In the Field A Newsletter from Waverly Farm Spring 2015 Year ing 25 s! rat leb Ce The History of Waverly Farm Bloom Calendar Waverly’s Spring Favorite: Syringa 5 Years! g 2 tin ra eb el C Time does fly when one is having fun. In September, 1989 I made my Contact Info: annual journey to Oregon to visit with Paul Bizon and other friends for fishing and hunting. For years I had thought about getting back to my roots Waverly Farm – farming. While walking with Paul in his nursery I blurted out, “I will start planting nursery stock next spring!”. 1931 Greenfield Road I didn’t have land or liners. Adamstown, Maryland 21710 (301) 874-8300 Office I found land, Paul and Phin Tuthill helped me secure liners. It was started. The first nursery site was not big enough and bought what is now Waverly Farm in 1996. Working (301) 874-8302 Fax the soil, planting, building an irrigation system, buying equipment, new buildings, constantly experimenting with growing systems and equipment, propagation, finding Mark Nowicki - Sales & Shipping great people, finding the very best customers; building a new career was exciting and very [email protected] satisfying. After all these years I can honestly say I can’t wait to arrive at the farm everyday, more than ready to have fun. Jessica Ahrweiler - Sales & Marketing [email protected] Great staff, great customers, great vendors. Wonderful and sharing industry colleagues! Thanks to all for helping me to have way more fun than many will ever experience in their Lisa DeRamus - Sales & Accounting work. -Jerry [email protected] Birds, Butterflies, and Bees, oh my re you looking to attract wildlife to your garden this year? Birds and butterflies have three basic needs required to attract a large population: food, water, and shelter. Birds, butterflies, and bees want variety. To keep Apollinators coming back, plant a mix of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals that provide sustenance for the creatures year round. By supplying all three, your garden can be full of these beneficial creatures. Trees and shrubs can supply both the food and shelter. To create a year-round food source, provide a mix of spring, summer, fall, and winter-fruiting trees and shrubs. Keep them coming back for more! Variety in height and form also builds a desired habitat for birds, where they feel safe to move around. Long-lasting or re-occurring blooms are also beneficial, as they provide a constant source of food. Conifers provide protection and a place for birds to safely build a home early in the year, before flowers start emerging. Some birds extract seeds from cones. Others survive off hibernating insects and tree sap. Cedars and Spruces are adequate sources for evergreen protection. It can be easy supplying food for the birds Spring through Fall when berries follow the earlier flower display. A few are particularly popular among our small friends: Amelanchier x grandiflora - Serviceberry has an abundance of white flowers in Spring that mature to a bountiful harvest of summertime berries for the birds . The multi-branching shrub also offers nest sites. For those of you who know your birds, or even would like to know them better, Serviceberries attract robins, waxwings, cardinals, vireos, tanagers, grosbeaks, and more. Cornus cultivars are a popular food source for both birds and butterflies- providing fall fruit and nest sites. Attract robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, tanagers, grosbeaks, and many others. Heptacodium miconioides, commonly called the Seven Sons plant, is the king of trees in this situation. Plant one in your garden and you will soon see butterflies and bees hovering around it. Heptacodium first blooms in late summer, displaying numerous large white panicles. The flowers fade and purplish pink fruits last well into fall. A few more popular choices: Birds: Amelanchier, Cornus, Ilex, Juniper, Viburnum, Prunus, Malus (Crabapple). Butterflies: Betula nigra, Cercis, Cornus, Acer saccharum, Heptacodium. Bees: Acer, Salix, Malus (Crabapple), Malus (Apple), Prunus, most fruit trees, Heptacodium miconioides Viburnum, Ilex, Heptacodium. 2 The History of Waverly Farm -article written by Jerry Faulring lmost every city, town, village and county in Maryland has an Canneries were later found in the area to preserve interesting story to tell as the colony evolved over time and the valley’s vegetable production. Dairy farms A then dominated but in recent decades, dairying played major roles in the founding and development of our nation. has declined. The land remains highly productive Below, I share very briefly, the story of the land that has become for small grains and of course, nursery production. home to Waverly Farm. My research over the years has discovered very interesting facts and tidbits, too numerous to share in a brief article. The Carroll Family is a large part of the story. The Carroll family, through many generations, is one of the most important families in Maryland’s history. 