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In the Company of Old Catalogs
By Lori Chips
Since 2014 is the 50th anniversary of Oliver Nurseries opening in Fairfield, Connecticut, there has been a fair amount of thought and talk centered on the good old days. It is not so much, I think, that we want to be back in those days. It is more that, to know ourselves now, it helps to look back at what we were then. So in this spirit I have recently been going through some of Oliver's vintage catalogs and, as luck would have it, happened to open a few that contained some landmarks for us.
In the spring of 1978, Oliver Nurseries constructed the planted wall garlanded in spring in bellflowers. This wall means a lot to me as alpine manager as it continually inspires customers - and it was built by the late Ellie Brinkerhoff Spingarn. It has been such an important feature here for so long it is hard to imagine the nursery without it. In the '78 catalog there is a list of alpines favored for the site. Featured are the aubrietas and campanulas just as they are featured today in the wall itself, along with Armerias, Dianthus, Geranium dalmaticum, Erinus alpinus, Penstemon, Phlox, and Lewisias. I wonder how many of the mats, patches and mounds from which I take cuttings yearly are from those original plantings? And the lion's share of that list still appears on our sales benches in spring; augmented, of course, by new discoveries, cultivars and introductions.
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1. Wall garden under construction, 1976; 2. Early days in the wall garden; 3. Close-up of wall garden cascaders; 4. View of the wall garden.
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A few years ago I acquired a spriglet of Achillea tomentosa at a rock garden sale. It was mislabeled, but I planted it out in my home garden. I finally got it identified and took some cuttings; it is now found among the "A" plants which are listed alphabetically on the sales bench. When I flipped to the first page in the alpine section (1978 catalog) there it was, listed first.
Also very evident were many woodlanders and wildflowers listed under the alpine aegis, and shrubs as well. Anemonella, arctostaphylos, arisaema, bloodroot, broom and daphne, heaths, leiophyllum, mitchella and trillium, all now listed elsewhere. Does that mean the definition of alpine plants has somehow changed in the intervening years? I will be the first to admit that the rock gardeners I know are very interested in these plants, too. But no, it is actually the nursery that has changed. When Oliver's began, we specialized in azaleas, rhododendrons and conifers, plus all things choice, woody and dwarf. But from this point, Oliver's seems to have developed in a way unlike many other nurseries. Alpines came next.
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Ellie at Oliver's
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When Ellie Spingarn joined the team, she was a dedicated member of the American Rock Garden Society (now known as the North American Rock Garden Society [NARGS]. Her expertise and passion transformed, not only what was sold (alpines and troughs) but also what was planted in the display gardens. Back then a lot more space was devoted to rock gardens, some of them, I gather, mixing with the dwarf woody material.
Tossed into this mix at around the same time were bonsais and aquatics. The water plants were still here in remnants when I came on board in 1996, and there were a few bonsai kicking around. Bonsai were big back then, I am told. Apparently, John Oliver became fascinated by this discipline after watching a demonstration at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York City in the mid-1970s. Subsequently, a bonsai expert was hired at the nursery who also taught classes in the barn.
The next edition of our catalog that I cracked open was still subtitled: "Rhododendrons * Azaleas * Evergreens * Rock Plants" - the year was 1984 and it happened to be the 20th anniversary of Oliver's in Fairfield, Connecticut. The first thing I noticed (with horror) is that we offered Aegopodium podagraria variegatum. The plant, thankfully now banned in Connecticut, is known as goutweed and is a devastatingly invasive exotic thug, moving by both seed and rhizomes. This variegated form readily reverts to its even more thuggish plain green form. The second thing I noticed was that it was typed as a trinomial which does not exist in botanical Latin.
In this list from 1984 it is also evident that many of the rock garden plants could only have come from seed. Perhaps only a propagator would notice or care. But here are names such as Arabis androsacea, Arenaria norvegica, and Dianthus microlepis, none of which are ever really available through retail or wholesale. One detects the seed sower behind the writer on some entries.
