Podophyllum peltatum

News from

Stonecrop GardensWinter 2008

The Woodland Garden at Stonecrop“Does best in deep, well-drained organic soils with adequate moisture at all times.” The words are familiar to every gardener serious about growing woodland perenni-als. At first glance, the thin-soiled, sterile, glaciated moun-tain top at Stonecrop appears the antithesis of that admo-nition. Even the stunted growth of adjacent hardwoods suggests that this is not the place for heavy-feeding plants that respond to a richness of resources. And yet, when I visited the garden in early June last year, I was overwhelm-ingly impressed by the lush exuberance of every perennial I saw. Even plants growing in the shallow striated crev-ices of the many exposed granite ledges were as vigorous as any I can grow in the deep and well-watered Piedmont soils of southeastern Pennsylvania. What was going on here?

I first thought that it must be calcium slowly leaching from the rock, but then remembered that granite does not have a great amount of that element, so essential for the best growth of many plant families represented here. The soils appeared rich and highly organic, but they were defi-nitely not deep. And that very shallowness argued against there being a great reserve of moisture available for times of scarce rainfall. I had noted the sprinkler system throughout the woodland garden, but found it hard to believe that this alone could produce the lushness I found around me. Maybe it was their approach to fertilization? At that moment, I spied Joanne, a gardener familiar with the annual care of this and other areas, working by one of the pools that naturally form in pockets on the protrud-ing bedrock. “No,” she said, “we really don’t fertilize in the woodland. We just mulch with three inches of wood chips in the dormant season.” “And how often do you water?” I asked. “When it needs it,” was the answer, “but before the wilting of plants tells us that the area is stressed for water.”

I resumed my walk, still finding it hard to believe that mulching and strict attention to watering could result in such magnificent growth. I had come to Stonecrop to see the woodland garden, particularly the perennials, at this time of year, since my previous visits had been almost exclusively in late summer, autumn and winter. I knew there was enor-mous diversity here, and that that diversity encompassed some of the rarest and most beautiful of shade-loving garden plants. I was not disappointed. As I walked the narrow trails, my feet brushed the foliage and flowers of plants in many families. Members of the Barberry Family: mayap-ple and its Asiatic relative Podophyllum hexandrum, Vancouveria, Diphylleia, bloodroot and twinleaf. These wonderfully textural plants mingled with, and nudged against members of the equally diverse Buttercup Family: the architectural, umbrella-like leaves of Glaucidium palmatum, baneberries, both the aptly-named doll’s eyes and the red baneberry, now past flower and not yet showing their brilliant fruit, black snakeroot, with its enormous compound leaves, Delphinium tricorne, in full bloom in shades of white to blue, Anemone canadensis, the leathery evergreen foliage of hellebores and, on the spongy edges of ponds, our native marsh marigold, in the process of going dormant until it blooms again early next spring.

Adiantum pedatum

Richard W. Lighty

continued on page 10

“Visiting Stonecrop is like watching your favorite movie: you think you know it by heart, but each time you see it you find new things to love, and you always come away feeling renewed.”

—Karen R. Stein Director of Education, Katonah Museum of ArtMember, Stonecrop Gardens

Director’s NotesDear Members and Friends,

The new year at Stonecrop must begin with our thanks to all of you for making last year a resounding success. I am delighted to report that 2007 saw a 44% increase in the number of visitors who came to Stonecrop. That was on top of an increase of over 20% in 2006. Thank you, and please do continue to visit us.

This is why our hilltop garden exists, to share a love of horticulture and a universe of ideas with you, the gardening enthusiast. We attribute Stonecrop’s growing family to a wide range of factors. Stonecrop has enjoyed significant media coverage, including an article in the New York Times calling Stonecrop “a vault full of jewels.” Our newsletter, which began just last winter, brings News from Stonecrop Gardens home to about 3,000 readers around the nation. The word is out about Stonecrop, but more than that, gardening in this country is reach-ing new levels of sophistication. We believe that our fellow gardeners, hungry to learn more, are discovering at Stonecrop an American garden of the highest calibre and a ready resource as they continue their studies, both formal and informal.

The gardens at Stonecrop have been decades in the making, and will certainly never be complete. Frank Cabot’s three-part series of reminis-cences on the early days at Stonecrop concludes in this issue, but the rest of the story is still being written. When Stonecrop opened to the public in 1992, it was with a dual purpose: to delight and to educate professional and amateur horticulturists alike. With record numbers of visitors, this mission is

StaffCaroline Burgess, Director

Steve Johnson, Superintendent

Maggie Gordon, Administrator

Barbara Scoma, Office Manager

Michael Hagen, Staff Horticulturist

Amy Pelletier, Staff Horticulturist

Jason Thomas, Assistant to Superintendent

Rachelle McKnight, Horticultural Intern

Ann Johnson, Part-time Grounds Maintenance

Roger Blanchard, Part-time Grounds Maintenance

Joanne Murphy, Part-time Horticultural Assistant

Alex Prusi, Part-time Horticultural Assistant

John Towers, Part-time Horticultural Assistant

Katherine H. Kerin, Newsletter Editor

Board Of DirectorsAntonia F. Adezio

Anne P. CabotF. Colin Cabot

Francis H. CabotRichard W. Lighty

Barbara Paul RobinsonHoward G. Seitz

Stonecrop Gardens81 Stonecrop Lane

Cold Spring, New York 10516845-265-2000

www.stonecrop.orggarden@stonecrop.org

Stonecrop Gardens

finally taking flight for it is our members and visitors who bring life and a “raison d’être” to the garden. It is also this increasingly animated interaction with the public that most excites us today, and we depend on you, our part-ners in this venture, to continue the tale.

