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BOOK REVIEW

The New Perennials Preferred by Helen Van Pelt Wilson
Macmillan, Copyright 1945, reprinted 1992, 315 p., $15.95
soft cover

This is the third printing of Helen Van Pelt Wilson's
classic book on gardening. Mrs. VPW was a New York editor
who specialized in garden books and at the time of the
reprint was living in a retirement community in
Connecticut.  Garden writer Elvin McDonald wrote the
forward and fondly recalls working with her on many
projects through the years.

Helen Van Pelt Wilson was an early supporter of using
perennials in the home garden and encouraged the use of
many plants that today are found in almost any good
garden center.  At the time she wrote the book, however,
perennials were not commonly used and most of the plants
she recommended had to be mail-ordered (decades before
"Gardening by Mail" by Barbara Barton!).  Her
common-sense advice about plants and their culture has
withstood the test of time and that is undoubtedly why
this book was re-issued.

Her principles for perennial borders--backgrounds,
foundation plants, planning on paper, massive plantings,
etc.--are just as valid today as then; except, perhaps,
the last one: "borders should be neat.  Good grooming,
you will discover, does as much for an out-of-bloom
garden as it does for a plain woman." These reminders of
days gone by add great charm to the book.

She discusses doorstep or dooryard gardens and offers a
wonderful mix of plants, from climbing roses on a picket
fence to nicotiana, geraniums and bulbs as well as an
espaliered hydrangea petiolaris.  She discusses soils,
compost, mulches, supports, garden health and
propagation.

Her chapters on perennials are the first resource I turn
to when I need some good, neighborly advice on peonies,
iris, phlox, daylilies--the foundation plants she so
strongly emphasizes.  And, lo and behold, there are even
chapters on perennials for autumn and winter (and we
thought the "garden in winter" concept was something
new!).  There is an 11-page index to perennials including
height, color, season of bloom and culture.  With the
hundreds of perennials available today (my local supplier
lists over 1500), this list is admittedly limited.  But,
as I said, for the basic foundation plantings, I still
find it useful.  She provides lists of shade flowers,
fragrant flowers, drought-resistant perennials, seashore
hardies, city dwellers, gray-leaf plants and flowers for
a moonlight garden.  The last chapter is a calendar that
reminds you month by month what needs to be done.  It's
rather concise, but does help jog a few things loose.

I recommend this book to perennial gardeners for its
sound advice.  As I told someone recently, "it's almost
like having my grandmother by my side in the garden." 
And I was encouraged recently when I received a letter
from a grad student at UCLA who wanted information about
Mrs. VPW for a class he was preparing to teach.  This
book is a keeper.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

The American Garden Newsletter reviews garden books and
interviews authors.  It is free of charge and is not
affiliated with any organization.   To subscribe or
correspond, send your e-mail address to: 
DawnSingh@aol.com



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**************************************************
     
THE AMERICAN GARDEN NEWSLETTER Dawn Singh, Editor &
Publisher dawnSingh@aol.com

The American Garden Newsletter reviews garden books and
interviews authors.  It is free of charge and is not
affiliated with any organization.  To subscribe or
correspond, send your e-mail address to:
dawnSingh@aol.com


TABLE OF CONTENTS-JUNE 11, 1994: Editor's Journal
Interview with Jack Sanders, author of "Hedgemaids and
Fairy Candles" Book Reviews:  Duck Hill Journal and The
New Perennials Preferred


EDITOR'S JOURNAL

I heard recently that Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright got rid of
the black and white Holstein cows on their Wisconsin farm
because they looked like wads of crumpled newspapers
laying about in the pastures.   She figured brown and
rust Guernseys,would look more natural against the
landscape. So they were changed.

Some people are control freaks.  They want every thing in
its proper place according to their own sense of order.
Artistic types often take license to the point of
absurdity, as evidenced by Mrs. Wright. Gardeners,
sometimes, are no exception.  Some garden designers have
areal attitude about placing certain colors together,
like scarlets next to pinks.  Others absolutely forbid
certain colors in their gardens--mostly fuschias or
bright reds more common in mid to late summer.  I guess
that's fine if you're a control freak and maybe I'm a
little too casual.  But more often than not it ends up
being moved to a better spot the second year
anyway--after I get to know it.

Sometimes the plant will do the moving itself, especially
the monardas and other mint family members.  The first
year I bought Gardenview Scarlet I was told it would grow
in part shade so that's where I put it, halfway under a
neighbor's maple tree that sits on the fenceline (growl).
After about a month it was blooming its head off, but it
was practically laying on its side, reaching desperately
for the sun.  It looked ridiculous.  The following spring
Ipicked it up and moved it over about 6 feet where it
received more direct sunlight. And what is it now sitting
next to?  Malva alcea fastigata, which is pale pink,
afuschia painted daisy, and a pale lavendar phlox.  So
much for blending in with the environment.

Take Mirabel Osler's advice and allow a little "amiable
disorder" in your garden.  In her wonderful book, "A
Gentle Plea for Chaos," she encourages "a mild desire for
amorphous confusion which will gently infiltrate and,
given time, will one day set the garden singing."  Set
your garden singing and forget about the Guernseys versus
the Holsteins.  It will make your job as caretaker much
more enjoyable and allow the garden a sense of chaotic
control.

