Raleigh, North Carolina: Horticultural Hot Spot!

October 1, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, New Plants, Nursery Tags: John Bartram Lectures, John Bartram Lives, John Bartram Travels 2 Comments

“The only thing that two gardeners ever agree on is what the third gardener does wrong.” Tony Avent, Plants Delight Nursery

I love traveling. You might be able to tell from the illustrations on all of these pages. I especially enjoy traveling back to North Carolina. My step-brother lived on a plantation near Wilmington.

Kirk R. Brown and Tony Avent touring Plants Delight and Juniper Level Botanic Garden.

These days it’s much easier to get to towns and cities more interior to my previous coastal travels. Raleigh is a prime example of a new city rich placed strategically on a confluence of roads and rivers. It is also a horticultural hotbed.

Hellebores were in season at Plants Delight. Lovely to touch; impossible to leave without purchase.

I recently visited the nursery and botanic garden of one of the country’s premiere horticultural professionals. Plants Delight is just that: a place where horticulture is displayed and priced to entice the most jaded of plant collectors. The attached display grounds are known as Juniper Level Botanic Garden.

Shipping and receiving at Plant Delights Nursery is very reminiscent of my own shipping operation at Bartram’s Garden. Big difference: corrugated cardboard, Styrofoam peanuts and plastic wrapping material.

These gardens are tended by plantsman extraordinaire, Tony Avent. He is a gentleman and a rabid Hortistician. He was a gracious host to my amanuensis and his traveling wife. If you are in the neighborhood it will be good for your soul to stop and touch the merchandise.

Around the table: Kirk R. Brown, Brienne Gluvna Arthur, Jared Barnes, Lizzi Lathers, Erin Weston. Enjoying the best barbecue in the south!

While still in Raleigh, I also made contact with a new generation of professional plants people. Dinner with them was both entertaining and educational. I know that I shall reflect on the experience for many a future experience with people younger than 100 years old.

Dr. Jared Barnes was introduced to his alter ego in the latest edition of Organic Gardening. He was named one of the horticulture’s rising star by Ken Druse.

Brienne Gluvna Arthur working at Camellia Forest Nursery.

Brienne Gluvna Arthur, Dr. Jared Barnes, Erin L. Weston and Lizzi Lathers are in a group of rising stars of horticulture and should be watched…closely, carefully, and regularly…to see how their rooting is coming.

Brienne Gluvna Arthur holding Cubby while Sara E. Stine Brown looks on with the envy only a cat person could have.

West Chester University Tree Campus USA

March 7, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Colonial American Life, Garden writers, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., New Plants, Sustainability Tags: Arbor Day, Earth Day, Franklinia alatamaha, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Tree Campus USA, West Chester University Leave a comment

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” Mahatma Gandhi

John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Humphrey Marshall, West Chester University, Tree Campus USA, Darlington Herbarium

A gathering of tree tenders.

West Chester University was named Tree Campus USA. A ceremony of dedication was planned by School’s Administration during Earth Week and specifically on Arbor Day.

Formal dedication of the Tree Campus USA with the great Bartram Oak standing behind.

In order to qualify for Tree Campus USA status, an institution of higher learning must submit an application that demonstrates they have adhered to a set of five standards:

The office of the President of West Chester University. Mr. and Mrs. Greg Weisenstein with Mr. and Mrs. John Bartram.

Standard 1—Establish a Campus Tree Advisory Committee. This committee must include a representative from the undergraduate or graduate student body, faculty, facility management, and the community at large.

John and Ann Mendenhall Bartram near the gothic arcade.

Standard 2—Manage a Campus-wide Tree Care Plan. From a clearly stated purpose, goals and objectives will be outlined. Responsibility and accountability will be defined.

A true photographic opportunity.

Standard 3—Campus Tree Program with Dedicated Annual Expenditures. The hard work of establishing any garden is the money required to plant and maintain it. A suggested budget of $3.00 per student is a base line. In fact, the national average among recognized Tree Campuses is currently $9.00 to $11.00 per student. That is an empowering statement of intent.

The Earth Day celebration carried over onto the Campus Quadrangle.

Standard 4—Celebrate Arbor Day. I was present to witness the monumental undertakings that the college had put in place.

A War Reinactment and conflict of interesting peoples.

They had a grand military reenactment, a quad-full of earth day student organizations, and the recognition of their Bartram Oak. With John Bartram. Outstanding!