Stonecrop is in a most fortunate position. Through the generous vision of Anne and Frank Cabot, the gardens and grounds as they currently exist are largely secure. Our educational programming and any other new initiatives, however, do rely on member support. We currently offer professional internships, various work-shops and lectures, as well as our newsletter and website, but with your help and ideas, much more is possible.

We wish you all a successful 2008 gardening season and look forward to seeing you at Stonecrop through-out the year. Please consider becoming a member of the Stonecrop family or even increasing your current membership contribution and help us continue to develop an educational program that is a worthy partner to our garden’s riches.

Thank you,Caroline Burgess, Director

Stonecrop’s mission is to uphold and demonstrate the highest standards of horticultural practice and to promote the use of such standards

among amateur and professional gardeners through aesthetic displays and educational programs.

Pick some from the bundles put together for pages 4-5, and 6.

Stonecrop Intern Profile: Rachelle McKnightWe are delighted to introduce the first of our 2008 Stonecrop Interns. Rachelle McKnight is a recent graduate of Western Kentucky University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology with two minors in horticulture and art. Rachelle assisted in her anthropology department’s research on the use of plants for medicinal and agri-cultural purposes in the Dominican Republic. She interned at Mammoth Cave National Park, collaborating with botanists and biologists to eradicate invasive plant species and re-establish appropriate native plant communities. Rachelle also spent 5 months as a campground manager and trail builder for AmeriCorps in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. In her spare time, Rachelle designed, constructed, and maintained over 50 gardens throughout her campus as part of the University’s garden crew.

Rachelle’s love of the outdoors, being physically active, and her passion for plants drew her to Stonecrop, where she feels the “education potential is infinite.” Rachelle’s many hobbies include hiking, painting, dancing, and digging in the dirt. Her most-loved pastime is riding her two horses. In high school, Rachelle was fortunate enough to spend seven months in France, training horses for her host family. It appears with all of Rachelle’s past experiences and future aspirations, Stonecrop’s Internship Program will provide the perfect challenge for her.

Caroline Burgess

3

During the decade from 1965 to 1975 there were no changes to the garden. Rex Murfitt, who helped us establish our alpine gardens and nursery operation at Stonecrop and was the first resident of our Bothy, returned to British Columbia with his family (see article in the Fall, 2007 Stonecrop newsletter). The Bothy was subsequently inhabited by John Lesenger, a Scottish gardener who grew voluptuous cinerarias and chry-santhemums, and then Larry Pardue, the information officer at the New York Botanical Garden. The most notable event of the period was the blizzard of 1969 that resulted in an eight-foot high snowdrift covering much of Stonecrop and shutting everything down for a week before the place was dug out and became accessible again to vehicles.

However, in the latter part of the 1970’s, the garden began to expand in earnest. Sara Faust, a graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Horticulture with a good eye for landscape design, took charge of the garden. Cono Reale, a Sicilian mason, was hired to improve the rock walls in general. They both had a major impact on the Stonecrop landscape.

The connection with Cono is described on pages 76-77 of The Greater Perfection (a book I wrote about our Canadian garden, Les Quatre Vents) as follows:

A few individuals are, instinctively, good build-ers of walls. One day in the mid-1970’s, while driving north on Route 9 near Cold Spring, I saw some handsome terraces under construction and came to a screeching halt. The terraces were the crea-tion of Cono Reale, who was busy turning the hill-side behind his house into a landscape reminiscent of Capo d’Orlando, his native village on the north coast of Sicily. An agricultural engineer turned self-taught mason, Cono took one look at the round field-stone walls that needed rebuilding around the garden in Cold Spring, rubbed his hands with glee and announced in an authoritative, if almost unintelligi-ble, Benito Mussolini manner, “There is a great deal of work to be done around here. You better believe it!”

We worked closely together for the next twelve years and I learned much from the process. Cono had the native Italian flair for construction and his asso-ciation with (both) Stonecrop (and Les Quatre Vents) was enormously positive. His sensitive eye and innate sense of proportion meant that his modifications and adjustments to my ideas on how a bit of rock ledge was to be placed, how a wall was to be configured, or how a garden pool designed, invariably turned out to be an improvement over the initial concept. There is no substitute for the hands-on artisan with aesthetic sensibility working with the gardener. Having gone through the learning process with Cono, we subse-quently followed this route in developing our gardens and eschewed professional help except when it came to the proportions and detailed drawings for impor-tant hardscape and structures.

