This is for Claire and Peggy, bog plant experts at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. The pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) flowers have been harvested for drying.

A shot from the rear, equally beautiful as the frontal view.

The puffy center shields the anthers.

The gentle side of carnivorous plants.

Echinacea paradoxa, the yellow echinacea!

Have you ever wondered where all these new Echinacea culitivars came from? With all the new red, orange, and yellow varieties out there now you may find yourself wondering, “Where do all these colors come from? I thought all Echinacea was purple!”

Well, you would be 88.9 percent correct. Out of nine members of genus Echinacea, eight are purple. One member, Echinacea paradoxa, is actually yellow.

Chances are that if the cultvar is any shade of red, yellow, orange, mango, or anything other than purple or white, E. paradoxa may be found in its lineage somewhere.

E. paradoxa, native to the Ozark region of the South, is easily grown in this area in dry to average soil. Easy to grow from seed, commercially available, this underutilized species makes a worthwhile addition to any garden space.

Here at the Garden, you can  find many different cultivar and species of  Echinacea all over Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. This yellow one is  bordering Lake Sydnor, just below the Rose Garden.  In addition to being beautiful, Echinacea make excellent pollinator plants, providing a great nectar source to butterflies, bumblebees, honeybees, and other pollinators.

Want to learn more about Echinacea?  Check out Mt. Cuba Center’s Research Report Coneflowers for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Photo by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator  

‘Ginter Spicy White’ magnolia was hybridized at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden by “Magnolia Man” Bill Smith.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Volunteer & hybridizer Bill Smith (center) loads up his magnolia seedlings for delivery to regional test sites, assisted by his son Hunter Smith and Director of Horticulture Grace Chapman.

The moniker “Magnolia Man” suits Bill Smith just fine. After all, he has devoted the last 15 years to creating, evaluating and distributing new and improved magnolia species for Virginia gardens. The former English/humanities teacher is not a botanist, but he has enjoyed a lifelong interest in plants. His hobby took an unexpected detour in 1998, when he joined the International Magnolia Society.
“I wasn’t all that crazy about magnolias to start with, but I was curious about hybridizing,” Smith said. Hybridizing, which is the cross-breeding of different plant species, is less difficult and often more successful with magnolias compared to some other plants. Members of the International Magnolia Society shared articles and pointers—sometimes even a few seeds from their own crosses—and before long Smith was hooked. At that time he lived in Maryland, so regular visits to the National Arboretum’s extensive magnolia collection further expanded his knowledge and interest.
After retirement, Smith returned to his adopted home of Richmond, partly because of family, partly because of the region’s good climate for gardening. He contacted Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and has volunteered with their horticulture staff ever since.

‘Ginter Spicy White’ is blooming now in the test beds at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Over the years, Smith has produced seeds from more than 250 different crosses using various magnolia species, hybrids and/or cultivars as parents. Over the last seven years, more than 3,000 seedlings germinated and have been planted for evaluation in Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina, including the well-regarded Monrovia Nursery. “Those seedlings are scattered all over kingdom come, whoever would plant and test them,” Smith said. A dedicated magnolia test bed, which is not open to the public, also was developed at the northwest corner of Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Today it is an evaluation site for monitoring the performance of close to 70 magnolia trees and seedlings.
One product of Smith’s work is the ‘Ginter Spicy White’ cultivar that he developed at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, for which it was named. He hand-pollinated select magnolia plants that bloomed later in spring with the goal of developing a new, late-blooming cultivar that would not be susceptible to late- spring frosts, such as those experienced this year. The result was ‘Ginter Spicy White,’ which bloomed for the first time in May 2010, and exuded a lemony-mint fragrance. It was formally registered with the International Magnolia Society. In April 2013, the Garden honored Smith’s achievements with a Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The future of horticulture does lie in the work of people discovering or creating new plants,” Smith said. “Hybridizing is an ongoing learning experience, and the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn.”