And then there is this:
"COLLECTORS ALPINES"
"In addition to the listed material, a section of the Rock Garden Department is devoted to Collectors Alpines. It includes some of the jewels of the high mountains, plains and woods, which are seldom available, and never in quantity. Some of the choice varieties we expect to have during the 1984 season are Draba polytricha, Dracocephalum botryoides, Daphne arbuscula, Campanula aucheri, Linaria alpina, Romanzoffia sitchensis, Polygala calcarea, Onosma nana, and Hymenoxis acaulis - such things as dreams are made of."
Many of these have graced our benches over time, some have proved to be resentful of humidity or martyrs to slugs, and one is actually too invasive (Linaria alpina.) Some we would still love to get our hands on. Except the romanzoffia - we will have to look into that one... So the dreams, I guess, are still alive.
In this issue I notice the appearance of the gentians, G. acaulis in particular, which always figures so strongly in our crop and on the wish list of customers. The clone we have is a reliable and beautiful bloomer in that most incredibly saturated cobalt blue, a classic from the Alps.
So, as I notice the swelling of the numbers of herbaceous perennials in this list, I definitely sense that a split off will happen somewhere down the road. For example, this same year:
"Hemerocallis hybrids. We have given in to demand, and this year we will have a nice selection of hybrid daylilies in all the nicest colors - yellows, peach, pink, deep red. Daylilies are not fussy as to culture, but they bloom best in full sun. They can be used in almost any garden situation, from naturalizing to the formal perennial border, or as a background planting. Summer bloomers."
Not a single warning about deer! Things come and go in popularity, but it seems, less and less people now are willing to take a chance on these deer hors d'oeuvres any more. I remember my first year here at Oliver's. At the end of the spring season, alpines were expected to be over with. The few stragglers were rounded up like refugees and made to give up their space to an incoming tide of big bright leafy daylilies. Now, I like daylilies and I grow some in my garden, but for a devoted rock gardener, this was painful stuff.
In the 1984 list, hostas are granted, not just a box, but a whole list of cultivars. And in this we can see the beginning bones of our shade department. Interestingly, the list included several species Hosta plantaginaea, H. tokedama and H. tardiflora. A limited number of iris were listed, but no peonies in sight yet.
Primulas were also well represented with a jumble of rock garden, shade, show and wetlands kinds tossed together alphabetically. This is as good a place as any to mention that over the years we have improved our catalog information to the customer, and our consistency. We attempt to give each plant a height and width, sun and shade symbols, common name, family name and zone assignations. But to be fair, in 1984 the struggle to do that research must have been unquestionably daunting.
Finally there is an entry that freezes me in my tracks:
"Shortia galicifolia. Oconee Bells. This plant has a fascinating history. First discovered in 1788 in the Carolina Mountains and then lost again, not to be rediscovered until the 1900's. It has never been found in the wild anywhere else. The mother plants we have were rescued from flooding for a dam. With dark shiny evergreen leaves, and bell-like white flowers on 6-8" stems in May, this plant is outstanding in all seasons. Scarlet-bronze winter color."
I have read long labored accounts of plant hunters exploring to rediscover this beautiful wildflower. (Read more about this Wild Flower of Mystery). The Shortia story is somewhat legendary among plant geeks. Apparently, a rescue around 1984 was made because mother plants existed at the nursery. But, sadly, Oliver's no longer has those mother plants. They were not here when I arrived in 1996 which does not surprise me. In all these years we have attempted a number of times to acquire and to keep this beautiful native. It is rare and so-very-hard to keep happy. It wants earthy forest duff but moisture, too. However, treated water is anathema to it, so if one hasn't a well one had better have a rain barrel. And not ever forget oneself while using the hose.
Once, and never again, we ordered Shortia from a company that shipped them in layers of newspapers with other wildings entangled with them, and barely a root on any. These, surely, had been scraped out of the wild and they did not survive. A hard lesson for us; we are very careful now when sourcing plants, ensuring they be not only nursery grown, but nursery propagated. In all the times I have attended plant society meetings, even during my time at the New York Botanical Garden, I can only count a handful of times I have seen, perhaps, one plant of Shortia galicifolia for sale. And you can bet every other member of the rabid plant cognoscenti in attendance saw it, too.
I would love to hear the back story of that Shortia rescue. But I cannot imagine the crazy combination of emotions such a rescue would engender in me if I were the one standing there to help. Here would be a colony of rare and endangered plants, nodding in dappled shade, in their native haunt. Over there would be bulldozers, or some other giant earth moving machines. And there I would be, with a trowel and the healthy acquisitiveness of a plant propagator, but disturbed and darkened by overarching grief over the loss of a perfect habitat.