1600’s Charles Carroll the Settler The story of Waverly Farm is rooted in the immigration of Charles Carroll (1661 to 1720) from Ireland to Maryland in 1688. Well educated and connected in Europe he received a commission to be the attorney general of Maryland, then An image depicting an early cotton plantation a colony, on his arrival at the young age of 27. There were five generations by the name Charles Carroll and to differentiate, the first four assumed interesting names rather than I, II, III, and IV. The first was Charles Carroll the Settler who When looking to the east from Waverly, one sees became enormously wealthy with diversified businesses and eventually acquired Sugarloaf Mountain and a stone barracks high on the tens of thousands of acres and fortune in part through marriage. When he west overlook used by the Union Army as a lookout died in 1720 he was considered the wealthiest man and largest landowner in to track Confederate movements. Maryland. Frederick City, about nine miles from the farm, became an important crossroad for Civil War 1700’s Charles Carroll of Annapolis activities in the North. The road that runs in front of the farm to the east was the passage for tens of Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702 to 1782), son of the Settler took over the thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers to family empire and expanded it. He acquired 17,000 acres in Central Maryland engage at the battles of the Monocacy, Antietam, and named the site Carrollton Manor. It is said he chose the land because it Boonsboro, South Mountain, Hancock, Gettysburg, was covered in native red and white oak, hickory, and massive walnut trees. He Williamsport and many other lesser skirmishes. The understood that these species thrived in the best soils. Potomac River lies a couple miles to our south and provided crossing points for the armies. 1800’s Charles Carroll of Carrollton Modern History Charles of Annapolis’ son was known as Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737 to 1832). Carroll County, Maryland was named for him in 1837. He was very Waverly Farm has its roots at River Farm Nursery, influential in politics and in settling matters of government. He was a signer of a 25-acre plot of land on the Potomac River near the Declaration of Independence and was the last signer to die. As was tradition Poolesville, Maryland. I had already spent 20 years in colonial times, he partnered with tenant farmers to develop Carrollton in the green industry owning Hydro Lawn, a regional Manor. Originally, tobacco was the important crop which gave way to wheat, lawn and landscape firm. River Farm Nursery started cotton, and other small grains. out as a diversion from the day-to-day hectic pace of operating a five-state business with tens of thousands During the mid-1800’s Carrollton Manor evolved into very successful privately of residential customers. owned farms and plantations when the Carroll family began selling parcels of ground. I quickly developed a passion as a Current day Waverly Farm is part of Carrollton grower and 25 acres wouldn’t do. In Manor and was named Waverly mid-1800. 1996, after an extensive five-year search, The Italianate home we use as our office was I found what I had been looking for in considered a mansion when it was built in Frederick County, Maryland. The land mid-1800 by Archibald T. Snouffer. for the future Waverly Farm was divided into two 100-acre parcels, separated In the 1800s, Waverly was a plantation by a county road. The property was that produced vegetables and small grains essentially twice as much land as I was marketed in Washington, D.C. There are looking for, but because the soils were many historical references to the quality and so valuable, I didn’t want to pass on this productivity of the soil found in the valley. opportunity. I bought the whole farm, When you visit Waverly Farm, many will travel with every intention of selling off the through Buckeystown. The prominent village additional hundred acres. Turned out, had many important businesses including a Aerial view of current-day Waverly Farm 100 acres wasn’t enough either and the tannery, grain mill, brickworks, and lime kiln. original 200 acres is now Waverly Farm. 3 Bloom Calendar Sometimes you just need an organized list of when the flowers bloom... Please note that the bloom times listed are for our Mid-Atlantic location- flowers will bloom later in the North and earlier in the South. Name Description January - March Hamamelis Hamamelis vernalis - Red calyx, yellow petals; effective for 3-4 weeks Hamamelis x intermedia - Flowers often last January into mid-March, depending on cv.