A Visit To The Norfolk Botanical Garden

Last week, I was lucky enough to visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, VA.  It rained the entire day and I was still so entranced with the gardens.  Perhaps the trees were my favorite part -- the Botanical Garden is home to 23 Virginia State Champion Trees, and even trees that weren't champions were still lovely.  I saw an old crabapple that must be magnificent in the spring.  The Flowering Arboretum alone spreads over 17 acres and is home to 336 different flowering trees.  The rain seemed to make the trunks of the crapemyrtles even more striking:  below is the trunk of 'Natchez' crapemyrtle, shining in the rain.

Crapemyrtle 'Natchez'

I loved the Japanese Garden too.  Dedicated in 1962, this garden was designed in the traditional hill-and-pond style.  The cloud-pruned hollies were striking and I loved the bonsai of the Elephant Bush (or portulacaria.)  Since I couldn't be there at dusk or dawn, perhaps a rainy, overcast day was perfect.  It's a very muted, peaceful place.

Portulacaria Bonsai

Just outside the Japanese Garden

Inside the Japanese Garden

The tropical display house was steamy and quiet -- it reminded me of the conservatory in an old movie.  It's where I saw the beautiful 3-foot-long specimen of Southern Maidenhair Fern.  No more need be said on that subject!  But I was also quite taken with the zebrina and various begonias.

Inside the Tropical House

I love to visit botanical gardens, especially when I'm unaccompanied by minor children.  Norfolk Botanical Gardens was a special treat and I only wish I had been able to spend more time there.

Some People Don't Garden

I've been thinking lately about people who aren't interested in gardening.  (Yes, they're out there.  Lots of them!)  I read an interesting post on Garden Rant several days ago about planting meadows on the standard quarter-acre lot.  The post dovetailed with something that's been on my mind for several years now: the disconnect between the gardening aficionado and the  typical owner of a front yard.  Now, I'm sure this gulf exists between the hardcore fans of anything and the more mundane citizen.  I notice it when people talk to me about certain TV shows.  I'm just not interested.  I don't know, I don't care, I don't have the first clue.  And I know in my heart, I would never pay money or spend my time to find out.

(Photo: Native Texas Wildscapes, Houston, Texas)

I bet non-gardeners feel the same way when garden people recommend hort-trendy stuff like bogs, meadows, wildlife habitats, rainwater harvesting or replacing lawns with vegetables.  I'm thinking now about bloggers, writers, Master Gardening groups, garden clubs, etc.  I talk to average people who are concerned about the environment and who want to "be green," but they have no idea how to do it.  Sometimes the answers coming from the horticultural community are completely insensitive to the ability and interests of these folks.  Take native gardens, for example.  There are some fantastic gardeners doing wonderful things with native gardens in Texas.  But it is not a project for someone whose prior gardening experience was paying the lawn guy.  It takes specialized knowledge, hard work and lots of time to get "front yard" results.

(Photo:  Michelle Christman)

Personally, I'm very attracted to the idea of the front-yard vegetable garden.  I love those Edible Estates people. Nothing would please me more than thumbing my nose at my local HOA and planting cowpeas on the front yard.  I'd be sued into the middle of next week if I tried it, though.  Likely couldn't get away with a meadow either, or native grasses or a wildflower garden or a wildlife habitat.  And I'm interested!  I have the time and the interest and the knowledge to do all these things (and I do them in my tiny back yard) and I can't pull it off in the front yard.

(Not my house!)

So what are we going to recommend for people who don't garden for fun but work in the yard because it came with the house?  They need a place for the kids to play and they need to stay out of trouble with the HOA. They aren't interested in devoting all their free time to gardening, but they love the Earth as much as the next guy and would like to "be greener."  Can we just start with some baby steps, please?  Like how to manage a St. Augustinegrass lawn with fewer chemicals?  Or how to properly operate the sprinkler system that came with the house?  Or simply not to dump chemicals into the storm drains?  Does it all have to be so esoteric all the time?

Telfair

I like to watch what goes on with big, commercial landscape projects.  It affects, at least subliminally, what homeowners look for in the garden center.  And it's fun to see what can be accomplished when you really throw money at a project.

For the past several years, I've been observing the landscaping at Telfair, a master-planned community near Sugar Land.  Overall, I really like how they've combined the planting style of the Old South with plants that are more suitable for the coastal plains.  Most of the plants they've used are common enough:  I'm sure you've seen plenty of Knockout roses lately.  Here they are combined with bulbine, planted along the west side of a brick wall.  Both these plants are well-suited for such a hot location.

Knockout roses are repeated in various hedge formations throughout the development.  Here at the corner of University and New Territory, they've allowed the roses to get up closer to their natural height -- and it's a pretty impressive sight.  Most people don't seem to realize that these roses, if left to their own devices, will easily exceed 6 feet in height. Here, they're planted with magnolias -- more about them later.

Here and there you'll find plots of native and "sort of" native grasses, like Gulf Coast Muhly and Mexican Feather Grass.  I like these grasses massed together like this.  It has more impact, I think, than dotting them here and there in the home landscape.  There are also large plantings of giant liriope and Aztec grass.  The Aztec grass would probably be a bit happier if it were getting some afternoon shade.  I think it struggles here in the full sun.  Maybe when the trees are a little bigger, they'll perk up.

Speaking of trees, I was very worried when Telfair moved in a number of very large sycamore trees.  It always amazes me when landscape architects attempt this.  And frankly, it amazes me that they are so successful when they do it -- a tribute not only to the tree movers, but to someone who's planning the watering.  These sycamores put up with quite a severe drought last summer and then an unusually harsh winter, but only one looks thin and peaked.  Perhaps they'll all survive if we don't have another drought.

I like the red and yellow color scheme too.  They've been able to combine perennials like roses, daylilies, pentas, lantana, and bulbine with the vivid red annual coleus.  Here and there, the red and yellow color scheme is punctuated with a very dark blue agapanathus.  There are also pentas, which may or may not be perennial in our climate.  I imagine they are treating them as annuals.

In keeping with the Old South tradition, there are many different colors of crape myrtles planted at Telfair.  The white ones are possibly Natchez, notable for the beautiful exfoliating bark.  The watermelon-colored ones may be Tuscarora and there are some pretty little pink ones too.  I like this area -- planted more closely than usual, and underplanted with giant liriope.

My favorite thing about the Telfair landscape are these beautiful stands of magnolia trees.  I hear from people who should know that they are a new cultivar called "Miss Chloe."  They've been rapid growers at Telfair and are just lovely.  I'm so glad they are leaving them full to the ground, instead of limbing them up like "normal" trees.  It adds a very stately touch to the overall site plan.

In fact, the trees overall are outstanding.  Baldcypresses are planted near the lakes.  Several different varieties of oaks are planted throughout the development.  Even though the landscape is very young, it already has a lush, mature look.  That's what lots of money for big trees will get you!