-----------------------------------------------------------Interview with
Jack Sanders, Author of "Hedgemaids and
Fairy Candles: The Lives and lore of North American
Wildflowers,"  Ragged Mountain Press, 1993, 224 p., 95
illus., $21.95

Jack Sanders is a newspaper editor who has spent 25 years
observing and studying wildflowers.  He is also Northeast
Field Editor for Wildflower Magazine and has written
about wildflowers for the New York Times, the Missouri
Review and Cricket.  He was recipient of the Canadian
Wildflower Society's Annual Conservation Award in 1989
and lives with his family in Connecticut.

"Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles" is a fascinating
biographical account of 82 common North American
wildflowers.  The scope of information on each plant is
impressive--from nomenclature to pollination, medicinal
and culinary uses to ancient superstitions.  Each chapter
reveals captivating tidbits like:  "Charles Darwin raised
more than 60 wild plants from the seeds found in a single
piece of mud taken from the leg of a single partridge."
The story of seed distribution of the persistant burdock
demystifies the genius behind Velcro.  And the creative
use of milkweed seeds during WWII for life
preservers demonstrates the practical, yet ingenious,
use of natural material rather than manmade.

If you're interested in the folklore and geneology of
wildflowers (fondly called "weeds" by some fans), this
entertaining book is a must.

Singh:  What are hedgemaids and fairy candles?

Sanders:  Both are neat names for neat flowers. I have
always been a fanatic about names-- I wrote a history of
our town, Ridgefield, Conn., based on more than 1,000 of
its place names.

Hedgemaids is one of the many English folknames for
ground ivy or gill-over-ground, a nice little mint that's
closely related to catnip and that came with the English
settlers to our continent.  You'd find them growing below
or near hedges. And they love the edges of yards and even
enjoy wandering into lawns. Fairy Candles, on the other
hand, is a native species, often less romantically called
black cohosh, that has tall wands of fleecy flowers --
sort of like old-fashioned Fourth of July sparklers. They
are much more wild, preferring clearings in woods or
woodland roadsides, and grow six to eight feet tall --
really spectacular summer wildflowers. I chose to use one
lowly alien and one spectacular native in the title
because the book covers both immigrants and indigenous
species, large and small, fancy and ordinary, and
including weedy (like hedgemaids) and not-so-common (like
fairy candles) species.

Singh:  How did you become interested in wildflowers?

Sanders:  My interest grew out of a survey I had begun
more than 20 years ago to catalogue all the wildlife in
town -- from mammals to amphibians to butterflies. For
some reason I got hooked on wildflowers. Perhaps it's
because they didn't run, hop or fly away when I wanted to
inspect them close up. Wildflowers are great for lazier
naturalists!

Singh:  Tell me about your background.  Where did you
grow up and go to school? How did you end up in
Connecticut?

Sanders:  I was born and raised in Fairfield County,
Conn., and except for four years at Holy Cross College,
have spent all my life here. I ended up in Ridgefield
because I became editor of the newspaper in town -- a job
Iheld for 20 years.  I'm now executive editor of eight
papers in Connecticut and New York.

Singh:  Who did you write this book for and how long did
it take?

Sanders:  The book was born in a series of columns,
called Wildflower World, that I did for our newspapers.
In-season, they were written over four years. The book is
aimed at picking up where field guides leave off. A field
guide tells you the name of the plant, but little else
you couldn't figure out already. My book tells of the
folklore, natural history, horticulture, name origins,
and uses (medicinal, food, etc.) of these plants. And
I've tried to do it in an interesting, non-technical
fashion. It's a book for people who like to read as much
as they like to observe.

Singh:   Each chapter relates the folklore about the
plant, the pollination habits, the fragrance, when and
where it blooms, how it was used medicinally and for food
or utility, and its common or folk names. How did you
compile so much information?

Sanders:  Among my passions are books. When I started
studying wildflowers, I began collecting books about
them. The problem was, hardly anything was available
except for field guides. So I turned to used book shops,
used book dealers -- many of them specializing in natural
history -- and even antiquarian book fairs. I've
collected more than 150 titles and many articles on
wildflowers, their natural history, uses, names, and so
forth. Sometimes I feel there're so many books in my
office here, there's barely room for me!

Singh:  Tell me about wood anenomes and how they spread
their seeds.

Sanders:  Wood anemones (Anemone quinquefolia), along
with woodland violets, hepaticas, and a number of other
springtime species, produce seeds that have little
appendages full of a sweet substance. These appendages,
called "elaiosomes," attract ants, which haul away the
seeds to their underground colonies, eat off the sweets,
and then toss the seed itself into one of their trash
tunnels.  There, the seed is protected from birds,
rodents, and other scavengers of the woodland floor, and
when there's a good rain and the soil gets soaked, the
seed pops to life -- surrounded by plenty of soil and
nutrients. This practice of ants' collecting these seeds
is called "myrmecochory" which means "ant farming."

Singh:  They had a dubious, yet colorful reputation. 
Please elaborate.