Schedule 5 has students, faculty and the community planting trees on the West Chester University Campus

Standard 5—Development of a Service Learning Project. At West Chester, the student body was actively involved in a series of tree planting and gardening projects. This was a very life-affirming group of young adults.

In the wilderness searching for colonies of wild Ginseng.

After the ceremony, I was shown the wilderness preserve. It was the spring season when the forest floor was coming alive. The curator of the wilds directed me to an area fenced off as protection from deer predation. The fencing was protecting wild Ginseng.

In the Darlington Herbarium, perusing Humphrey Marshall’s collection of Bartram’s Garden Franklinia alatamaha.

Lastly, the director of the herbarium unlocked the door to a room of wonder. Behind locked metal doors on cabinets lining the walls were books filled with hundreds of dried examples of natural botanical history. A book was brought out and placed on the clean steel surface in front of me. It was the collection samples gathered by Humphrey Marshall from Bartram’s Garden.

Humphrey was my cousin. Our mothers were sisters. He had a collection of native specimens in a botanical garden he created in Marshallton. In 1785, he published Arboretum Americanum: the American Grove, an Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, Natives of the American United States.

And there in my hands was the result of his passionate dedication to collecting. From my garden. And possibly a leaf and flower from the first successfully cultivated Franklinia Altamaha.

The surprise of coming up against a Franklinia leaf collected from Bartram’s Garden in the first generation of its discovery.

A Gardener’s Studio

February 28, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Colonial American Life, Garden Clubs, Garden writers, Gardening, John Bartram is at home., Master Gardeners, New Plants Tags: Bartrams Boxes, Gardeners Studio, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia Flower Show Leave a comment

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” Greek proverb

“Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God.” Thomas Jefferson

Gardeners Studio, Philadelphia Flower Show, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown

John had help from the students at Williamson Technical School as well as the staff at PHS.

Staff members from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society asked me to talk. I agreed. If an opportunity presents itself to share a good word on the cause of botany before an enthusiastic audience, one should always accept it.

John Bartram Lives, Kirk R. Brown, Gardeners Studio, Philadelphia Flower Show, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

The audience was stilled by the discussion of John’s position in horticultural history.

The presentation was a give and take. Reviewing nearly 300 years of horticultural history can be a daunting proposition if all that’s covered is facts, figures, faces, and fictions.

After the introduction, I had the audience to myself.

It’s much better if the history takes second place to interest, enthusiasm and contemporary point of reference.

The amplification device suited my mood and costume.

I was directed to use a device to project my voice over a large area of benched seating. There was a crowd of people collected on the seats while others walked past during and around the events of the hour.

I had a full house at the first appearance.

Questions were asked and answered. And I was included in the discussion. “Who was I?” “What did I do?” “Are you William Penn?” (That was a popular question posed throughout the day!) “How do you ship plants in wooden ships?”

The snake on the stick was a great topic of conversation. Throughout my entire appearance on the show floor.

All of the questions were well received and thoroughly dissected.

Louise Clarke was present to confirm some of the horticultural details.

I must say that it was a pleasurable honor to be asked to speak. It was a momentous occasion to then have a repeat performance on a second night. It allowed me to change my linen and present a much more formal front.

Large format advertising. The best format there is!

As for my wife, Ann had finally been allowed to come out from the fireside and experience her husband’s rhetoric in the first person.

“Wait a moment!”

It’s a grand night when family members can come together in public to bask in the reflected glow of the limelight.

Kirk joins Sara out of context and out of character during the Press Preview of the Philadelphia Flower Show. It’s an awesome experience to see the exhibits being installed!

Kimmel Center and Chef Staib’s Taste of History

February 27, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Colonial American Life, Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home. Tags: Benjamin Franklin, Chef Walter Staib, City Tavern Philadelphia, First Ladies, Founding Fathers, John Bartram, Kimmel Center, Kirk R. Brown, Thomas Jefferson Leave a comment

“My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied by the best.” Winston Churchill

“There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.” Ben Franklin

It was an historic gathering. The cause was to celebrate a major anniversary of Mr. Thomas Jefferson. But the truth of the group’s selection was a celebration of food stuffs from the 18th Century.

Kirk R. Brown, John Bartram, Chef Walter Staib, A Taste of History, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia PA

Thomas Jefferson was in the spotlight. It was, after all, his birthday we were there to celebrate!

At the post-performance reception, Chef Walter Staib had a moment to share his confidence with John Bartram.

Chef Walter Staib is the host of the contemporary version of the City Tavern. He has brought notoriety to the unique foods, preparations, and services of hospitality from the days of my major travels.