At Stonecrop, one of my dreams had always been to create some rectangular free-standing raised stone beds, with alpines filling crevices on all exposures. It was in the course of that process, working with Cono, that I learned the principles of wall build-ing with square cut field stones and could apply my knowledge of the preferences and idiosyncrasies of alpine plants. The formality of a geometric element made sense near the potting shed at Stonecrop as a transition to the more naturalized areas of the garden. The first step was to replace a retaining wall made of rounded boulders.

It was a symbiotic process. While I was observ-ing the principles that underlie the making of a solid and well-laid wall, Cono soon learned how to handle the plants and identify which were best suited for a particular crevice. Since Stonecrop always had a wide variety of alpine plants it was an easy matter to assem-ble plants as the walls rose and to draw on this avail-able reservoir as needed. The walls and raised stone beds went up rapidly each spring during the month or so before it became too hot and dry to risk exposing the plants’ roots to such an extent.

In the early years of Cono’s involvement we not only created new geometric beds in front of Rex Murfitt’s large raised bed, but we also replaced Rex’s first bed with the middle section of the bed that now wraps around the corner of the Potting Shed. While the bulk of this bed is made with blocks of tufa from Ilion Gorge, we built field-stone turrets at either end. For want of a better name, we called our new bed the Tufalump—our own variant on Winnie the Pooh’s “heffalump.” The centers of our turrets were topped with partially buried fieldstone outcrops in whose interstices choice alpines thrive. To our delight and surprise, a tiny plant of Gypsophila aretioides ‘Caucasica’ with a northern exposure has endured the intervening thirty years and is slowly but surely expand-ing into a solid, horizontal, and thoroughly alpine dinner-plate-sized mat of green.

Frank Cabot’s Reminiscences: The Garden Starts to Grow(The third and final segment in this series on the early days at Stonecrop)

continued on next page

Above: Frank Cabot working under Cono Reale’s tutelage. Above right: An early manifesta-tion of the alpine beds in bloom, and a spring view from the house over the Flower Garden toward the Potting Shed.

Once the raised beds had been rewalled and replanted, the garden began to grow in a westerly direc-tion. On the west side of the path that runs behind the greenhouses towards the Bothy, there was a promising native White Oak of moderate age and a number of stone outcrops. These led to a drop over a steep rock ledge to a hillside below, which in turn, sloped down to the west. Working with Sara and Cono, we elected to create an artificial stream and pool above the rock ledge, bring-ing in slabs of rock from the surrounding woods to echo the natural stone outcrops. Sara planted the area with Iris pumila and dwarf conifers among shrubs and other perennials. She also arranged the plantings in the vegeta-ble and flower gardens within the fenced enclosure near the house.

At about this time, a deer fence was installed around some twenty acres of fields, gardens and buildings with cattle guards placed where the fence intersected the road that ran through the site. It is a relatively low, broad and sloping fence rather than a high fence, and it is electrified for winter protection. It has worked perfectly over the years. Visitors don’t realize it is there.

With a water feature now on the west side of the garden, it seemed logical to try to develop a pond on the east side of the Potting Shed along the entrance road. As elsewhere in the garden, water had to be piped to this pond since there was none on our hilltop. The pond that is there, now filled at its north end by a wing of the Conservatory, is primarily Sara’s design, embellished to a degree by slabs of rock placed by Cono. It had to be a rather shallow pond and it took some years before it became relatively maintenance free. The build up of algae in the pond wasn’t brought under control until a re-circu-lating and aerating system for the pond was installed.

As the garden grew, so did the need for a signifi-cant water supply. Since work had begun on planting the rock ledge just below our first stream and small pond, the idea of turning the area below it into a lake and also creating a reservoir for back up water supply seemed a logical next step. The only problem was that the site we had chosen for our lake was a steep, 300-foot long slope westward down to the neighboring field which was 50 feet below the bottom of the rock ledge. Fortuitously, the highway department had elected that moment to improve Route 301 that runs beside the property, and they had to evacuate a great deal of fill to accomplish the job. To our mutual satisfaction, the fill was moved directly from Route 301 to below our rock ledge. We then created a level berm, some 200 feet square, to frame the lake and contain a subterranean concrete reservoir that could hold an additional 14,000 gallons of water. All this came to pass but not without endless headaches, since a large percentage of the fill consisted of large, rounded boulders, not exactly the ideal base for a lake where packed sand or clay is much preferred. In the long run the lake has worked out so that it is manageable.

Once we added what Caroline Burgess immediately dubbed the Flintstone Bridge —a massive slab of rock that forms an isthmus visually dividing the water into two main areas—it looked as if the lake had always been there. To disguise the reservoir, Franklin Faust, Sara’s husband and an accomplished artist then on the faculty of Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, designed and built a Wisteria Pavilion of considerable charm atop the reservoir at the south end of the lake. With the lake and Flintstone Bridge in place, the rock ledge was amended with addi-tional fieldstone slabs and ledges so that there were ample

1. On a 6-inch layer of gravel, build a solid foundation course of large square-cut stones that barely protrudes above ground level.