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Neillia sinensis
By Vincent LoVerme  | |
Neillia sinensis narrow zigzagging stems.
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To appeal to those of you looking for something a little more unusual to add to the garden this season, here's a plant you may want to consider. I happened upon some cuttings a few years ago, and rooted a bunch since it's one of those plants you hardly ever see available in the trade. They have all now come of size and are ready for sale. The Chinese Neillia gets to be a medium sized shrub about 5 to 6 feet high and wide.
It grows in a rounded fashion with arching branches of zigzagging stems that exfoliate with age. New leaves emerge reddish and mature to a rich green color. They are sharply toothed and free of insect and disease problems. The flowers are quite charming in my opinion, with just the right amount of show, not overly offensive, nor are they understated. In May, they are produced in nodding 1 to 2 ½-inch long terminal racemes. They begin a rich deep pink color in bud and fully open to delicate pink.  | |
Neillia flowers in May on old wood.
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Don't let the ultimate size of the plant scare you as it can be easily cut back after flowering to be maintained at a smaller size. Timing is important since it blooms from buds formed the previous season. In the landscape, Neillia can be used singly, as it does offer good textural contrast, in groupings, or even in mass. As a native of central China, it can withstand low temperatures of -20F, thus considered winter hardy to zone 5. Being rare in the trade, this species is both underused and unappreciated, and given its attributes, hopefully will become more available in the future.
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BOOK REVIEW A Singular Vision: Architecture Art Landscape
by Tom Armstrong
By Kimberly Day Proctor
 There was an era at Oliver Nurseries when as surely as the arrival of the first honey bees, there was the bright flash of orange that signaled Tom Armstrong's arrival in his distinctive Volkswagen Bug. Out he would pop sporting his bow tie and sport coat with his latest plant list in hand. His enthusiasm was limitless; his plant choices methodically researched and in longhand on lined paper, carefully itemized. While Scott Jamison and many others from Oliver's had years of input in the landscape on Tom's property known both as "Hoover Hall" and later as "Hooverness" on Fisher's Island, the vision was his. That vision, so aptly titled has been detailed and beautifully wrought by Armstrong himself in the volume A Singular Vision: Architecture Art Landscape published in 2011 by The Quantuck Lane Press.
Tom Armstrong's remarkable story of this property and the various incarnations that it went through are astounding. Understanding those transformations and how they came about is the offering here in this book. The connections between architecture, art and landscape were the main connections of his life. His background in curating and his years of experience as director of museums, the Whitney Museum of American Art included, forged the way he approached each and every day. From his introduction to the book, "This book is about the joy of seeing - of having a particular visual response to art and design within a house and its adjacent landscape."
A bit of back story... Tom and his wife Bunty together purchased the property on Fisher's Island. From 1986 through 1989 the Colonial Revival house, originally built in 1926, underwent extensive renovations. During that time Tom began to lay out the axes of the landscape, from the long entry to the front of the house to the wide horizon of the water beyond. His garden rooms were developed with balance and counterbalance, the straight line and the curved. The house became known as "Hoover Hall". Over the next eighteen years its carefully curated contents grew to include original John James Audubon prints, fine eighteenth and nineteenth century furnishings, Tiffany lamps and Steuben glass pieces. In the middle of December 2003, an accidental fire destroyed the house and many of its irreplaceable contents.
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Image from A Singular Vision
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Stunned and overwhelmed by the loss, Tom buried the memory of that house under a green swath of sod the first spring after the fire. The gardens themselves had suffered little damage. Suddenly with the structure of the house no longer there, the view was opened up from the driveway entry through the boscage of apple trees to the horizon of the water beyond. What Tom Armstrong did with that new vista, how he created something entirely new and unexpected is the remainder of his story here. "I have always wanted to live in a greenhouse surrounded by plants... a modernist steel-and-glass house was to become my greenhouse." Five years later the "greenhouse" was deemed complete and the artwork was hung.