The Kimmel Center is only blocks away from The City Tavern where all of this history would have occurred.

Mr. George Washington was accompanied by his most gracious wife, Martha. The two were certainly the centerpiece of the evening’s story line. They formed the stolid center around which the ceremonial gavotte was danced.

The rehearsal for the opening night was centered on General Washington. For him, there was no separate character or change of costume. Perfection.

Mr. John Adams and the educated Abigail were the highly erudite personalities in the room. I felt humbled by the thoughts articulated in their dialogue. While their loving considerations were well noted, John’s presence was overshadowed by Abigail, to whom I must give the present of “Outstanding Female Contributor” to the evening’s thoughts.

The First Ladies enjoyed moments of conversation.

She was joined in feminine felicitude by Dolley Madison and Betsy Ross. They joined in civil conversation during the evening by trading on popular stories of their meetings and musings. They held the stage brilliantly.

The First Ladies treated Betsy Ross like an equal. This is an egalitarian democracy!

Thomas Jefferson reviewed his history of the creation and publication of his grand Declaration. The true politics of the situation were overlooked in the gentlemanly good humor of the night. It would have been inappropriate to discuss those disagreements from the other side of the Atlantic.

Always contentious, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson played at gentlemanly combat.

For me, however, the supreme appearance of the evening was made by my close friend and most influential mentor, Benjamin Franklin. After all these years, it was so good to see that time doesn’t dim the glow of old friendships and the fireworks from halcyon days.

Ben Franklin. Simply said. Well done!

He was up to his old standards of political gamesmanship, delivery of humorous bon mots, and attitude of all-powerful elder statesman. Truly, he has aged like old and extra fine brandy.

Ben Franklin–as always!–was the life of the post-production party.

How remarkable to live to an age where this gathering can take on such round tones and happy hazing. It was spectacular to end the evening with a rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

The women rehearse. How different we all are sans costumes.

The rocket’s red glare could have been the reflection from the many theatrical lighting devices clustered around this revolutionary pantheon. Amazing!

John Bartram is ready for the spotlight!

Saint Peter’s Festival!

February 26, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Architecture, Colonial American Life, Garden writers, Gardening, John Bartram is at home., Landscape Design Tags: Colonial Fair, Historic William Strickland Church, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, St. Peters Episcopal Church in the Valley Leave a comment

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” Leviticus 25:10

“I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.” Thomas Jefferson

St Peters Episcopal Church in the Great Valley, Kirk R. Brown, Sara E. Brown, John Bartram, Ann Mendenhall Bartram, St Peters Festival

The cemetery has burials from the Revolutionary War.

Saint Peter’s Church in the Valley held its first service on September 4, 1761. I remember the date especially. It was formed from a group that moved away from their mother church in Society Hill. There was an elegant ring to the connections.

This is one of the reasons that John Bartram was disowned from his Quaker meeting.

It had been four years since the Darby Meeting had disowned me so I was always conscious of new congregations starting up. This one was noteworthy because of its magnificent edifice designed by local Philadelphia architect William Strickland.

A handsome couple. John and Ann Mendenhall Bartram.

George and Martha Washington were often to be found in the pew box belonging to Mayor Samuel Powel. The tower and steeple, although later additions, housed a monumental bell cast by the Whitechapel Foundry-also known for their casting of what has become known as the Liberty Bell.

Dancers in the gavotte. It was a merry band.

The organ case dates from 1764 and has been restored to magnificent condition by a continuing strong ministry of music. That is quite a lot for a former Quaker to recognize or understand in a Sunday worship service.

Ann is among friends of the dance.

But the day that I came recently to Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church in the Valley, it was a festival. In my day, it was almost always called The Church of England. Or C. of E. for short. All things change. But in this case, those changing things wanted to relive a bit of their collected past.

The venue location.

They invited John and his lovely wife Ann Mendenhall Bartram to participate in the celebration. It’s always a holiday when John and Ann get to travel together! And they had dancers and a Faire on the lawn.

Traditional tatting.

They had vendors of woven tapes, and plants, and musical instruments and fine costumes.

An 18th Century cooking demonstration.

And food! Lest we forget the food.

Entertainment from the 18th Century.

The day was rapid-fire from the beginning. We took a tour of the fenced graveyard. It contains the remains of Revolutionary war dead from both sides. Wars were fought over this land! And special mention should be made that it is also the burial site of Charles Wilson Peale, the son of a very good friend. As well as the burial of Commodore Stephen Decatur-hero of the Battle of Tripoli.