Sanders:  Well, anemones -- as pretty and pure and
seemingly innocuous as they are -- have long been
associated with death. In Europe, peasants believed they
carried the plague -- perhaps because they happened to be
in bloom during some particularly awful outbreak. When
country folk happened upon a field of anemones, they'd
hold their breath and hurry by to escape breathing in the
horrible vapors (actually, our plant has little or no
scent since it does not need to attract insects -- it has
airborne pollen). The Chinese planted them on graves and
the Eygptians considered them symbols of sickness.
Nothing like getting a bad rap.

Singh:  The dandelion was once regarded worthy enough to
be listed in seed catalogs.  What happened?


Sanders:  You know, I think the biggest problem the
dandelion has is that, like cats, it refuses to be tamed.
Many people like to be "in control" of their yards. A
place for everything and everything in its place. That
just won't happen with the dandelion. It is a free
spirit.  In fact, the dandelion is one of the most
successful of plants, high on the evolutionary scale. It
doesn't need insects for pollination and produced loads
of viable seeds that it readily casts to the wind with
its wonderfully effective blowballs. It's hard to kill
because of its deep root. It is incredibly hardy (here in
southern New England, Ihave seen dandelions in bloom in
every month of the year, including January and February).

Yet this so-called weed has been a great friend of
people. The fresh, young leaves are rich in vitamins and
minerals, and make excellent salad or vegetable greens.
The flower heads can be brewed into a wonderful wine. The
roots, when roasted, make a good coffee substitute and
have long been used as a diuretic.

It's funny. Americans always seem to admire success
stories -- folks who rise to the top of the corporate
ladder, write best sellers, star in movies, make hit
records, etc. Here's the success story of the flower
world -- beautiful and bright, widespread, easy to grow,
doesn't mind being mowed, etc. -- and folks spend
millions of dollars on herbicides each year to try to
kill it off.  If dandelions weren't so successful, people
would be going to greenhouses to buy them.

Singh:  Talk about the symbiotic relationship between
ants and flowers.

Sanders:  I described the most significant relationship
under anemones. It is interesting, though, that many
plants have evolved elaborate *defenses* against ants and
their ilk. Milkweeds ooze a sticky fluid and gum up their
feet when larger ants try to climb their stalks in search
of the sweets in the flowers up top.  The fringes on a
fringed gentian blossom are believed to be defenses
against ants -- the insects fall off if they try to climb
over or through the fringes. Many knotweeds have hairs
designed to make it difficult for ants to climb up the
stems.

Singh:  Is the violet currently being used in the
treatment of cancer?

Sanders:  Various herbalists have claimed that violets
can treat cancer.  One man once ate a 1,600 square foot
nursery bed of violet leaves over a period of nine weeks,
and claimed it cured his colon cancer. However, I do not
know of any serious research being done into this (though
several North American wildflowers, such as bloodroot,
may apples, and pokeweed, *are* being closely studied as
treatments for cancers). Experiments on rats, using the
Johnny-Jump-Up (Viola tricolor), have indicated it may be
valuable in treating skin ailments such as eczema.

Singh:  Tell me about buttercup juice and eyelashes.

Sanders:  A man named Charles Millspaugh, who did a lot
of research in the late 19th Century into the medicinal
uses of plants, noted that a number of common species of
buttercups are very acrid and could, in fact, raise
blisters on the skin. He told of one woman who put the
juice on her chest to treat an irritation, only to suffer
a severe reaction, becoming "ill-humored, fretful, cross,
and disposed to quarrel, and suffered from soreness and
smarting of the eyelashes..." Darned if I know how you
can have smarting eyelashes. However, I admired the
creativity of the enterprising beggars in England who, in
order to make themselves more pitiful-looking, would dab
buttercup juice on their faces to deliberately raise
blisters.

Singh:  Now I understand why irises are called flags!

Sanders:  Irises were well-loved by various kings, not
the least of which was Clovis, ancient ruler of the
Franks. The story goes that his army was trapped by
alarger force of Goths, and were backed up to the Rhine
River. Clovis searched for a way to escape and noticed in
the distance some golden irises growing far out into the
river. Bingo! It must be shallow! So he led his troops to
the irises and managed to cross the river and escape the
Goths. Thereafter, the iris became a royal flower. Louis
the VII of France made it his house emblem -- it became
the fleur-de-lis or "flower of Louis" and eventually
wound up on many flags and banners. Hence, one reason
they are called "flags." Another reason may be the way
they wave their colors on tall stalks at this time of
year.  I like the Clovis and Louis story better, though.

Singh:  I have dozens of mayapples in the wooded section
of my property, but I didn't know about their fragrance.

Sanders:  You're lucky to have may apples. Most of our
Eastern woods are second and third growth forest -- until
a few years ago, they were agricultural fields. Almost
all of our woodland-loving may apples were wiped out long
ago. Both the fruit or "apple" which appears in summer
(and not in May!) have a very sweet scent, so sweet that
some have called its "sickly" sweet. But the fruit is the
only safe part of the plant to eat -- the leaves, stems
and roots are poisonous. Hence, another name for the
plant, mandrake, after a European herb of the same name
that was said to possess potent mystical powers
(probably, it is a poisonous narcotic).

Singh:  Please explain what "insect guides" are.