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Image from A Singular Vision
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While the stunning architecture and the art collection that it housed were surely important, it seemed that Tom's heart was always in the garden. Having begun gardening as a young boy, winning prizes with his flower arrangements, Tom's connection to growing plants was undeniable. "As the garden evolved, I realized for the first time in my life that in looking at nature I am contemplating the same concepts that I celebrate in art. The landscape that I created is my ultimate creative endeavor..." The reader of A Singular Vision is then taken on "The Garden Walk" through twenty-five different garden environments, from the sunny drifts of thousands of daffodils and the linden allée, to the azalea garden, the pool garden and the Japanese iris garden, and beyond.
Just as the last pages of this book were being laid out in June of 2011, Tom Armstrong died unexpectedly. This book speaks so clearly about the man and the artist that he was.
This spring and for springs to come, the daffodils will be blooming again at Hooverness as will the banks of azaleas, rhododendrons, and magnolias... a very fitting tribute indeed.
Kimberly Day Proctor has worked as a landscape designer and illustrator in Connecticut for the last 30 years. The fields of horticulture and art have dovetailed well. Her illustrations have appeared in the annual catalog of Oliver Nurseries. Her ink and wash drawings accompanied author Sydney Eddison's memoir titled Gardening for a Lifetime.
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Elle Ronis' rock garden, with tufa.
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This Garden Rocks! By Elle Ronis I lived and worked in New York City for many years. Then, ten years ago, my husband Michael Ronis, who was the founding Chef and owner of Carmine's restaurant, and I decided to buy a house in Stamford, Connecticut. When we bought it, there wasn't a single flowering plant on the property. As time went by I discovered that I loved planting and growing flowers, and I went crazy haunting all kinds of nurseries and stores that sold flowering plants. Without any plan I put the plants in all over my two acres of property, and it ended up looking like a research garden! Over the years, I have become keenly aware of how important it is to plan and design a garden, and I learned how and when to move things to make the garden more aesthetically pleasing. After ten years, I still consider myself a beginner.
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Elle's rock garden, looking toward her ephemeral garden.
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There was a much neglected remnant of a rock garden in the back yard. And being into herbaceous plants, I decided to take out all the material in between the rocks and replaced it with native garden soil, then put in common types of plants that had nothing to do with alpine or rock gardening. When I discovered Oliver Nurseries and Lori Chips, I became very interested in alpine plants and remaking this rock garden properly. So I once again removed everything I had previously done and started over with the proper medium for the alpine plants. As I became more sophisticated I learned about tufa rock. With Lori's help I was able to build tufa extensions onto the shady side and the sunny side of the rock garden. These pictures are the result of the rock garden after three years of development. Oliver Nurseries has been my main source of plant material for this garden, so I have to give Lori all the credit. Because of her incredible knowledge, which has been invaluable to me, I now have a beautiful and quite interesting rock garden. |
Back by Popular Demand, A Rock Garden Not to be Missed  On May 4, 2014, The Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program will once again feature Anne Spiegel's spectacular rock garden in Wappinger's Falls, New York. Last year, many of our local customers made the trek to see her garden and mentioned how inspiring it was. The conservancy writes of Anne's garden: "The dramatic natural setting of this rock garden is the first thing visitors notice. The massive and beautiful outcrop has been enhanced by a series of stone-walled raised beds constructed on stepped ledges and cliffs and planted with choice specimens. Included in the extensive screes and sand beds will be found alpines on many a rock gardener's wish list: Astragalus, Oxytropis and Penstemon are exceptionally well represented, but the list could go on. The north end of the garden had to be rebuilt after the tornado of 2000; the south end has been extended and developed into a series of tufa and crevice beds which have reached the top of the cliff and the natural crevices on the back of the cliff are now being planted. The sunny and windy garden is never watered due to an inadequate well and there is continuing experimentation with xerophytic and drought tolerant plants. There is also a separate fenced stream garden, home to plants that like wet feet, and a new area beyond the north end of the cliff is being developed for hellebores and other shade lovers. This garden is a testament to both Nature and Nurture: the site is spectacular, but the dedicated hand of the gardener is everywhere adeptly and discreetly in evidence. The garden received the prestigious Linc and Timmy Foster Millstream Garden Award in 2011 from the North American Rock Garden Society." Anne's garden will be open from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., and admission is $5.00. |
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