2. Place square-cut stones in courses, rising in a slight “batter,” so that the finished wall slopes gradually back from the base to allow moisture to reach all crevices. Avoid aligning vertical joints to keep erosion of soil in the joints to a minimum.

3. As each course is added, fill in just behind the wall with large rocks of any shape so as to rein-force the façade and reduce the likelihood of instability.

4. Pack gritty scree mixture (75% poultry grit, rock chips or coarse sand; 25% organic matter) between courses, in joints, and behind the façade and compact it thoroughly by tamping and watering as each course is laid.

5. Plant the crevices between and above each rock with the smallest feasible specimen, making sure it has a good, established root system prefer-ably reaching back to the soil mixture. Between courses press the root mass down as flat as possible and barely cover with gritty scree mix. (Keep roots constantly moist throughout the process.)

6. Use small flakes and chips of stone (tapped in as wedges) to fill gaps in the front of crev-ices, once a course is planted, to reduce erosion and ensure that the plant’s crown remains in place.

7. The soil in the crevices need only be sufficient to fill the minimal air spaces between square-cut rock surfaces. Use almost all grit with a small amount of organic matter. The

richer mixture in the center awaits the plant’s hardworking roots. Once these become well-anchored and produce a healthy mat of plant at the surface, the plant will look exactly as if it were growing in its alpine setting.

8. Indulge the exposure prefer-ences of the plants: saxifrages and ramondas on north-facing walls, Mediterranean species facing south and west.

9. Assemble twice as many plants (in great variety) as you think you’ll need. Overplant! A number of plants will succumb over the first two years. Be sure to include non-invasive campan-ulas; they will outlast most species and will obligingly fill in the empty spaces left behind.

10. Early spring and early fall are the best times for planting.

The following is taken from page 79 of The Greater Perfection:

THE ROCK GARDEN WALL-BUILDER’S 10 COMMANDMENTS

View across the Flintstone Bridge of Cono’s Rock Ledge.

The Flower Garden in autumn.

Above: Anne and Frank Cabot with their grand-daughter, Annie Cabot, circa 1976, and Anne Cabot, with daughters Currie & Marianne, in front of the house at Stonecrop after the blizzard of 1969.

5

planting niches. Cono also devised a small waterfall and a series of descending pools to bring the water from the upper pond down to the new lake.

At about this time, John Sales, then the garden advisor to the U.K.’s National Trust, stayed with us while giving a lecture in New York City. I had proudly showed him our specimen of the dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, which we had planted opposite the Potting Shed by the new Upper Lake. He observed rather dryly, “Of course, in the U.K., we have groves of them!” With the new lake to be landscaped, that was a challenge to be met. We happened to find a small nursery in Maryland that was liquidating its stock and could supply fifty young trees at the right price. Today our Metasequoia grove abuts the Wisteria Pavilion, frames the south side of the lake, and spills down an area Caroline christened the Himalayan Slope. It looks convincingly like the groves one finds in Chinese botanic gardens and is a joy to walk through. I’m just sorry that John Sales hasn’t been back to see the consequences of his casual remark.

One always benefits from good advice. I remember showing the new lake and its accompanying develop-ments to François Goffinet, who had then just started his career as a landscape architect but whose later efforts include much work at the nearby Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden at Pepsico, in Purchase, New York. Surveying the lake, François frowned and pointed out that I needed to plant a screen of trees to block the competing views of fields and hills. A thick screen of spruce has done just that, channeling the vista and greatly improving the overall effect. It helps to develop an understanding of landscape principles.

Other English horticulturists have used us as a way station. Alan Bloom, the founder of Bressingham Nurseries, stayed with us in 1979 and introduced us to a host of new and interesting perennials. In due course, on a trip to the U.K., we stayed with Alan and his then wife, who was appropriately named Flora. We brought back a large collection of Rodgersias and the like, then unavail-able in the U.S. These survived importation far more successfully than our first shipment of trees and shrubs from Hillier’s Nursery fifteen years earlier. The sole survi-vor from that lot is Halesia monticola var. vestita, which graces the Entrance Court to the house at Stonecrop with its large, pink blossoms each year in early May.

By the 1980’s we had resolved to try and develop a woodland garden on either side of Stonecrop’s then entrance drive, starting with the west side where there was a handsome bit of rock ledge crying out to be the

backdrop of a woodland pool. The only problem was that there was very little organic matter on

our hilltop and what little was there was overwhelmed by rocks of all sizes. To create the woodland we were after, we scraped away as much of the loose rock as we could and brought in truckloads of compost made by Bud Bullpit from leaves carted away from Connecticut communities. With eight inches of this salubrious mixture covering the woodland “soil,” there was sufficient purchase for the drifts of plants that now thrive there to become established. This garden, which in due course and under Caroline Burgess’s guidance encompassed the woodlands on the east side of the drive as well, is a delight throughout the season (but especially in April and May) and is filled with unusual plants. There is a small patch of Trillium decumbens, a gift from Fred Case, author of the classic book on this genus, whose leaves lie flat on the ground. It is a different garden every two weeks during the spring months and is well worth close inspection. (Please read more about our Woodland Garden in Dick Lighty’s article in this issue of the newsletter.)