Sanders:  Many flowers -- including violets, irises,
beardtongues, and speedwells -- have lines that emanate
out from (or in toward) the nectaries. To bees and other
nectar-gatherers, they are like arrows, pointing to the
goodies. In some flowers, the lines are not visible to
our eyes, but are within the light spectrum visible to
insects. In some flowers, especially composites like
daisies and asters, the ray florets themselves are a sort
of bee guide, pointing to the fertile florets. Smart and
successful flowers make it as easy as possible to get
pollinated.

Singh:  I found the story of Linnaeus and the rudbeckia
charming and didn't realize some of his nomenclature was
based on sentiment!

Sanders:  When you have to dig up thousands of names for
thousands of creatures, you've got to go digging.
Linnaeus named our black-eyed susans and siblings for one
of his college professors, Olaus Rudbeck (a man who
fathered no fewer than 24 children -- not surprisingly,
Linnaeus served as a tutor -- perhaps read "babysitter"
-- to some of the 24 during his student years).

Linnaeus was not without a sense of humor -- or sarcasm.
We have a neat group of spiderwort weeds called
dayflowers -- the Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis)
is pretty widespread and common. They are three-petaled
flowers, with two big blue petals like Mickey Mouse ears,
and a third, little, enemic whitish petal pointing
downward. Linnaeus named the genus after the three
Commelyn brothers, Dutch botanists. Two of the Commelyns
were successful, hard-working scientists, while the third
lacked ambition and never amounted to anything -- just
like the three petals on the flowers.

Singh:   Does Stephen King know about bindweed roots?

Sanders:  If he doesn't, he ought to. The Weed-Beast from
Hell. Some species -- such as Ipomoea pandurata, found in
the Midwestern United States -- have roots as thick as a
man's leg and weighing 30 pounds! Can you imagine trying
to weed one of those babies out of your garden?!

Singh:  Is it possible that botanists have a sense of
humor?  Please explain "wartwort," and "hibelias."

Sanders:  Well, as we've seen, Linnaeus did. Wartwort --
fun to say -- is more a folk name than a botanist's
creation. "Wort" is an Old English word for plant. A
wartwort is an alias for common celandine (Chelidonium
majus), a widespread and weedy poppy that has been
extensively used to treat warts (even a local physician
here has recommended its use for minor warts). Hibelia is
a folk name (or *joke* name) for a tall member of the
Lobelia family

Singh:  You quote John Burroughs, 19th century
naturalist, as saying that "ours is a weedy country
because it is roomy.  Weeds love a large margin and they
find it here," yet he seemed doubtful they would survive
the march of progress.  What do you think he would say
today?

Sanders:  When the Europeans came to this continent, they
found many thousands of square miles of forests in the
East, grassy plains in the Midwest, and more forests
beyond. In the East and West, much of the forest was
felled for fields, giving light to many sun-loving
species -- both natives and immigrants from Europe. Many
spread like wildfire. Daisies and dandelions, many
clovers, hawkweeds, chickweeds, and the like hopped from
field to field across the continent and are now more
common than many natives. However, even the ways of these
"weeds" are changing. Daisies, for instance, were once so
common in my area they were hated by farmers, who called
them whiteweed, because they invaded their fields.
Nowadays, a field of daisies is a rare sight here. Why?
Because agriculture is disappearing. Fields are returning
to woodland or are being planted with houses. The wide
open spaces in which so many sun-loving species thrived
are disappearing in many areas. This affects natives,
too. Many grassland species are gone or going --
subdivided, shopping-centered, or harrowed out of
existence.  In fact, it is a Midwestern plains native
that came East with wheat and other seeds. But it, too,
is dwindling in numbers as the fields and pastures
disappear, and woods or lawns take over. It's hardly
rare, but it's not as common as it once was.

Singh:  Are many of these plants used in research today?

Sanders:  Many plants are being studied today. We've
cited some here. Pfizer, the big drug company, just
entered into a $2-million agreement with the New York
Botanical Garden last September to join in a three-year
research collaboration to collect and study plants from
within the United States as sources of potential new
medicines. The botanical gardens will collect the plants
and Pfizer scientists will test extracts from them as
disease-fighting agents. "The plant world offers a rich
array of naturally bioactive materials," the head of
Pfizer research said at the time. "However, only a small
percentage of these have ever been subjected to modern
techniques for assaying new drugs." Many people don't
realize it, but more than 25% of all prescription drugs
used in the United States today originated in plant life.

Singh:  Is there any plant that's really a "weed" to you?

Sanders:  Poison ivy. I hate poison ivy. It has little
redeeming social value, except to feed a few birds (it
has avian-edible berries) and to keep calomine lotion
manufacturers in business.

Singh:  Congratulations on a wonderful and fascinating
book.  Any more in the works?

Sanders:  Many thanks. I am working on a book that has
nothing to do with nature -- about how to write a good
news release and get it published. But I would like to do
a sequel to Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles, and have
already started work on it.  There are countless
fascinating plants with countless fascinating stories to
tell about them. And as a newspaper man, I love telling a
good story. Non-fiction, of course!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------

BOOK REVIEW

Duck Hill Journal:  A Year in a Country Garden by Page
Dickey, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, 269 p., $19.95

Duck Hill Journal is a quiet book from a quiet person, at
least that's how I imagine Page Dickey. She has used her
extensive garden journals, 25 years' worth, as a
foundation for this lovely little book.  Her youthful
picture contradicts the experience and wisdom found in
every chapter.  She is an avid garden book reader (and
close friend of Linda Yang, garden writer for the New
York Times), and, I suspect, a Gertrude Jekyll wannabe. 
In the end, she's more like Vita Sackville-West, sans
Sissinghurst.  Her three acre country home in the
Northeast includes every element of the idyllic country
lifestyle:  gardens, horses, ducks, geese, dogs,
chickens, and the smell of new-mown hay in the air. She's
one of those fortunate gardeners who has been in one
place for 25 years and has seen her dream come to life,
although, like the rest of us, she will never be
"finished."