Editor’s Note: This article first published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in May  2013.  Since this article first published, we’ve had alot of inquiries at the Admissions Desk about where you can find ‘Ginter Spicy White.’ I’ll try to post some directions here, although it’s a bit hard to find, and off the beaten path. You’ll find it in our test bed, which is behind the Conservatory. The easiest way to get there is to walk through the Children’s Garden and up behind the Lucy Payne Minor & Streb Gardens on the service road. You’ll see an irrigation lake on your right, and the test beds just before it. ‘Ginter Spicy White’ is one of the largest and tallest  trees in the test bed, with lighter colored leaves, and big blooms with a slight pink tinge. Make sure you stop to smell it when you find it! The fragrance is so wonderful. ~Jonah Holland 

‘Ginter Spicy White’

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden volunteers Sherry Giese and Daune Poklis work together to divide plants & push them into holes in the island.

A crew of Garden volunteers and staff from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation planted  and installed a ‘floating wetland’ right here in Lake Sydnor at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this week.  The floating garden is believed to be the first in Richmond, and it will help improve water quality in the lake, absorbing  and removing nutrients from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. CBF’s Upham Brook Watershed Restoration Project is made possible by a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund using funds generated by the sale of the Chesapeake Bay license plates in Virginia. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is thrilled to be a partner. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on the improvements we see in the water quality. A second floating island will be installed in a pond at the Belmont Golf Course.
Aimee Bushman, educator,  for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation explains, “Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint to restore the Bay and its tributaries calls upon all of us to do our part to reduce pollution. The floating wetland is a great example of how non-profits, government, businesses, and citizens can work together and make progress. The wetland will reduce pollution in the Upham Brook and Bay watersheds, provide food and habitat for wildlife, and do so in a natural, aesthetically beautiful, and cost-effective way. Everyone wins.”

Be sure to scroll through the photos to see how we did it!

Garden staff and volunteers await delivery of the island. Pictured are Volunteers Sherry Giese & Ralph Ashton (right), Irrigation Tech John Niemczyk (center), Volunteer Buz Sawyer, and Gardener Patrick O’Hagan.

Teamwork (and a little push) can move the earth. On the left in the foreground is Director of Horticulture, Grace Chapman.

Carrying the island.

Easy does it!

The island

Volunteers & visitors watching the installation. The cinder blocks were dropped in the water as anchors.

Heavy blocks going down as anchors.

Done!

Curious about the plant list and design of the island? Here’s the floating wetland sketch (above) by Grace Chapman, Director of Horticulture, and her plant list (below).

Staff member Richard Kmetz putting the finishing touches on the vestibule in the North Wing of the Conservatory.

Guess what!?!  Here at Lewis Ginter we are counting down the days ’til Butterflies LIVE!   In fact, it starts less than 2 weeks from today!  Chrysalides are already arriving at the Conservatory and we are setting them up in our emergence room.

What’s new this year? We will release new butterflies each and every day at 10 a.m.  – and on Saturdays we’ll have two releases — with a second one at 2 p.m. Also this year we’ll have a butterfly nursery — a special wooden box that you can peer into and see butterflies emerging from their chrysalids.

And we will be featuring lots and lots of exotic butterfly-friendly plants!   Here are few of my favorites, I’ve chosen them because they are so beautiful. But the truth is the butterfly curators chose them for their nectar value.  These beauties will be feeding the butterflies!  Can’t wait to see you on May 24th.

Cat’s whiskers plant aka Orthosiphon stamineus will be making an appearance at Butterflies LIVE! Who knew Butterflies love cat’s whiskers!

Red shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) another big draw for butterflies!

Clerodendrum thomsoniae, bleeding heart vine, is showy & butterflies like to too!

Rose season is officially upon us!  This is one of the first blooms to open this year, Rosa ‘Livin’ Easy’. Over the course of the next week, there will be tens of thousands of additional blooms of all shapes, sizes, and fragrances opening up.  I am looking forward to your visit!

What do you get when you take an empty field, add piles of twigs, branches, moss, cardboard boxes, stumps, seed pods, pine cones, raffia, magnolia leaves and fabric, and then add hundreds of children and their adults? A Loose Parts Party!

That’s exactly what the Children’s Garden dreamed up for our spot at the first Explore the Outdoors community event held at  the Community Idea Stations & Huguenot Park last weekend.

This raft took over an hour of planning, building, and re-building before it was deemed seaworthy!

