, 10 a.m. Saturday, June 17 at 10 a.m. Frelinghuysen Arboretum Trip led by Janet Novak, Delaware Bill Kolvek presents Valley Chapter NARGS ‘Ornamental Grasses’ Southern New Jersey’s pinelands region

deserves more attention from Bring a friend, your favorite warm gardeners, because it harbors many beverage, and a snack to share! garden-worthy plants. You can think of

the region as a giant sand bed dotted with gardens. We will start by visiting at Pakim Pond and Webbs

1

Mills. There we will see the orchids Byrne Forest. After 0.7 miles, the park Pogonia ophioglossoides and Calopogon office will be on the right. tuberosus; the trip is timed for peak From Garden State Parkway: GSP exit bloom. We’ll also see Sundews, Pitcher 88 to Route 70 west. Take Route 70 Plants, an oddball fern (Curlygrass west for 25 miles. Pass the blinking Fern, ), and many more yellow light for Lebanon Lakes and interesting plants. Then, we will visit Presidential Lakes. Take a left for the the pygmy pine forest at Warren Grove. park entrance. After about 0.7 miles, This “wild” part of the trip will be easy the park headquarters is on the right. walking on good trails and boardwalks, for a total of no more than 2 miles. For The Annual Picnic the “tame” part, we will visit the When: Saturday, August 5, 2017 Noon private garden of Bill Smith of Rare Where: Cross Estate Gardens Find Nursery. Bill has a stunning 61 Jockey Hollow Road, collection of bog plants from eastern Bernardsville, New Jersey North America: orchids, every species of pitcher , and some rare and Please bring a chair and an appetizer or little-known beauties such as Plymouth dessert. Your dish should be ready to Rose Gentian (Sabatia kennedyana) and serve, and accompanied by any Bog Asphodel ( americanum). necessary serving utensils. Bring lunch, water, and bug spray to ward off ticks. This is a joint trip with RSVP to Noel Schulz by Friday, July the Delaware Valley Chapter. 28 at [email protected] or 201- 445-6445, so we can get an accurate Directions: Meet at 10 a.m. in the count for food. parking lot of the Brendan Byrne State Forest park office. Directions: From the North: Take I-287 southbound From Route 206 south: Cross North to Harter Road (exit 33); turn left at the Pemberton road, then, after another 1.9 Stop sign onto Harter Road. Follow miles, turn left onto South Pemberton Harter Road to the end and turn left at Road. This road will change names to the traffic light onto U.S. 202 West Hampton Street, then to southbound (Mt. Kemble Avenue). Pemberton Bypass, but follow it for a Continue for 2 miles and turn right at total of 2.8 miles, then turn right onto the traffic light onto Tempe Wick Road. Magnolia Road. After 6.8 miles, you’ll Continue 2.0 miles (past the entrance to be at a traffic circle. Take the third exit Jockey Hollow) and turn left onto onto Route 70 east. After 1.1 miles, turn Leddell Road at a waterfall. Continue right onto Four Mile Road/Deep for 1.1 miles and turn left onto the long Hollow Road as it enters the Brendan

2

driveway at the sign for “New Jersey The Cross Estate Gardens date back Brigade Area — Cross Estate Gardens.” to the early years of the twentieth From the South: Take I-287 northbound century when wealthy people built to 202 — Bernardsville (Jockey Hollow, grand country mansions as summer exit 30B). Turn right at the traffic light retreats in the “Mountain Colony” onto U.S. 202 northbound (Mt. Kemble located in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Its Avenue) for 1.7 miles. Turn left at the gardens and buildings provide a traffic light onto Tempe Wick Road. glimpse of a lifestyle that is now all but Continue 2.0 miles (past the entrance to a memory. Jockey Hollow) and turn left onto The original house, built by John A. Leddell Road at a waterfall. Continue Bensel in 1905, formed the centerpiece for 1.1 miles and turn left onto the long of his “Queen Anne Farm.” The estate driveway at the sign for “New Jersey included a carriage house, a five-story Brigade Area — Cross Estate Gardens.” stone water tower, and a gatehouse. The Gardens can also be reached from In 1929, W. Redmond Cross exit 30B by way of Hardscrabble Road, purchased the property and renamed it a winding and narrow country lane that “Hardscrabble House.” His wife, Julia takes you past the New Jersey Appleton Newbold Cross, was a Audubon Sanctuary. Stay right on member of the Royal Horticultural Hardscrabble Road until you see the Society for eight years. Mrs. Cross made sign for “New Jersey Brigade Area” and extensive improvements in the garden follow the road uphill to the entrance with the help of Clarence Fowler, a driveway. noted landscape architect. Together they cultivated an unusual assortment About The Gardens of plants throughout the garden. The The Cross Estate Gardens, a project house was extensively remodeled in of the New Jersey Historical Garden 1940, after the death of Mr. Cross. Foundation, in cooperation with In 1975, 162 acres of the property, the National Park Service, are located including the primary buildings, were on the Cross Estate, site of the New added to the Morristown National Jersey Brigade Unit of Morristown Historical Park. This addition provided National Historical Park, at 61 Jockey assured protection for the adjacent 18th Hollow Road, Bernardsville, New century New Jersey Brigade Jersey, 07924. Revolutionary War encampment area The Cross Estate is open year-round and a preservation corridor for the and free to the public from dawn to Jockey Hollow unit of the park. Funds dusk. Volunteers, who meet every were not available to maintain the Wednesday morning from April gardens, which soon fell into disrepair. through November, maintain the In 1977, Jean Pope, a former Chester gardens. resident, began a volunteer project to