The book follows the calendar, beginning and ending with
winter activities.  She emphasizes the importance of
"good bones" in the garden, especially during winter when
the lines are not softened by foliage.  Her garden style
is formal with the Jekyll-like abundance of billowing,
cascading perennials and annuals.

She talks about scented geraniums and forcing flowering
shrubs indoors in the early months.  She loves bulbs (she
must have planted thousands) and goes into great detail
about the best snowdrops, crocus, daffodils and species
tulips. There are several chapters on old shrub roses
--her favorites.  In November she offers a
throught-provoking chapter on planning a rose garden and
the importance of companion plants and, once again, "good
bones."

There are chapters on her herb garden, her white garden
(not exclusively white), perennials and shrubs.  She even
has a short passage on the chickens of Duck Hill, which
is quite amusing.  She also offers a "defense" of lawns,
explaining the advantages of a green background to set
off flower beds and as a place for relaxing with her
dogs.

This is a sweet book and is loaded with good advice on
plants and culture.  If you like the conversational
writing style (my personal favorite) and you live in
acomparable location--I believe she's in Zone 6--you will
enjoy this book. There are no photos, but there are
delicate watercolors and drawings by the author.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------




From DawnSingh@aol.com Fri Jun 24 21:44:49 1994
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 94 13:10:39 EDT
From: DawnSingh@aol.com
To: london@sunsite.unc.edu
Subject: The American Garden Newsletter 6/24/94

THE AMERICAN GARDEN NEWSLETTER
Dawn Singh, Editor & Publisher
dawnSingh@aol.com
Copyright 1994 by Dawn Singh

The American Garden Newsletter reviews garden books and interviews authors.
 It is free of charge and is not affiliated with any organization.   To
subscribe or correspond, send your e-mail address to:  DawnSingh@aol.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS-JUNE 24, 1994
Editor's Journal
Interview with Ken Druse, author of "The Natural Habitat Garden"
Book Reviews:  "Groundwork" by Roger Swain and "Shrubs and Vines" by  The
Chicago Botanic Garden, The Holden Arboretum, The Royal Botanical Gardens


EDITOR'S JOURNAL

You've heard of interval training?  I've been doing interval gardening.  The
heat wave that has gripped the eastern half of the country for the past week
has sharply curtailed my outside working out (as opposed to my inside working
out).  Unfortunately, I'm one of those sissies who can't handle the heat.  I
get weak-kneed, ligh-headed and generally sick if I overdo it, and overdoing
it can be doing nothing at all.  So I sit inside looking outside and making
lists of all the things to do when it cools off.  If this weather pattern
doesn't change pretty soon I'll never catch up.

We're removing our  20 some year old deck that was rotting away and replacing
it with landscaping and a raised herb garden.  While it's a gargantuan task
for us, we try to pretend that it's no big deal.  Want to go to the art fair
over in Mineral Point this weekend?  Hey, why not.  It's going to rain for
the third weekend in a row?  Cool, we can use the rain.  We're trying so hard
not to be overwhelmed and stressed out that it's stressing us out.  WE WANT
IT DONE.
Will it ever be done?  Hey, it'll be done when it's done, ok?

After reading Ken Druse's three books (see interview that follows) and Roger
Swain's new book, I'm convinced that  " lawn" will not be part of our
gardening vocabulary by this time next year.  As Ken says, I have too many
other important things to do with my time than mowing, so after we get the
old deck removed and the new landscaping done, we'll start tearing up the
grass just in time for fall planting.  Ah, next year we'll just sit back and
enjoy.  Yeah, right.


INTERVIEW WITH KEN DRUSE, Author Of "The Natural Garden,"(1989, 296 p. $35),
 "The Natural Shade Garden," (1992, 280 p. $40)  and "The Natural Habitat
Garden," (1994, 248 p. $40) all by Clarkson Potter

Ken Druse's trilogy on natural gardening  answers just about every question a
gardener would have before tackling a new project or overhauling an existing
site.  Accompanied by exquisite photos (taken by Druse), the text is
chockfull of info on how, why and what to plant.

Singh:  I've just finished reading all three of your books and I'm really
impressed.  At first glance they look like coffee table books, but there's so
much substance.  They're really valuable resources.  The detail you go into
on how to do it surprised me.

What is natural habitat gardening?

Druse:  It's giving back a bit of your property to what might have been there
in the years before development. You can't really restore a prairie in a 20 x
20 ft. space or a tenth of an acre, for example.  I think there are a couple
of important points:   first, it  just provides some more area for native
plants to grow as their habitats are being destroyed everywhere by the
minute.  When you do this a lot of nice things happen and one of the nicest
things is that members of the food chain can seek out this small area.  Even
if it's tiny, it's surprising, and the animals that rely on certain plants
often come back. 