Sara Faust left in 1983 and, in due course, became a landscape architect. During her tenure, she was helped by Oscar and Tommy Hallberg, the sons of Boone Hallberg of Oaxaca who lived in the Bothy.

In the spring of 1984, Caroline Burgess arrived to take charge of Stonecrop and she has made the gardens what they are today. Caroline, a graduate of the School of Horticulture, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, had appren-ticed with Rosemary Verey and was the Head Gardener at Verey’s famous garden, Barnsley House. At Rosemary’s sugges-tion, Caroline spent six weeks at Stonecrop while on a field break as a student at Kew in the late spring of 1983. When she completed her Kew Diploma with Honours, she expressed an interest in returning to the U.S. and taking over management of the garden. Stonecrop has been delighted to have her ever since and, of course, Stonecrop has become her garden.

Anne Cabot, with Chip, on her favorite International Harvester tractor—which is still operative!

The Flower Garden in summer.

A 19th century French “epi”—finial—that is located on the peaked roof of the garage. This antique has been dupli-cated and enlarged for use by the Cabots on their Music Pavilion and the Pigeonnier in their Canadian garden.

6Regular hours are Monday–Friday, and the first and third Saturdays of the month, from 10 a.m–5 p.m. • www.stonecrop.org

March 22Members’ Preview Party: Spring Under Glass12 p.m.–4 p.m.*

Pruning Workshop9 a.m.–12 p.m., $40/$30 member

March 24–29Spring Under Glass Week; open to the public

April 1Stonecrop Opens for the Season

April 5 & 19Open Saturdays

April 18Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

April 22Spring Bulb Walk6 p.m.–7 p.m., $10/members no charge

April 26Alpine Plant Sale with Alpines Mont Echo, Wrightman Alpines, Evermay Nursery

April 27Garden Conservancy Open Day

May 3 & 17 Open Saturdays

May 10Spring Bulb Walk; Wine & Cheese4:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m., $25/$20 member

May 11Garden Conservancy Open Day

May 13Woodland Walk6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., $10/members no charge

May 16Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

May 24Putnam County Day; Open SaturdayFree admission for Putnam County Residents

“You are in another world, not least because Stonecrop changes dramatically as you walk from one area to the next. One minute you’re in a bamboo grove so thick you have to hold back the branches; the next, on a rocky ledge amid teeny alpine blossoms of brilliant red, purple and pink.”

—Judith H. Dobrzynski, “The Fields of Joy,”

New York Times, July 13, 2007, Escapes section.

2008

* denotes events open only to Stonecrop members.

Amy Pelletier potting up bulbs for the Spring Open House display.

John Towers and Joanne Murphy planting bulbs in the Flower Garden.

Caroline Burgess and member Joseph Hoenigmann review the garden walk at the Members’ Garden Party.

Members Geoff Baldwin (left) and Monty Effinger constructing troughs at the Trough-making Workshop.

7Regular hours are Monday–Friday, and the first and third Saturdays of the month, from 10 a.m–5 p.m. • www.stonecrop.org

Stonecrop Gardens

www.stonecrop.orgVisit www.stonecrop.org for a Bloom Calendar at Stonecrop Gardens

June 3Alpine Walk6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., $10/members no charge

June 7 & 21Open Saturdays

June 14 Secret Garden Tour

June 15Garden Conservancy Open Day

June 20Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

July 5 & 19Open Saturdays

July 13Garden Conservancy Open Day

July 15Systematic Order Beds Walk6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., $10/members no charge

July 18Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

August 2 & 16Open Saturdays

August 2Weeds and Wildflowers Workshop9 a.m.–12 p.m., $40/$30 member

August 10Garden Conservancy Open Day

August 12Fern Walk6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., $10/members no charge

S c h e d u l e o f e v e n t S

August 15Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

September 6 & 20Open Saturdays

September 13Annual Members’ Garden Party1 p.m.–5 p.m.*

September 16Flower Garden Walk6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., $10/members no charge

September 19Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

September 21Garden Conservancy Open Day

October 4 & 18Open Saturdays

October 14Fall Foliage Walk6 p.m.–7 p.m., $10/members no charge

October 17Evening in the Garden, 5 p.m.–dusk

October 18 & 19Trough-Making Workshop9 a.m.–12 p.m. each day$80/$60 member

October 31Stonecrop Closes for the Season

Caroline with the Hortus Club of New York try to guess “What’s in the Box.”

Amy Pelletier with Stonecrop alumnus, Eric Ruquist, at the Members’ Garden Party.

Garden Party guests enjoy contests and camaraderie.

Wisteria Pavilion in full bloom.

Flower Garden Tool Shed.

correcttoo close to bud

too much stub

too large a wound

Rob Gimpel prunes Wisteria at the Pavilion.

clearly the shape and branch structure, and thus make the best pruning choices.