Intrepid Children’s Garden volunteers, Barb and Buz Sawyer, their grandson, Andrew Cobus, and I spent the afternoon fielding the most popular question of the day, “What do we DO here?”  The answer: “Use your imagination and create!” And boy, did they create! Rafts, hats, tepees, fairy houses, wands, castles (one with a working draw bridge!), animal habitats, and more.

Check out all the builders in the background!

It might look like the kids are ‘just having fun’, but this open-ended nature play develops important skills we all need to be successful adults. Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability, communication, leadership — who knew these skills could be nurtured through a pile of sticks, rocks, and moss? The staff and volunteers in the Children’s Garden, of course! And don’t worry if you missed the event, you still have the chance to experience the magic of loose parts. Come visit the newest addition to the Children’s Garden, NaturePlay, and build a few important life skills while creating a fantastical masterpiece yourself!

Building teamwork skills AND a stump/rock tower!

The mature landscape, though beautiful, proves challenging for the inexperienced homeowner. Shown here is the Henry M. Flagler Garden, one of the more mature areas at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Photo by Sue Liddell

Accept it, gardeners — change is the norm for gardens and landscapes. Nature alters growing conditions through ever-changing weather and seasons, as does the interaction of plants, insects and wildlife. Man creates modifications each time he clears trees to plant grass, introduces non-native species or adds hardscape features.
Another way our environs change is through the progressive maturing of plants and trees over time. From the day an area is cultivated and planted, it begins to alter. Over the years the maturing process may completely change a garden’s growing conditions – available sunlight, moisture, soil condition, temperature and space – and therefore the species of plants and trees that will thrive there. The savvy gardener not only recognizes the subtle changes of a maturing garden, he flexibly and knowledgeably adapts with them.
The Henry M. Flagler Garden at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden exemplifies the gradual changes that a garden landscape experiences over time. In 1990, the area was treeless and sunny with open-ended vistas. Perennials were the hot topic of the day, and the botanical Garden staff appropriately planted an extensive collection of sun-loving, herbaceous perennials, accented by flowering shrubs and trees. Fast forward 20-plus years and the Flagler Garden has naturally transformed from a sun garden to primarily a shade garden as trees grew tall, expanded their leaf canopies and created areas of significant shade. Shrubs grew into mature widths and heights. Root systems became denser, causing competition for available nutrients and moisture. And while many of the Flagler Garden’s more than 1,200 different plants and trees adapted well to the gradual changes, others found it less ideal and declined. Horticulturists are now reworking this mature garden, and their tips may benefit homeowners who are dealing with similar situations.
Staff is selectively pruning large trees’ lower limbs to increase available sunlight and improve air circulation. Increased understory light avoids plant “legginess,” as well as lopsidedness caused by branches stretching toward the light needed for growth. With more light and air flow, moisture remains on leaves of understory plants for shorter time periods, reducing the risk and spread of disease. In other places, the horticulturists are transplanting sun-loving plants or repositioning plant beds to take advantage of existing sunlight. 
Initially, the Flagler Garden was densely planted with small nursery stock for immediate impact. Now, with maturing specimens, plants are being thinned to provide ideal space for their current size and long-term health. Less density reduces habitats for voles and other garden pests, as well.
When plant replacements are necessary, staff follows the “right plant – right place” practice, which in this case means transitioning to shade-loving species. They also seek to introduce natives and native hybrids, often more adapted to our climate. Organic materials are being used to improve soil structure and quality, and appropriate pH spurs the intake of natural nutrients. Additionally, “useless turf” will be reduced to increase display areas.
Rather than fighting change in the garden, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden recommends embracing it. Try to understand the mature garden’s natural processes, take appropriate steps and then enjoy your rejuvenated landscape.
Editor’s Note: This article first published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch,  in May 2012.

A child’s illustration of celery & how it will grow from food scraps.

When I met with Ellen Shepard, the woman behind the intricate gardens and orchard at Linwood Holton Elementary School, I never expected to end up talking about zombies, But that’s exactly how it happened. Zombie plants that is.