A lot of people make butterfly gardens or bird gardens and they use Asian
butterfly bush or a viburnum or honeysuckle or something that isn't a native
plant.  Some birds will eat them, like you might get catbirds or cowbirds,
but when you bring back the native that's local to the area, often a bird
that hasn't been seen for many, many years in the area will find that plant.
 Birds especially, and I don't know that much about other animals,  but I've
been learning about birds and people think, oh, they need berries or
something.  But, actually, they need a whole series of different kinds of
foods with high lipids for certain times of the year or high sugars for
energy for other times. So they really are very closely allied to very
specific plants and the times that they bloom.  They've formed an alliance
that's evolved over centuries.

A friend of mine has some berry plants and she replaced them with native
berry plants and she got warblers that hadn't been in her area for 20 years.
 They were back that year eating the berries.

Singh:  My next question I think you've already answered but maybe you could
elaborate a little bit.  Why is it important for people to do this?  Even
though it's more difficult in a small space, that's probably where most
people are, is in the city.  Could you tell me a little bit about the
advantages of even doing it in a small city space?

Druse:  Yes, in a small garden, there's any number of things you can do.
 Even just providing a water source, which could just be a basin of water, is
going to make a difference to the local animals.  So, there's no spot that's
too small.  I have a very small garden.  I live in Brooklyn and my garden's
20 x 50 ft. approximately, and I have a lot of native plants.  They're mostly
mixed in because my garden's more of a collector's garden.  Actually, the
book has gotten a lot of--well, I've been attacked.  I'm kind of glad,
because it's bringing attention not only to the book,  but also to the whole
idea.

If I can digress, one of the reasons I wrote the book, not only because of
the love of this whole thing, but there are a lot of people, a lot of people
in Wisconsin and around the country, who are doing restoration, etc. on
various large scales, and there was no book that addressed the residential
level of this.  I thought what was really needed was a book with pictures of
small scale applications for professionals, who were desperate for this, but
also for Americans.

I hope one of the byproducts of this book is that people will become more
aware of native plants in their communities and in the government
applications.  Still here, where I live, the highway departments are planting
honeysuckle and crown vetch and plants like that on the highways and I think
of all the things, as much as I think we have too much government, there
really  should be more legislation about planting native plants along the
highways and other public areas so that if people can see that native plants
are not the scruffy things they imagine they are, they will take a more
active role.

I know talking to someone in Wisconsin, of course, you know this; but around
the country a lot of people don't know it and in some parts of the country,
like Southern California, so many native plants have been lost.  It's
interesting, as I've toured around the country, the places that have
forgiving climates have the least support for native plants.  I went to the
Pacific Northwest and thought I would find a lot of native plant interest,
and there is, of course; but there are many more English style gardens with
the plants that people love to grow in England because their climate's so
forgiving.  But in a place like Wisconsin where you're dealing with water
problems and wind and extremes in temperature, the native plants are a
natural choice because they have evolved to survive--they're really tough.
 So in those places people are embracing native plants and in places like
California and the worse case of all--Hawaii.  Hawaii is practically lost.
 They can grow anything and they grow all these tropicals from around the
world and they make their beautiful gardens with their birds of paradise and
the native plants are practically gone.

In the book I never say, you don't have to grow native plants exclusively on
your property.  I say that's an option.  But I talk about developing certain
areas for native plants, especially if you have a property that's surrounded
by woodland on the outside, then it's great to rennovate the woods, take out
the trash trees and try to bring the woodland back to what it might have
been.  Then if you want to grow certain other plants you can think of them
like collections, and keep your exotics in a contained, corralled type of
situation.  It could be a perennial border or a rock garden by the house.  Or
it could be a small city lot where you know that if you grow certain things,
they'll be controllable.

Another thing in the book I think of as a rule--there are a couple of
rules--one is to never knowlingly introduce an invasive exotic to the
country.  And even in small city lots, you'd be surprised--someone will plant
bamboo and then three yards down there's bamboo, or people will plant
honeysuckle and eight yards down there's honeysuckle.  Then the birds come
and eat the berries and poop out the berries and they come up in other places
too.  That is a problem no matter what size of the garden.  But I do think of
the smaller gardens and small spaces as collections.

In the [press] attacks, they say I want all native plant gardens and any
other kind of gardening is no good.  If you look at my other books, or at my
own garden, they would know I'm really not saying that.

Singh:  I agree with you, I didn't get that message at all.  I did want to
ask you though, living in such a small place in such a populated area, aren't
you tempted to buy a large piece of property somewhere?

Druse:  Tempted or desperate?  I'm practically desperate.  I've got to do
something about that and I will.

Singh:   I noticed in the first book you talked about the carefree nature of
this type of gardening and why it would appeal to people on that basis .  By
the third book you were talking more about environmental concerns and you
just mentioned local legislation, and it sounds like you're becoming  more
political about this and it's kind of reached a new level with you.