Some plants are best pruned in mid-winter (December to January) when they are still fully dormant. These include trees that bleed sap when cut such as Maples, Birches, and Elms as well as both Grape (Vitis) and Hardy Kiwi (Actinidia) vines. These plants should not be pruned in early spring when the pressure of the rising sap causes a profuse bleeding. Whilst this is unlikely to cause the death of the plant, it is obviously an unnecessary loss of energy and can also be unsightly and worrying.

However, late winter (February to March) is the optimum time for pruning deciduous spring flower-ing trees such as Crabapple (Malus), Pear (Pyrus) and Hawthorn (Crataegus). Pruning cuts made in late winter, just before spring growth starts, leave fresh wounds exposed for only a short length of time before new growth begins the wound-sealing process. Other shrubs like Red Osier Dogwood and Willow, grown for their attractive winter bark, can also be pruned now, either

Knowing just which trees, shrubs and vines to prune at just what moment is critical to ensuring vigorous, healthy new growth and encouraging a good season of bloom.

Weather conditions can differ considerably from year to year, thus shifting the time when a particu-lar plant should be pruned by as much as several weeks. As a result, it is a good idea to pay close attention to current weather and keep a yearly garden calendar, noting amongst other things, particular weather conditions and when each specimen was pruned. Your calendar will then provide some rough guidelines on when a particular tree or shrub can be pruned safely.

Once the timing is right, there are several basic but important rules that should be kept in mind before you

start pruning. Always use clean and sharp tools and put them away in good condition, ready for next

time. Each shrub or tree you prune should be regarded as an individual, even if it is growing as one of a group. By all means remember that you can always take off a little more, but you can never put it back.

Late winter is a superb time to get outside and prune many woody plants. With decid-

uous species, you can take advantage of this time before they leaf out to see

When to Prune?A few tips for the timely pruning of trees and shrubs

9

Secateurs

parrot-beakanvil

side anvil

Interns learn to prune apple trees.

removing only the older growth, or cutting back the entire plant to ground level in order to produce a crop of brightly-coloured growth for next winter. Trees such as the Foxglove Tree (Paulownia), Indian Bean Tree (Catalpa), and even Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus) can also be cut back hard at this time of year in order to limit their size and produce bushy shrub-like plants with attractive juvenile foliage.

As late winter gives way to spring it is the time to think about the first yearly pruning of Wisteria vines. In order for Wisteria to flower profusely, lateral shoots must be cut back to about 3 buds on each shoot to form a spur from which the season’s flowers will be produced. These plump flower buds at the base of each spur can be easily identified compared with the more flattened growth buds. A successful pruning will leave a rather sparse looking framework of older, woody growth with numerous shortened spurs ready to burst into magnifi-cent bloom in a few months’ time. Summer pruning takes place in July/August, when the long whip-like strands of vegetative growth produced from lateral buds are pruned to within 6 inches.

Not all shrubs should be pruned whilst dormant though. Plants that bloom in late summer on the current season’s growth, such as Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii) or Hydrangea paniculata should be pruned a little bit later in early spring, when the amount of winter dieback can be assessed.

And finally, a word of caution: it is easy to get carried away once you start pruning. Those spring and early summer flowering shrubs which flower on previ-ous season’s growth, are best pruned only after flower-ing. Favourite garden shrubs such as Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles), Mock Orange (Philadelphus), Lilac (Syringa), and of course Forsythia, can be left well alone until after they have finished flowering. At that time, a judicious pruning will encourage new wood to grow and ripen, ensuring a spectacular bloom in the following year.

For anyone wanting to learn more about the art of pruning, Stonecrop is offering a Pruning Workshop on Saturday March 22nd from 9 am to 12 pm. Admission is $40 per person, $30 for members, and reservations are necessary. Please call the Stonecrop office (845-265-2000) for more information and to make your reservation.

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As I walked, I became aware of other plants that had already “done their thing.” The fruiting stalks of Fritillaria meleagris, the yellowing foliage of trout lilies, spring anemones and shooting stars, all suggested I had arrived in the middle of the show! A fine clump of yellow lady’s slipper, with many withering flowers further rein-forced the feeling, and I made a mental note to get back earlier next year.

It’s important to remember that the woodland is a very special habitat, and not an easy one for plants—or gardeners, to adapt to. The plants have to develop strat-egies to make the most of the light in spring, before the canopies of the trees close in. If they do this effec-tively they can then, like the marsh marigold, go back to sleep, having stored up enough food to live, bloom and fruit another year. Such plants are called spring ephem-erals, or, in a related strategy, “winter-green” plants. Many bulbs are spring ephemerals. So too are plants like Trillium decumbens, squirrel corn, Dutchman’s breeches and Virginia bluebells. Among the “winter-green” plants that come up in late summer or fall and stay green until mid-spring are Isopyrum biternatum, Cardamine diphylla and the grape-fern, Botrychium dissectum. Woodland plants must also find ways to cope with the competition for water from the roots of well-established trees and shrubs. Many of the slow-growing, evergreen woodland plants coveted by gardeners have developed ways to do this. They are called stress-tolerating plants by botanists, and have the ability to tailor their life-styles to the changing conditions of the place in which they find themselves. When resources are short, they hold back on expending them. They may abort their flowers or their fruit at any point in the reproductive process, and just hunker down and hold onto what they have; waiting for another, perhaps better, season next year. Plants such as shortia, galax, partridge berry, pipsissewa and rattlesnake orchid have taken this route to success in the woods. Notoriously, in the garden such plants fail to respond to

an abundance of resources with greater growth, as do the competitive plants of sunny, resource-rich habitats; the plants of the perennial border. That’s why few nurseries propagate and grow them, and why they are so expensive when you do find them offered.

