25 Years & Growing
Apr 24th, 2012 by Jonah Holland
by Albert Brian Vick, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator
With the help of volunteers Laurel & Yevonne on Saturday, the potato patch in the Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden received some TLC. Weeding, mulching & feeding were the primary tasks. Laurel & Yevonne also started four trays of seedlings for the garden.
Apr 23rd, 2012 by Jonah Holland
by Albert Brian Vick, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden has a new installation in the Children’s Garden: 4,000 blue & silver pinwheels. It’s small in terms of square footage, but it’s really cool to see, particularly on a robin’s egg blue sky day. The “Pinwheels for Prevention Garden” is installed in observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month. Each pinwheel represents a child in Virginia who has been served during the past year by Prevent Child Abuse Virginia’s Healthy Families program.
Apr 22nd, 2012 by Jonah Holland
by Grace Chapman, Director of Horticulture, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Grace Chapman with Lewis Ginter and his niece Grace Arents
Ken Gray on a historic big wheel bike (I think he was dismounting in this one).
This weekend, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden celebrated its history during Heritage Weekend. The event included a roaming barbershop quartet, a historic bicycle display (honoring the site’s past as the Lakeside Wheel Club), and volunteers depicting Lewis Ginter and his niece, Grace Arents, who lived at the site from 1913 until her death in 1926. I was excited to see the garden packed with families engaging in the festivities and enjoying my beautiful garden!
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden staff had a "fancy hat" birthday party for Grace Arents to kick off Heritage Weekend (we had our own interpretations of "fancy hats"). Pictured here from left to right, Grace Chapman, Frank Robinson, and Larry Bartenstein.
Apr 21st, 2012 by Jonah Holland
by Albert Brian Vick, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator
Things are rapidly getting in gear at the 2012 Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden. We mentioned a small expansion previously, so let’s check on the progress.
This is what the new space looked like in February.
The layout is nearly complete, pending the construction of four more raised beds for wheelchair access.
This was the beginning of our bed-building - March 18.
The planting beds will be topped off with a few more inches of soil before planting.
Apr 19th, 2012 by Paula Blair Dabbs
by Paula Blair Dabbs, Volunteer, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
If the “slow food” movement is about being mindful of what you eat and appreciating it more, then botanical illustration might be considered part of the “slow art” movement. It doesn’t offer the instant gratification of digital photography, but rather the rewards of patience that come with truly appreciating and seeing the beauty in nature. I signed up for my first botanical illustration class at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden because I wanted to go back to the “roots” (no pun intended) of my art and do some deliberate and slowly crafted drawings. I have always loved the mediums of graphite, watercolor, and pen & ink. 
....our first assignment was to draw the roots of a Poinsettia plant.
I walked into Celeste Johnston’s “Beginning Botanical Illustration” class and immediately felt comfortable. My classmates were there because they loved art, or flowers, or both. We learned that Botanical Illustration means keenly observing the natural world and creating an accurate representation of it. Our first class had us literally starting with the roots – our first assignment was to draw the roots of a Poinsettia plant. After some initial skepticism, my classmates and I were all pleasantly surprised by how well our finished drawings turned out. (Never fear – we went on to stems, leaves and finally the gorgeous blooms of this favorite Christmas plant.)
Poinsettia bracts from the botanical illustration class.
My botanical illustration classes have sharpened my skills in observation, art techniques, and understanding of flowers and plants. Next up will be Celeste Johnston’s Plants and Pollinators for Botanical Artists class, held at the Garden in July. For a full listing of the Garden’s art classes, please visit our website.
Although he was not a botanical illustrator I think of the words of Vincent Van Gogh when I come to the garden for an art class . . . .“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
Apr 18th, 2012 by Janice Hunter
by Janice Hunter, Children’s Garden Volunteer, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Does this remind you of anything? Could it be the flight path of a honeybee? a firefly? a ladybug? I think I’ve seen these dashes drawn to depict the flight pattern of most insects with wings and I never gave much thought to why it’s drawn that way. I guess I probably thought that insects with wings just have more fun than ones without wings. After all, have you ever seen an insect at the end of those dashes that is drawn with a frown on its face? I rest my case.
But it does make me think about my own daily movement and how much of what I do is done in straight lines. I get up from sleeping and head straight for the coffee; depart from my porch and head straight to my car; arrive home from outings and head straight to the refrigerator.