Druse:  Yes, definitely.  The first book was an introduction of a style that
was naturalistic--it's a design style where you use all different kinds of
plants to make  more relaxed gardens, informal gardens, which we call natural
gardens.  In the new book, it's really gardening with native plants and the
style is similar but the stock has changed, the components have changed and
I've changed.  Unfortunately, I've found that some of the plants that we all
embraced in the mid 80's have turned out to be thugs and dangerous in some
cases and I wouldn't necessarily recommend them again unless they are in
collections and I've even written in the book that people consider if they
move from a property that they remove some of these plants or if they think
they will be there forever, to put it in their will that they have some of
these plants removed.  When I tell people that they laugh, they think that's
so funny, and maybe it's amusing, but I'm also serious.  I'm not going to get
into all the plants because it's very controversial--not the most
controversial, but fortunately, that hasn't been attacked yet.

Singh:  What other kinds of responses have you gotten?

Druse:  I think it's really early--this whole idea.  It's interesting about
my books, maybe it's just whatever I'm interested in, but I seem to be ahead
of things and The Natural Garden came out in 1989 and it's now in its sixth
printing and is selling  just like it was selling in the beginning.  I
actually think the shade book is going to be the bigger one [The Natural
Shade Garden].  When I started talking about shade three years ago,  people
would always say "I don't have enough sunlight, what can I do.  Can I remove
some trees?"Now they come to a lecture and they realize this is an
opportunity to develop a cooler area with different plants, plants they
hadn't thought about before.  It's a new opportunity to garden.  So that
whole thing in three years or less has completely flipped.  Sometimes people
will ask questions like "how can I get more shade in my garden?"  People
don't want to be out in the middle of the day in the sun in their perennial
border like they thought they did eight years ago.  We also have so much more
consciousness of sun.  So that's really changed.

I hope the habitat book will be around for a while and people will use it.
   That's a really important thing, that designers use the book.  I know they
use my other books.  They take them to the clients and  clients may be
reluctant to do something and they show them how beautiful it can be, and the
clients say, "oh, yes, I see."  It happens all the time, and yet a lot of
designers don't realize the value of my  books as tools to show prospective
clients what things might look like.  In the next three years I hope they
start using the habitat book that way and I hope in the next three years
people embrace this idea--even the idea--for doing a small scale of it.  

Someone will say to me "what's the problem with having an exotic plant?"
 There aren't that many problems if it's not invasive, but the last kind of
rule is that only one plant can exist in one place at one time, so if some
plant is growing somewhere then some native plant isn't and that native plant
might have been a food source for one animal which in turn was a food source
for another animal, so it really does interrupt the food chain and the
natural, indigenous diversity of plants.

Singh:   That gets back to the issue of perennial borders versus natural
gardens and the care that they take.  I think that's a real major issue for a
lot of people--they want something that looks realy nice but they don't have
time to get out there and maintain it.

Druse:  Yes, and native plants are certainly much less maintenance when
they're established, but I can't and will not say that they're less
maintenance to establish.  It's not an instant panacea.  But it depends on
what you're doing.  If you have a woodland that's in pretty good shape and
you  just clear out some of the brush and put in some wonderful wildflowers,
it's not so difficult--although clearing out the brush can be difficult--but
that can be quick.

I hope that people start getting into propagation for plants, because it's
something I'm very into because we worry about where these plants come from,
especially the woodland plants.  Sometimes you see them for sale so
inexpensively and I know these plants take years to grow, for example
trilliums, which can take seven years to flower.  If you see one for $3.00 it
has not been grown in a nursery.  I've written a few letters to try to have
more legislation, believe it or not, to try to have labeling that
distinguishes between nursery grown and nursery propagated.  A nursery can
wild collect, put it in a pot and say "nursery grown."  I think things should
be certified nursery propagated, but these things don't happen overnight.
 Some nurseries do it because they care and their clients care.  That's
another good thing that might happen from the book is that people will have
more of an awareness.

Singh:  Do you think this is what you're going to be doing for the next 15-20
years?  You're becoming such an expert and you seem to have such deep
feelings about it--do you think this is what your message is going to be?

Druse:  No.  Not necessarily.  I'm always going to like informal gardens--I
just do.  If I have a limited space, I'm not going to have a boxwood hedge
and lawn because I want to grow a thousand plants.  I'm a collector, first
and foremost.  So, as we were talking about these alien plants or mixed
plantings as collections, my next book will be about that.  I think these
things are going to coexist.  I'm not going to introduce exotic, invasive
aliens.  I am going to develop the outer areas to be as natural as possible
and grow native plants, because I love them, and I'm going to have contained
and corralled collection gardens of the wildest things I can get my hands on
or get from seed.  This book is revolutionary, but I'm not
anti-gardening--I'm pro-gardening.  I'm a little bit anti lawn,  but I know
that it's the best living groundcover for recreation,  it breathes and keeps
the ground open.  It's a thousand-million times better than asphalt, which
there's too much of all over the country.  I can coexist with lawn too, I
just think that the rolling acres that you have to mow--I'm not interested in
mowing.  I have many more important things to do.

Singh:  I agree.  After I read all three of your books and Roger Swain's new
book, "Groundwork,"  I'm convinced.  We have about 15 mature oaks on our
property, so we have a lot of lawn problems anyway, lots of bare spots, and
we haven't used chemicals for 7 or 8 years, we're having a real problem with
the grass.  I thought maybe for the next couple of years we'd  repair the
grass until we were ready to move ahead with more flower beds or whatever.
 But I've changed my mind.