Gardeners, on the other hand, have it easier in adapt-ing to the woodland than do the plants. They need only adapt their sensitivities and their mindset to get delight and satisfaction from the woodland throughout the year. When gardeners complain that they can’t grow plants because of too much shade, I say, “Look around. Are the woodlands empty? Perhaps you are trying to grow the floriferous plants of the sunny meadow, the plants of the English border, the plants you know well, in the wrong place.” Surely the woodland gardens at Stonecrop have an enormous variety of texture, and wonderful shades of green. These can be used to compose pictures that are every bit as beautiful as those composed principally of color. It is only our simplistic mindset that focuses just on high color and gets in the way of appreciating texture, form and shades of green (or brown, in the winter). Texture can be used in the same sophisticated ways we handle color: as exciting contrasts of greatly different foliage forms against each other, or in soothing, harmo-nious schemes where foliage of similar shapes, but differ-ent sizes or varying shades of green are arranged so as to move the eye gradually across the composition. An example of contrast might be the use of the orbicular foliage of hostas or ligularias with the feathery foliage of ferns or snakeroots, or with the spiky foliage of grasses or iris. Where textural harmony is desired, one might use hostas with trilliums, Solomon’s seal and wild ginger, or

The Woodland Garden at Stonecropcontinued from page 1

Thelypteris palustris

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It is no understatement to call Richard W. Lighty, Ph.D. a towering figure in horticulture today. He is also generous with his wealth of knowledge and exceedingly modest. Fellow Stonecrop Board member Barbara Paul Robinson writes of Dick, “his lively blue eyes sparkle as he recounts in his warm, rich-timbered voice that his professional life took place in ‘three 15-year segments: the first spent learning, the next teaching, and the third developing and running a public garden,’ each quite distinct and distinguished careers” (Horticulture, April, 2005).

His work as a plant collector and geneticist has set a high standard for today’s garden worthy plants. Lighty’s professional career began as the geneticist in charge of the experimental greenhouse at Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He has also conducted plant-collecting expeditions across three continents. The fruit of these labors has been the naming and introduction of more than 30 plants into commerce in the United States. Dick’s “children” include the likes of Aruncus aethusifolius, Aster laevis ‘Blue Bird,’ Calamagrostis brachytricha, and Ageratina altissima ‘Chocolate’ (syn. Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’).

His work as an educator has influenced generations of this country’s finest horticulturists. Dr. Lighty was the founding Coordinator of the Longwood Graduate Program in Public Garden Administration; he has developed and taught classes at the University of Delaware, and he writes and lectures widely.

His work at the helm of a major public garden—Lighty was the Founding Director of the Mount Cuba Center, in Greenville, Delaware—has taught the American public a great deal about conservation and connoisseurship, and has helped define the role of such institutions in our society.

Stonecrop is most fortunate that Dick does share with us, as a member of our Board of Directors, his extraordinary expertise and experience. Stonecrop, however, is certainly not alone in appreciating this remarkable man. Dr. Lighty has received almost every major honor in the horticultural world. He has been recognized by the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College with the Arthur H. Scott Medal and Award; the Garden Club of America with the Eloise Payne Luquer Medal; the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society with the Distinguished Achievement Medal; the Massachusetts Horticultural Society with both the Silver Medal and the George Robert White Medal; the United States Department of Agriculture with the B. Y. Morrison Medal; and the American Horticultural Society with its Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal. Lighty has received the E. H. Wilson Award of the North American Lily Society, as well as the Distinguished Service Award of the Perennial Plant Association. He is a Member-at-Large of the Garden Club of America and an Honorary Life Member of the American Public Gardens Association (formerly the AABGA), of which Lighty is a past President. Lighty is also a past President of the North American Lily Society and the Delaware Center for Horticulture. He currently serves on the Boards of the Garden Conservancy; the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades; Longwood Gardens; and the University of Delaware Botanical Garden; as well as Stonecrop.

For all of his many accomplishments, Dr. Lighty takes deep personal pleasure in the very act of gardening. Dick and his wife, Sally, gardened on the same seven-acre spot for 46 years. There, an extensive collection of native and exotic trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants blend to create naturalistic scenes. In his own garden as well as in commissions for other individuals and institutions, Lighty specializes in the use of a wide variety of plants as groundcovers and other low maintenance gardening techniques including “the environmentally sensitive use of machines, technology, and, in a very limited way, chemicals.” He discusses his tactics in an article, “The War of the Weeds,” published in the May, 2001 issue of Horticulture. Recently, Lighty said, “I feel strongly the need for experienced gardeners to share with those just beginning, what they have learned in the school of experience. Too few talk about the mundane but essential tasks that engage us in the garden every day.” With Dick Lighty’s able assistance, Stonecrop is working toward just that end.

select an array of different ferns in a variety of sizes and varying degrees of coarseness. Finally, I have to say that most of the plants I’ve mentioned do bloom at one time or another over the season, and most of these flowers are, although perhaps not so showy as their sun-loving rela-tives, just as beautiful when we learn to look for them—and to really see them.