Today, I drove straight to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. I was scheduled to meet with a group of volunteers that works, weekly, to tend the plant beds of the Children’s Garden. I entered through the front gate of the Robins Visitor Center and was headed straight down the path toward our meeting place when it struck me. I remembered that I was passing near a garden feature that is installed just to my left and decided to pay it a visit. I veered sharply left and headed straight there.
Embedded in the patio floor, was spread a garden labyrinth. I could have just looked at it and then walked straight across it, because it has no walls and lies flush to the ground. But I couldn’t resist it. The non-branching maze invited me to ponder its curves and spiral its course, step-by-step-by-step, until I reached center. I looked up from my circle, with eyes a little wider and a smirk on my face. I absorbed the views of the panorama before me and observed the pathways that wind through the beds of the Rose Garden at Lewis Ginter. I began to weave my way through them, noting the first blooms of the roses just beginning to open. Remembering the joys of finding Easter eggs in the grass, I began to hunt for first blooms all over the Rose Garden. I paused to sniff flowers that were close to the path and enjoyed the changes in fragrance from one blossom to another.
Now near the pond, I gazed across Lake Sydnor and spied the Children’s Garden.
I had never noticed the Garden from this angle before and how it reflects so beautifully upon the water. I recalled it was time to join the others. I buzzed on over with a smile on my face, eager to take on whatever duty I would be assigned for the day.
There is much work to do in the Garden each week. This week, we divided obedient plants, pulled out chickweed and mulched around the blooming daffodils. While working, I thought about the bees that work the honey hives of Lewis Ginter. Did you know that one worker bee will make about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her entire lifetime? Also, it takes between 40,000 and 80,000 bees working together to sustain just one colony. That is quite a group effort! I marvel at how many bees must work to make the honey I add to my morning coffee. Certainly, honeybees are fascinating creatures. There are many more fun facts to know about them, such as facts that explain why bees fly in circles. We worked circles throughout the garden on Tuesday. We divided and conquered our chores for the day and will come again prepared to work next week. We are a small number of helpers; part of a much larger group of staff and volunteers that keep this place humming. Every week is different and the chores keep us spinning. The list of garden tasks grows on and on. But I would not expect it to be any other way. After all, the work of a honeybee is never quite done!
A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.
-Winnie the Pooh
(and A.A. Milne)
by Janet Woody, Librarian, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Paul Keefer is a man in a hurry to take a walk. A long walk from Rockett’s Landing to the western tip of Belle Isle to be specific. Paul grew to love waterside recreation during his years living in Switzerland from 1995 to 2000. He believes the James River has everything needed for outdoor enjoyment equal to that he found in Switzerland. To kick off his walking trail idea, he called a meeting for like-minded walkers to gather on March 18 at the Virginia Boat Club at Rockett’s Landing. Turnout was sparse at the March 18 kick-off, but Paul is undeterred. He knows things move slowly in Richmond and isn’t letting inertia stand in the way of his vision. Paul believes that “as more and different people see the possibilities, a fairly large group just might decide to help influence what happens. Conversion of some kind is coming. Critical mass has been reached. Walking it, just one time, might be enough to feed your imagination and inspire you to get excited by what Richmond is becoming.”
Paul asks that like-minded nature walkers join him for the next outing on Sunday, April 29, at 10 a.m., at the Rockett’s Boat Landing. And Paul wants to hear from those who have ideas and energy to contribute to his plan whether or not you can join him on the 29th. “Pushing new ideas can be lonely! And pass this information along.” Paul can be reached at prsgkeefer [at] aol.com. And he can be found volunteering in the library at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on the 4th Sunday of each month, where he stays inside.
To read more about Paul’s trail vision, you can check out the recent Richmond Outside story by Andy Thompson.
by Victoria Waiton, Membership Assistant, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
On my most recent trip to the Conservatory, I tried to remember what it was like to see a cascade of Oncidium orchids for the first time, and wondered what it would feel like to walk through a forest and suddenly come across the dramatic sprays of delicate yellow blooms in the wild. When Europeans saw orchids for the first time, it set the botanical world on fire, igniting an obsession that continues today. Now, we can buy inexpensive orchids in almost any nursery, home improvement center, or grocery store, but 19th century orchids were an extravagance reserved for the nobility. The danger and expense of finding and shipping the blooms from far-flung corners of the world added to their mystique. In 1818, when a plant shipped to England by explorer William John Swainson flowered into Cattleya labiata, demand for the showy, exotic plant gave birth to the professional orchid hunter who made his living finding new orchids to feed the European market. The most famous of these was Czech gardener Benedict Roezl.