3

bring the nearly obscured gardens back On the weekend of May 20th, I to life. Paths and walkways were acquired another truckload of tufa from uncovered and runaway vegetation our good friend Joe Ferdula in Ilion removed, pruned, or replaced. This Gorge, New York. We have four nice continued effort has preserved a fine big pieces measuring about 2’ x 3’, as example of an English country garden well as an abundance of smaller, easy to for others to enjoy. handle rocks. Since the truck that I used In 1987, the New Jersey Historical to purchase the stone was smaller than Garden Foundation was formed under my old truck, we may not have quite the auspices of James Spiniello to enough tufa to fill in the bed that we are preserve the volunteer effort already restoring. We will have a better idea of established at the Cross Estate Gardens. how much more we need once the bed The Foundation works with restoration is underway, and we can the Morristown National Historical make that decision as we work. Park to maintain the development of the Cross Estate Gardens. The Gardens are comprised of formal and natural areas, and include large specimen trees such as Silver Maple and Dawn Redwood. A walled garden is set on two levels, and a pergola which features 19 stoned columns supporting blue and white Wisteria and male Kiwi vines. Other areas of interest include the lawn garden, with native A piece of freshly dug Tufa. Photo by M.Wilson Rhododendrons, Primroses, and other spring flowering perennials; the fern We have a small team of volunteers garden, site of a Dawn Redwood grown ready to work on the Laurelwood from a seedling originally planted by project, but we still need some Mrs. Cross, the Pachysandra beds, and additional help. We will follow the a Mountain Laurel allée, which runs same process we used for the last bed alongside the driveway. we renovated at Laurelwood. We will We look forward to seeing you there! have to excavate the area to remove the rich organic soil and existing plants and NEWS FROM THE WATNONG bulbs. We will set the pieces of tufa into CHAPTER place as we backfill the area with a scree mix. It is best to bury a portion of

the tufa to allow for good water uptake Laurelwood: We have Tufa! through the highly porous rock. More By Michael Wilson scree will be placed into any crevices

4

that we create. Then the bed will be laid plants, which is a fun way to learn new to rest and settle for fall planting. We ones. Please also contact me if you hope to have this bed (or a section of it) would prefer to volunteer to help with built and ready for planting this maintenance and weeding. Contact me September. There may be an additional directly by calling or texting 862-397- planting directly into the tufa in spring 9339, or send an email to 2018, which is an exciting process. [email protected].

Now that piece is resting at Laurelwood waiting to be planted. Photo by M. Wilson

The same piece was selected and loaded onto the The Annual Plant Sale was held April truck. Photo by M. Wilson. 22 & 23 at The Leonard J. Buck

Garden. Here is the Plant Sale Report, The bed that we restored a few years by Melissa Grossmann, plant sale co- ago still looks good but could use some chair. weeding and regular maintenance. At To the many volunteers: you don’t some point, we may have to add some just make the plant sale possible, you plants to fill in the gaps. Weeding on a make it wonderful! Stuff always regular schedule is a primary concern. happens – this year it was rain on

Saturday – but the Watnong members The scheduled dates for the project are absolutely rock- solid. Thank you, are June 25, July 8, and July 22 & 23. and may your gardens bring you joy. We usually start working between 9 Our sales this year were lower than and 10 a.m. usual, as a result of the rain, but we still

made a total profit of $6,107.36, which So, if you are interested in learning was split evenly with the Leonard J. about building, restoring, and/ or Buck Garden. I hope that the plant sale planting a rock garden, this is a prime met your expectations, and I am full of opportunity for a hands-on workshop. enthusiasm for next year’s sale. Help is also needed to select and order

5

Plant Advisors Carole Stober and Leonard J. Lorette Cheswick, in chartreuse, helps some Buck Gardener Trish Scibilia. Photo by Albert customers with plant decisions. Photo by Martin. Albert Martin. The Soiree! The plant sale summary, from Photos by Hilary Clayton Treasurer Caroline Ford:

Watnong members mingle on the porch of the Walther House at The Presby Memorial Iris Gardens: from left, Adine and Ken Johnson, Roxanne Hiltz, Noel Schulz, and Renate Gudat.