As I left the woodland garden, I spotted Frank Cabot near the potting shed, and couldn’t resist asking him the same question I’d asked Joanne earlier. His quick answer was, “When we first started to plant in the woodland, we brought in great quantities of compost, and made the kind of highly organic soil that most of our shade-loving plants are accustomed to.” So that’s it! I had the decep-tively simple but complete answer; build the soil well, replenish it on an annual basis and water when needed. Fertilizers, in the usual sense, are not needed, probably even detrimental to the health and appearance of the garden. Too much water is likewise, not helpful. What is important is good initial soil preparation, the annual replenishment of nutrients at the proper level and moni-toring the water needs throughout the growing season. The books are right, I had just not seen, and been reluc-tant to believe that these basic requirements were being met on the dry, thin-soiled hilltop that is Stonecrop Gardens. So if you are one of those gardeners in search of something that will grow in the shade, come visit the Woodland Garden at Stonecrop throughout the growing season, and see what a rich palette of plants awaits you, once you know the simple truth!

—Richard W. Lighty

A Gardener’s Gardener: Stonecrop Board Member Richard W. Lighty, Ph.D.

Trillium vaseyi

Richard W. Lighty

“Stonecrop is unique among American public gardens in its dedication to superb plantsmanship, and in its aim to train skilled professionals who will make and maintain gardens in which aesthetic perfection, rather than the bottom line, is the guide.”

—Richard W. Lighty Ph.D.,HorticulturistMember, Stonecrop Board of Directors

Stonecrop Gardens A twelve-acre paradise for the plant enthusiast

Catch the season’s first glimpse of Stonecrop’s “vault full of jewels”*—Join us for:

M Spring Under Glass WeekMonday, March 24, 2008–Saturday March 29, 200810 a.m. to 5 p.m.M Members’ Preview PartySaturday, March 22, 2008Noon to 4 p.m.M Pruning WorkshopSaturday, March 22, 20089 a.m. to noon, $40/$30 members

* New York Times, July 13, 2007

Stonecrop Gardens81 Stonecrop LaneCold Spring, New York 10516

Hamamelis ‘Brevipetala’ Common name: Witch-Hazel Family: Hamamelidaceae Country oF origin: France

Plant Profile

Stonecrop closes its doors to the public on the last day of October, and by year end, the beds have all been put to rest, the bulbs planted in anticipation of spring, and the ground is frozen solid. The garden, however, is very much alive with winter interest. Stonecrop is not alone in designing for winter in the garden, and as more garden-ers embrace what was once considered the off-season, plants such as Chimonanthus praecox, Cornus alba, and Lonicera fragran-tissima are starting to get the attention they deserve. Similarly gaining in popularity, Hamamelis is a genus of plants that provides a great variety of winter interest, and Hamamelis ‘Brevipetala’ is one of our favou-rites at Stonecrop.

Toward the end of January, when Hamamelis ‘Brevipetala’ begins to bloom in the Gravel Garden at Stonecrop, the air is widely perfumed with its sweet fragrance. As is frequently the case with Hamamelis, the dense clusters of flowers can be overlooked as the leaves often continue to persist for a bit before dropping. The flower clusters consist of four short, rather spidery bright orange petals with stunning red centres and stand out brilliantly against the snow.

Hamamelis ‘Brevipetala’ was introduced in 1935 by Chenault Nursery in Orléans, France. It was originally called H. mollis ‘Brevipetala’, but has since been recognized as a hybrid. It is an erect shrub that reaches an average height of 10 to 15 feet and is hardy from zones 5 to 8. The leaves are broadly oval, up to 6 inches long, with soft hair underneath, and often turn a burnt yellow in the autumn. H. ‘Brevipetala’ should be grown in moderately fertile, moist, but well-drained soil. It is best planted in full sun or partial shade in a location that is open, but not too exposed. Pruning requirements are minimal, and although it has been reported that H. ‘Brevipetala’ could be susceptible to mildew, honey fungus, and coral spot, these have never been an issue at Stonecrop.

The genus Hamamelis is part of the Hamamelidaceae family, members of which are trees and shrubs with generally alter-nate, simple, or palmate leaves with stipules. The family includes Corylopsis, Fothergilla, Liquidambar, Loropetalum, and Parrotia. While the entire genus Hamamelis is commonly referred to as “Witch-Hazel,” pharmaceutical witch hazel is taken from the bark and twigs of H. virginiana, our beautiful autumn-flower-ing native.

There are many choice selections within the genus Hamamelis, but nothing bright-ens a cold February morning like the sweet perfume of Hamamelis ‘Brevipetala.’

Printed on 100% recycled paper

A winter treat for even the coldest of days