A true Sheep’s Meadow in the cemetery. The original lawn mowers.

It was a day well spent in the country with marvelous fellowship in places of my recollection. How could a life be made fuller than with a collection of days such as these? Ah, the refreshing goodness of a country life!

Going to The Hamptons and Old Westbury

February 26, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Architecture, Garden Clubs, Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., Landscape Design, New Plants Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Montauk Daisies, Old Westbury Gardens, The Hamptons, Westhampton Beach Garden Club Leave a comment

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Westhampton Beach Garden Club, Kirk R. Brown, John Bartram, Old Westbury Gardens, Montauk Daisies, The Hamptons

These Montauk Daisies are given their name because of their location: Montauk Point, Long Island, New York.

I was told that I needed to travel to “The Hamptons.” It was a journey of many miles and required travel over several large water courses. The Hamptons are on the Long Island of New York State.

The 18th Century means of transport to and around Long Island New York.

Its nature is one of sand dunes, pines, and junipers. In the fall it’s spotted with large colonies of Montauk Daisies. It is a summer retreat for wealthy city dwellers. They look to the cooling ocean breezes and the proximity to salt water to remind them of comfort and ease against the stress of Manhattan.

Old Westbury Gardens. The mansion.

There are many mansions. One that we visited was called Old Westbury. It was grander in scope and dimension than any of the finest residences in Philadelphia.

The dining room was crafted in the Georgian style. It was a room to entertain Kings.

The dining room alone would encompass my entire house of Kingsessing.

Old Westbury Gardens garden folly feature.

Old Westbury Gardens. The mixed flower borders. A perfect English pleasure garden.

But the turn in the gardens was worth the ransom of a King. They were magnificent. The borders were developed and planted along the English model. The grand sweep of lawns would have graced any Duke or Baron’s estate designed by Lancelot Capability Brown.

The Great Beech on the West Terrace of Old Westbury Gardens. It was transplanted to this location as a mature tree.

On the West Porch of the mansion there is an ancient Beech (Fagus sylvatica) This large specimen was transplanted into its position many years ago while it was already a gigantic caliper tree. The effort is greatly appreciated because its situation is perfectly scaled to the garden room at that end of the house.

The Westhampton Beach Garden Club gathered in the club house of Westhampton Country Club. It was a well-lit room.

I was invited to speak at the garden club of Westhampton Beach. We met in the mansion-house of a sequestered golf course. The room was crowded but lit through large expanses of clerestory windows.

High tea after the presentation before the Westhampton Beach Garden Club meeting in the Westhampton Country Club.

High cream tea was served in the dining room. Ann and I were treated well with all of the trimmings associated with leisure and royal breeding. I felt like I had been transported to London in the time of my great correspondent, Peter Collinson.

Ah the lifestyle entices. The beach calls. Calm overtakes the senses.

At the end of the day, it was pleasant to think that we could relax in Old Westbury’s gazebo as the sun sank in the west. West Hampton.

Old Westbury Gardens gazebo at sundown.

Michigan Herb Associates in Congress

February 25, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, John Bartram is at home., Master Gardeners, New Plants Tags: John Bartram, Michigan Herb Associates, Michigan State University, Sambucus Canadensis Leave a comment

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” Rumi

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page,” Augustine of Hippo

Michigan Herb Associates, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Sambucus canadensis, Lansing MI

John Bartram appears at the annual Michigan Herb Associates celebratory banquet. He appears to be as Ben Franklin’s printing displays best: Black and white and red all over…

This was another wondrous opportunity to meet a dazzling array of botanists and herbalists. Last year’s Herb of the Year was Sambucus spp. It was a grand celebration around the merit of not only that species but on all of the herbal and pharmacological benefits of plants in general.

Elderberry was the theme of the symposium. That’s Sambucus Canadensis in the Linnaean nomenclatural system with the native found in the wilds of North America

I presented three separate lectures on varied topics related to my interests, history and knowledge of botanicals.

A reflection of the warmth in the room!

The banquet was a sell-out! Notice that the centerpieces had John in a bottle. How perfectly captured I felt!

I appeared as a guest at the annual banquet. The centerpieces on the table had copies of my only known printed likeness pushed inside a bottle. Like a stranded seafarer, I was cast away on all of the tables waiting to be picked up and discovered.

Members and vendors interact. It’s a natural occurrence.

One of the special lectures was on my contributions to the Appendix to the Medicina Britannica of 1751.

John Bartram displays his knowledge of the natural medical pharmacopeia.