Our annual soiree was held Saturday, May 6, at The Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Montclair, also known as ‘The Rainbow on The Hill’. The gardens are located at the base of the seven and a half acre Mountainside Park, and are celebrating their 90th anniversary this year. There are over 10,000 irises of approximately 1,500 varieties. Twenty-six beds contain Bearded Irises, and the collection also

6

includes non-bearded Spuria, Siberian, proposed Iris gardens would act not Japanese and Louisiana Irises in beds only as place of remembrance, but that run along a dry creek. Each Iris has would also draw in visitors and a marker that lists the cultivar name, encourage educational projects such as the hybridizer, and the year it was teaching the care, history, and registered with the American Iris hybridization of Irises. The Presby Society. The Dwarf Bearded Irises Memorial Iris Gardens are the result of bloom first, and the season was just the collaborative efforts of the Town beginning the night of our visit. Council, Parks Commission, the Garden Following dinner, we had a talk by the Club of Montclair, and the American collection’s curator, and then took a Iris Society (A.I.S) under the walk to see the early blooms. supervision of the then newly formed The gardens were started as a Citizens Committee led by its memorial to Frank H. Presby, a leading Chairperson, Barbara Walther. citizen of Montclair and an Iris Barbara Walther was a graduate hybridizer, and one of the founders of from the University of Chicago with a the American Iris Society. Although it Botany degree. In 1918, she and her was his expressed wish to give a husband Fred purchased the Upper collection of his favorite flower to Mountain property next to Montclair’s newly acquired Mountainside Park. She was a charter Mountainside Park, he died in 1924, member of the Montclair Women’s before he could carry out his plan. Club and the Garden Club of Montclair where she gave lectures and wrote a variety of articles. Mr. and Mrs. Walther were also instrumental in preserving the land for Mountainside Park and establishing the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. She remained a fixture there well into her nineties and passed away at ninety-four in 1977, the fiftieth anniversary of The Gardens’ inception. Some of the first plants came from Dwarf Bearded Iris ‘Dash Away’ Mr. Presby’s own garden as a gift from Three years later in 1927, Miss his children; others were donated by the Katherine Inness, the first curator of the American Iris Society, the Kellogg Montclair Art Museum, acted on behalf Gardens, and from countrymen of of the Montclair Museum Board and Great Britain, Germany, and Japan who presented the project of establishing an were international admirers of the work Iris garden as a memorial to Mr. Presby being done in Montclair. Local to the Montclair government. The contributors included Joseph Van Vleck

7

who donated his Siberica Iris to the grounds and continues to fundraise to Gardens, and A. I. S. President John cover the gardens’ operating costs. Wister, who laid out the garden design The Gardens are always being and helped supervise the planting with improved. There is a sprinkler system Barbara Walther. The town supplied to care for newly planted beds and labor and materials for The Gardens lawns. Specimen trees were planted and the Citizens Committee became west of the creek bed as well as various responsible for its management. The grasses around the creek. In 2007, a Garden Club of Montclair of Montclair patio with memorial benches was also helped, donating funds to secure installed at the entrance to the new Irises each year from the gardens. Pesticide use has been beginning. Early supporter Jennie eliminated; instead strict IPM methods Bonsal organized the Iris collection into are used to control problems common card catalogs, which became the basis to a monoculture iris garden. For for the bed books and database that example, a beneficial nematode today contain information about each program has eliminated iris Iris variety and its location. borers. Lost Iris cultivars of educational and historic value are replaced through collaboration with both private collectors and the Historic Iris Preservation Society. This dedicated group also helps ensure that every single iris in the collection is correctly named and recorded in the database for accurate tracking of the cultivar.

The Citizens Committee was formally incorporated in March of 1963 and purchased the Walther property in 1977. The house then became the official headquarters for The Citizens Committee of Presby Memorial Iris Gardens of Montclair, Inc. In 2009, The curator’s lecture in the living room of the Walther House. Essex County purchased the Walther

House and Grounds from the Citizens For more photos of the Irises in Committee, saving the gardens from an bloom at the soiree, visit Judy uncertain future. The Citizens Glattstein’s post, Committee leases the house and