I’d never heard of them, but you can be sure if there is a trend in school gardening, Shepard’s heard of it — and tried it with the kids at Holton. So what exactly is zombie gardening?  Bringing plants to life from the “dead.”  I think you throw in the word zombie, and the kids get excited just by the idea of it! OK, so maybe I have heard of this. We used to grow avocados from avocado seeds when I was a kid! In this case, the kids at Holton are taking a celery bottom that’s been cut off so the stalks could be eaten, and they’ll plant it to see if it grows. They’ll  try the same thing with any other plant discards — green onion, pineapples,  carrot tops. Not all of them have to be successful Shepard explains, just enough of them so that the kids can learn about what it is that might or might not make a scrap of a plant successful in “coming back to life.”  It’s all part of an experiment to engage the kids in learning about nature, where there food comes from, how it grows and the environment.  The idea came from one of the teachers, Mrs. Hooker.

Did you know a pineapple top can grow a pineapple?

I’ve admired the gardens and orchard at Holton Elementary School, called  The Dandelion (Holton’s mascot is the lion), for a long, long time.  But until I visited with Shepard, I never knew that there was a deep connection between their garden and ours.   Although they’d talked about making an outdoor learning classroom for kids before,  Shepard says it wasn’t until 2009, when several of their teachers attended a symposium here at the Garden, No Child Left Inside: Restoring Nature to Early Childhood, that they teachers and the parents felt really motivated to make it happen. “We’ve tried to do training, but they are just not as inspirational. You [Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden] has these amazing speakers who are able to inspire our teachers, and that happened at No Child Left Inside.”

So how Shepard manage to raise Red Ace beets, broccoli, broccoli raab, several types of carrots, chard, chicory/endive, collards, kale, Romaine lettuce, wildlife lettuce mix, Easter egg radishes, deep purple scallions, spinach, 3 kinds of peas, cilantro, potatoes, and nasturtium, an orchard, and hundreds of kids working in the outdoor classroom?  Twenty-eight out of  30 classes want to go out and plant.  She and another mom, Susanna Raffenot, facilitate that happening, plus they are always looking for volunteers to help.The Dandelion includes 24 raised garden beds. The gardens encourages wildlife habitat and pollinators through the more than 200 primarily native trees students have planted. Plus, there’s a bluebird trail; and a butterfly garden, which is in the shape of a butterfly and has plants that attract butterflies. Water conservation features include a shed with a live roof, six rain barrels, and a small rain garden with a large one in the works. The Dandelion includes 24 raised garden beds. The gardens encourages wildlife habitat and pollinators through the more than 200 primarily native trees students have planted. Plus, there’s a bluebird trail; and a butterfly garden, which is in the shape of a butterfly and has plants that attract butterflies. Water conservation features include a shed with a live roof, six rain barrels, and a small rain garden with a large one in the works.

Holton received over $75,000 in contributions and in-kind donations  including from principal David Hudson’s R.E.B. award for Distinguished Leadership,  Bon Secours,  Holton PTA, local parents, community members and businesses.  In-kind contributions included the roof on the outdoor classroom, live roof on the shed, site grading, stone dust for the classroom, irrigation, bricks, and plants.  Raffenot says, “The gardens would not be where they are without husband/wife team (and former Holton parents) Mary Lorino and Chris Chase. They did all the design work, engineering, and construction lead, coordinating and acquiring the materials. They were awarded a Golden Hammer for Best Neighborhood Design by the Better Housing Coalition. They provided maps and a 3-D model to help us visualize and promote our dream; and spent a lot of time with City of Richmond getting the plans approved.”

Ongoing parent support has helped keep the gardens green and planted.

A Holton Elementary School student checking the bluebird house on the Bluebird Trail.

“This year we were contacted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that installed the first rain garden and will install a much larger one this June.”  HandsOnRVA  coordinated two garden work days and projects this year including a human sun clock; and the Virginia Bluebird Society that installed the bluebird trail.

And look who’s inspiring who! Each time I walk by the Holton gardens, I’m inspired to do more with my own vegetable garden at home, and in teaching my children more about where their food comes from. Meanwhile, the zombie vegetable trend continues on Pinterest and elsewhere. Want to learn more about “zombie gardening” try the Huffington Post or these helpful hints from Frugal Living.  Just don’t search for “zombie plants” on Pinterest!

by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Photographer Tyler Darden captured a sweet moment the other morning of a mother and child in the Flagler Perennial Garden.  It got me thinking, there are so many special places here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. What’s your favorite?