Coming out of that document is my description of the well-known American Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis):

“It makes a fine Salve for healing Wounds and Ulcers or to remove Pain and Swelling. It may be used as a purgative or an emetic. This will promote labor in childbirth and has curative powers over pains in the head and congestion in the Kidneys and Lungs.”

Vendors at the trade show represented a beautiful array of crafty botanicals and natural plants.

The rest of the outing to the campus of Michigan State University included a visit to the remarkable Children’s Garden.

It’s a small world of discovery in the Children’s Garden at Michigan State University.

The beauty of the Children’s Garden at Michigan State University is in the colorful details of arbors, houses, and paving. Even with winter’s snow on the ground the garden presents a friendly, welcoming face to young people.

Even though it was under snow, I could see the very happy bones of the place. It would have entranced my children when they were of that age.

Colorful sunburst paving opens the experience at the Michigan State University Children’s Garden.

Even in my advanced years, the color of the architecture and the quality of the paving achieved a harmony of natural connection that could not fail to amuse the younger set.

The Michigan State University Clarence E. Lewis Landscape Arboretum has an imposing entrance to the grounds.

While just across the way, there was the entrance to the Clarence E. Lewis Landscape Arboretum. What a surprising trip it was. I experienced gardens, within gardening, within friendly meetings. All around successful.

Bartram’s Boxes at the Philadelphia Flower Show

February 25, 2014 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., New Plants Tags: Ann Mendenhall Bartram, Bartrams Boxes, John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia Flower Show, Williamson Technical School Leave a comment

John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Sara Brown, Ann Mendenhall Bartram, PHS, Philadelphia Flower Show

John and Ann Bartram in their recreated garden at the Philadelphia Flower Show

“My head runs all upon the works of God in nature. It is through that telescope I see God in his glory.” John Bartram, December 3, 1762

“Since ten years old, I had a great inclination to plants. I knew all that I observed by sight, though not by the proper names having no person or books to instruct me.” John Bartram

John Bartram, Kirk R. Brown, Ann Mendenhall Bartram, Sara E. Brown, Philadelphia Flower Show, Williamson Technical School

The history of Bartram in his garden was explained by the display constructed by Williamson Technical School at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

It was a glorious day to return to Philadelphia. Members of the senior class of Williamson Technical School unveiled their exhibition on the cultivation, harvesting, packing, and transport of plants and seeds for my Bartram’s Boxes. This major tribute to my seminal work on the distribution of native plant species through the horticultural world was on display at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

John Bartram fronting the Williamson Technical School booth on the historic Bartram’s Boxes.

I greatly enjoyed sitting in the front of the display. Some would say that it is the height of recognition to have a booth at the world famous Philadelphia Flower Show dedicated to one’s life’s work. So noted! The show’s sponsor, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, is an organization founded in 1827 at a meeting “of gentleman farmers, botanists and other plant enthusiasts” that included members of my family. From that simple beginning such a tremendous show has grown.

The display of seeds introduced by Bartram in his overseas shipments of botanical boxes was encyclopedic.

On exhibit were bags of all of my most favored plant species: Quercus rubra (Red Oak,) Acer rubrum (Red Maple,) Magnolia grandiflora and all of the magnificent understory shrubs. The assortment was greater than any I’d seen collected since days of my youth!

All of the samples were displayed in historically authentic context. The boxes would actually have looked like this.

The team of students from Williamson was a collection of scholars, botanists, artists and carpenters that reminded me of me at the same age. They were enthusiastic in their conversation. They were engaged with the topic. They were well turned out.

There were substantial awards given to the Williamson Technical School Booth on their demonstration of the Bartram’s Boxes.

As a result of their study and their industry, the display was awarded many prestigious prizes. I was very glad for them that their effort received its due recognition. How amazing after all of these years to be confronted with the very image of my house and garden and work rooms and packing stations.

History can and does repeat itself!

The major awards for this display on Bartram’s Boxes reflected the student’s dedication and passion to the subject. John Bartram would have been very, very proud!

Travels Through a Green Nation

January 17, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., New Plants, Nursery, Sustainability Tags: fellow gardeners, western nursery Leave a comment

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” Friedrich Nietzsche

My amanuensis, Kirk R. Brown, has scheduled some days apart from me in this winter season. He is attending to his personal business on many fronts relating to the greening of America. These days and in this particular season they have gatherings of our clans of fellow gardeners across this vast country of ours. He loves what he does. His connections are numerous and his ease on meeting strangers makes good friends of potential enemies. He plays the fool well but does not easily suffer them.