Druse:  You could also use moss.  I would start hand weeding out the grass
and have a moss lawn.  You'd be surprised--you can walk on it and it's
gorgeous.  Another thing I would do in that situation is do a "succession
intervention."  I would think about what's going to happen when those trees
go and maybe discover which trees are understory trees that would replace the
oaks when they go.  150 year-old trees are really heading toward the end of
those oaks.  Maybe plant some small oaks among them and get ready for the
next 100 years.  If those oaks all go at once, you're going to really have a
changed environment.  I think about the people who mow lawns today for a
living and I want to make them succession managers and teach them a little
about it.  I heard about one garden that was actually planned for succession,
where birch trees were put in, which live about 40 years, and oak seedlings
were put in about the same time, which will take the place of the birches.
 This garden was really planned for 150 years.  It's not that hard to do when
you think about it, but people don't think about it.

Singh:  Well, Ken, it's been real interesting talking to you.  I will look
forward to your next book.  Any idea when it will be out?

Druse:  Probably around January, 1996.

Singh:  Thanks a million and good luck to you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
BOOK REVIEW

"Groundwork" by Roger Swain
Houghton Mifflin
162 p, $18.95

If someone had told me ten years ago that a dissertation on topsoil would
bring tears to my  eyes I would have thought they were nuts.  But Roger Swain
managed to do it in his crusty New Englander style.   These thought provoking
essays, subtitled "A Gardener's Ecology," address issues you won't find in
most glitzy gardening books.  Major problems of erosion, recycling,
chemicals, water shortages and monocultures are brought directly home.  As
gardeners, these are issues we should think about and we must think about.
 If gardening is the number one pasttime in the country, as it has been for
some time, just think that every lost opportunity to recycle, compost or
collect seed is multiplied every day millions and millions of times by other
gardeners.  

Swain bases his essays on life at his New Hampshire farm which his parents
bought when he was an impressionable teenager.  He has farm life down to a
science and, you know? He makes it sound appealing.   He discusses topics
like returning nutrients to the soil ("biological gardening"), water
conservation, cultivating diversity, canning and root cellars and the
importance of life-long learning and teaching.

It's a valuable insight into farm life, the joys and back-breaking labor
necessary  not only to provide for yourself, but to keep your land healthy
and productive.  Swain recognizes the threat to his property of encroaching
 development and sympathizes with others in his place who are struggling to
keep the land, and the culture, alive.

But it's not just about farming and rural life.  It's about gardening and the
impact we each have on the land and why it's important for every individual
to practice responsible stewardship. Not only are his suggestions
environmentally correct (and then some), they're also gardener friendly.
 Isn't it easier (and cheaper) to toss yard waste onto a compost heap instead
of bagging it for the garbage people to collect?  And wouldn't it be an
entirely different experience to mow with a highly efficient rotary machine
instead of an ear-busting power mower?  We old dogs must incorporate these
new/old ways of gardening and land maintenance so that our "young pups" grow
up knowing no better way.

I highly recommend this book to those interested in the "big picture" and how
we may each contribute to a healthier environment.   It has no photos
(beautiful line drawings instead) or how-to's on perennials.  The only
criticism of this book?  It's too short.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


BOOK REVIEW

"Shrubs and Vines" by  curators at The Chicago Botanic Garden, The Holden
Arboretum, The Royal Botanical Gardens
Pantheon Books
223 p., $25 softcover

This book is one of four in a series called, "The American Garden Guides"
(great name, eh?).  The series was compiled by experts from botanical gardens
and arboreta from the US and Canada based on their experiences with plants.
 The philosophical approach, however, is a bit unusual:  1) they advocate
 gardens that are water conserving and controlled by integrated pest
management (IPM); 2) they recognize that each contributing expert may have a
different approach to a plant and  emphasize there is never one correct way;
3) many of the plants included in the books  are uncommon and, in numerous
cases, natives or endangered.

In the "Plant Selector" section you will find more than 200 color photos of
shrubs and vines accompanied by descriptions, cultural requirements, growing
cycles and zones.   Periodic sidebars highlight opinions from the consultants
on climate-specific plants for their region--very informative.

The section on garden design emphasizes careful planning for shrubs, in
particular, because of their size and the difficulty in moving an established
plant.  Lovely photos suggest several different design ideas, such as
borders, woodlands, foundation plantings, arbors and walls.

The last section, "Techniques," covers site selection, soil improvements,
planting techniques (critical for many shrubs), propagation, pruning and
maintenance, accompanied by clear black and white photos.  There are brief
discussions on desert plants, container plants, plants for cold climates and
the Great Plains and "enabling" gardens (for disabled gardeners).

The drawback of this book is, of course, that it doesn't include every plant
you could ever possibly want to look up, but it includes every new shrub I've
purchased in the past few years, all of which had to be special ordered.
  Used in conjunction with say, Graham Stuart Thomas' encyclopedic
"Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos" which is 544 pages but only has 32
color photos, it will get a good workout in my house. 

NOTE:  The book on Herb Gardens, also from The American Garden Guides, will
be reviewed in the near future.

Copyright 1994 by Dawn Singh