8

www.bellewood-gardens.com/diaries gardens on a bus trip organized by and scroll down to May 2017. For more Program Chair Noel Schulz. information on the Presby Memorial Hedgeleigh Spring is the Swarthmore, Iris Gardens, visit Pennsylvania home of Charles Cresson, www.presbyirisgardens.org. Iris bloom a formally trained horticulturist and the is anticipated to extend into early June, third generation of his family to garden and in celebration of the 90th the two-acre site. Over the last thirty Anniversary, lemonade will be served years, Charles has added a complex on the porch to weekend visitors. A layer of herbaceous perennials and donation of $8 per visitor is suggested. annuals to the garden. Brandywine Cottage is the home of May 20 Garden Tour/ Bus Trip David Culp, most recently the author of The Layered Garden. David has spent the past 25 years perfecting the art of layered planting for continuous bloom in his two acre garden in Downington, Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Watnong member Marta McDowell, awarded the American Horticultural Society Book Award for All The Presidents Gardens, published by Timber Press in 2016. Watnong members at David Culp’s Brandywine Cottage on our May 20 garden tour. Photo by Noel Schulz. In Memoriam: Irma Leone By Michael Wilson On occasion, I would get a phone call with a question similar to, “Wilson, why isn’t my dogwood blooming?” If Irma didn’t have a plant question for me, she wanted to tell me what was blooming in her yard. In time, I learned why she was so concerned about and proud of her trees. In 1956, when Irma and Roc bought Watnong members at Hedgeleigh Spring, Charles their home, it was new construction and Cresson’s garden in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, on the lot was devoid of trees. As Irma our May 20 garden visit. Photo by Noel Schulz. On Saturday, May 20, Watnong described, it was a sand pit with no members visited two Pennsylvania organic matter. She began planting

9

young trees and composting, so she Larry Mellichamp, North Carolina could amend the soil. As years passed, Native Plant Society the trees grew and matured. But Irma Andrea Sprott, Elizabeth Lawrence did not stop with planting trees. She Garden developed several perennial gardens, Joseph Tychonievich, author of Rock two water gardens, and landscaped the Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style) once barren front yard. The garden Bobby Ward, author of Chlorophyll in developed enough that it was opened His Veins for several garden club tours. Irma also Tours: Plant Delights Nursery & had an interest in orchids and Juniper Level Botanic Garden, eventually built a small greenhouse for Montrose Gardens, and the J. C. her collection. She joined the Orchid Raulston Arboretum Society and became a regular shopper Optional: Pre-conference, two-day tour at Morris County Farms. Due to her highlighting unique flora of North diverse interest in plants, she was also a Carolina’s Coastal Plain led by Larry longtime member of the Watnong Mellichamp Chapter. Optional: Open private gardens & Irma and I spoke on the phone public gardens regularly, often a couple of times a month. Usually when I called her we Visit www.nargs.org to register. A would talk for nearly an hour and she special note to Watnong Chapter would tell me fascinating stories. members: Roxanne Hiltz is interested in Unfortunately, Irma Leone passed away attending, and has a van that can seat peacefully at home this spring. I will eight; if you’re also interested in always miss those phone calls. attending, and can take a turn as driver, contact her at [email protected]. NEWS FROM NARGS Annual General Meeting, OUT AND ABOUT Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Mark your calendar! Membership “Southern Rock Gardening: Chair Sid Jones will be hosting an Open Past & Present” Garden Day to benefit The Garden November 17-19, 2017 Conservancy on Saturday, September 9. Speakers: An additional five area gardens will Tim Alderton ,J.C. Raulston Arboretum also be open, including The Hay, Honey Tony Avent & Jeremy Schmidt, Plant Farm, Stone House, Jardin de Buis, Bird Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Haven and Pickle Farm. Admission is Botanic Gardens $7 per person for each garden. Visit John Grimshaw, Author: Snowdrops: A gardenconservancy.org for more Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus information.

10

WATNONG CLASSIFIEDS If you would like to place an ad here, HYPERTUFA TROUGHS send copy to the Newsletter Editor, [email protected]. Deadline for inclusion in our Late Summer Newsletter is August 16, 2017

2017 WATNONG CHAPTER OFFICERS Chair Please Consider Your Name Here! Vice Chair Michael Wilson 862-397-9339 [email protected] Treasurer Caroline Ford 973-993-9426 [email protected] Secretary Debi Graf 201-919-0749 [email protected]

2017 WATNONG COMMITTEES Membership Sid Jones 973-366-7241 [email protected] Programs Noel Schulz 201-445-6445 [email protected] Program Committee Brian Coleman 973-325-3453 [email protected] Program Committee Lainie Bevin 908-537-4448 [email protected] Digital Projector Publicity Carolyn Iglesias 973-763-3275 [email protected] Plant Sale Co-Chair Jim Avens 908-234-2677x 22 [email protected] Plant Sale Co-Chair Melissa Grossmann 908-604-8060 [email protected] Mailing Diane McNally 908-234-1170 [email protected] Newsletter Albert Martin 908-403-0029 AlbertMartin@ Photography AlbertMartinPhotography.com Newsletter Hilary Clayton 908-781-2521 [email protected]

If you print this newsletter, please recycle it when you’re finished.

11

THE WATNONG CHAPTER NORTH AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY c/o The Leonard J. Buck Garden 11 Layton Road Far Hills, NJ 07931

FIRST CLASS MAIL

12