This is a trade show rebranded from the original Western Nursery and Landscape Association

These clannish troupings of our tribal green color bring together all manner of possible combinations: product endorsements, improvements, plants, equipment (a very mannish, clannish thing indeed!), educational opportunities, recognitions, reconnections, and escape from our everyday existence in an office or nursery or garden. Kirk was farther afield last week than was in my awareness of time and space.

Ball Horticultural put out a colorful display of their new selections

He went to Kansas: a place over the rainbow and a left turn at the North Star. Great, green fields awaited his arrival. Fertile oases of alluvial ground watered by a great river in the center of our continent. In life’s travels we pass many streams but once. You must make special note of passing a great watershed. Kirk retells his experience in Kansas last week as the passing of a great watershed.

Western Landscape and Nursery Association

A trade show floor is full of the products from the world of nature. Evergreen!

This clan was rebranded within a twelve-month period. It was an ancient root out of the west. Its lands and nurseries were abundant and strong throughout it 125 plus year history. As with many old things, changes come sometimes planned, sometimes by choice, and most times by need. Take my own ancient life as an example! They needed to view life in a new way.

Western Nursery and Landscape Association

The latest in equipment for garden illumination. How I wish it had been available in my youth!

The new clan is known as “The National Green Center!” Isn’t that wonderful? What a unique concept. They believe themselves to be the center of this country’s green movement. Isn’t that brazen? My Darby Meeting would hardly approve, but then we know what they felt about my outrageousness.

Color abounded in Kansas City

But this group of wise and far-sighted leaders wished to fly into a new dawn. Realizing that they had need for wings, they first thought to dance. The analogy fits like a clogger’s shoe. It is hard and dynamic–dramatic almost–in its use. They decided to first refashion the style of production:

They renamed. They refit. They colorized. They developed a sense of Fashion! They thought to enlist the help of other clans. They recognized strangers and invited fellow travelers. They opened the doors in preparedness for the day when the feathers would be dry and flight could be achieved.

Networking opportunities were abundant. Michael Dirr confers with Reps from Bailey Nurseries and Ball Horticultural.

I heartily applaud the steps they’ve taken to ensure all of our collective and natural futures. I congratulate them on their need to be sustainable: in organization, in fiscal responsibility, and in connection. With this green botanical nature that courses through all of us, we need to hold close and respect deeply those who choose to do battle with the angry gods of commerce and industry.

“Ah! Sweet Melissa! There was a fashion show!”

January 16, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, New Plants, Nursery, Sustainability 1 Comment

“It’s a new era in fashion – there are no rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.” — Alexander McQueen

: “One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress.” Karl Lagerfeld

{Submitted by Kirk R. Brown for J.B. approval. Kansas City, Kansas. National Green Center. http://www.nationalgreencentre.org/index.php }

John! There was a fashion show. It’s a natural! I mean, it’s of nature. Listen: the models paraded down a runway with plants. It was a fashion show of lights, color, and beautiful models–with attitude. The beautiful people were carrying pots of beautiful new plants. Why didn’t you ever think of this?

: “Yes Dorothy, there is a real Miss Kansas!”

It was called “The Sweet Melissa Fashion Show” and it introduced 50–FIFTY–new plants to the trade. That’s one quarter of all of the plants you introduced in your youth!

The experience was exhilarating. The crowd was raucous. The bars were open. The lights were brilliant. And the runway stretched a green mile.

: The runway was crowded with fashionista.

I was just part of the crowd. I was making notes in the program just like everyone else as the latest hort-couture designs paraded past. There was a continuous buzz throughout the room. Exhibitors, attendees, press, and nursery hybridizers hovered around the corridor of bright lights.

: It was a rainbow collection of new plant introductions. We spent a day in OZ!

Many of the introductions were represented by colorful broadsides illustrating the plant at height of bloom or seasonal color. Backstage, the fashion collection was lined up waiting for the show to proceed.

: This fashion line up was waiting for the runway.

Both before and after the show, the runway became a focus of the trade show’s excitement. People could meet and sit to discuss their business. The carpet remained a colorful reminder of the show’s sparkle.

: Maria Zampini and Emily Bibens have plantitude on the runway.

I respectfully submit this news release for the pleasure it may provide and the knowledge of new plants it may tease you to investigate. http://www.nationalgreencentre.org/2012_FashionShow.vp.html

Kirk R. Brown

: The author, Kirk R. Brown, doft a hat to stay tuned with the fashion harmonies.

John Bartram Lives!

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