Benedict Roezl
As a plant hunter, Bendict Roezl was inefficient, even wasteful. He was harried, easily distracted, careless, and illogical. Still, he was the best: if Frederick Sander’s nurseries made him the King of Orchids, Roezl, who did the dirty work of travelling the world to collect Sander’s orchids, was the Prince. The most accomplished plant hunter who ever lived, Roezl was a trailblazer whose passion drew Sander into the orchid business in the first place, a bulldozer of a man who travelled and collected specimen alone, unarmed, and mostly on foot. When he met Sander, Roezl was already a famous traveller, but that’s not how he started out. His former life as a planter had ended abruptly when he tried to mechanize the process of extracting fiber from his textile plant, Boehmeria tenacissima. The machine Roezl invented, pushed beyond its limits at an exhibition, crushed one of his arms in its gears. The limb was replaced with a prosthetic, an iron hook, which made farming impossible but gave the six-foot-two blond a look of rugged distinction. So Roezl started over as a plant collector, and the hook impressed the people he encountered in his travels throughout the Americas.
A South American beauty from Orchids Galore!
Discovering 800 species of flowering plants and trees that had never been seen outside the New World, including many orchids that he sent home to Sander and other patrons, Roezl was celebrated but never amassed much wealth. He never published, either; his life can only be pieced together from his letters and a handful of campfire stories. In these stories, Roezl emerges as a man distracted by his passion for the hunt.
In the nineteenth century, an orchid hunter’s job was to scour the world’s jungles, forests, and mountaintops to collect and ship new species to Europe to be sold for profit. A plant hunter, or traveller, stripped areas bare of entire populations of orchids to prevent them from falling into a competitor’s hands. In some ways, the orchids exacted revenge: a traveller rarely made enough money to live comfortably and often met with a grisly death by wild animal, a slip off a rocky cliff, or murder by locals. More than half of the harvested orchids perished from disease, pests, and exposure to seawater before reaching the nursery or botanical garden that sponsored their voyage, and as many as 20,000 plants could be lost at once in a shipwreck. Sander was forever worrying over the status of the orchid shipments en route to his nurseries as Roezel raced around North, South, and Central America at high speed, never staying in one place long. Dr. Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach, the German orchidologist responsible for identifying and classifying many of the orchids arriving in Europe, criticized Roezl for his carelessness in packing plant specimens, which made it difficult to draw accurate diagrams of new species. Sander also expressed displeasure in Roezl’s sloppiness. The director of the Zurich Botanical Garden, which received many of Roezl’s plants, condemned his wasteful collection practices, believing them to be outdated and environmentally irresponsible. Roezl seemed singularly interested in the discovery of exotic new plants and not at all concerned about their preservation, a sentiment his fellow orchid hunters probably shared. The work was dangerous, but Roezl carried no firearms and was constantly robbed and prone to serious lapses in judgment. Passing through Denver, the story goes, Roezl gave his life savings to an innkeeper for safekeeping and was surprised when he returned from a mountain expedition to find neither hide nor hair of the innkeeper or the money. In another vignette, a jaguar wandered into his tent and Roezl was convinced that the cat did not eat him because he did not have a gun to shoot at it. Furthermore, his stubborn refusal to travel with other plant hunters left him totally dependent on the kindness of local people for food, guidance and protection.
Sander made a fortune funding these orchid-hunting expeditions. Though the risks were great, the returns on investment could be jaw dropping. Orchids sold like jewels. At the height of the mania, Sander made £2000 with the sale of one Cattleya warscewiczii f. sanderiana specimen. Millions of orchids passed through Sander’s hands. His nurseries in St. Alban (purchased in 1876), Bruges (founded in 1894), and New Jersey (set up and sold within a few years in the mid-1890s) dwarfed every other orchid operation in the world. As Royal Orchid Grower to Queen Victoria, Sander dazzled her majesty with opulent bouquets of orchids from every corner of the British Empire.
A Cattleya from the Reichenbachia collection on display at Lewis Ginter.
He honored the Queen by dedicating to her volume one of his Reichenbachia, a collection of exquisite life-sized orchid illustrations, chromolithographs of which are on display in the Garden’s Ginter Gallery II graciously on loan from Dr. Arthur Burke, an expert grower of rare and unusual orchids, and friend of the Garden. (Selections from the Reichenbachia runs through April 22.) Turn-of-the-century auction houses offered wild orchids in lots of hundreds or thousands to the well-heeled elite. More importantly, however, Sander’s grand-scale domestic orchid propagating gradually made orchids affordable to the middle class.
Roezl died in 1884 at home in bed, with no jaguar in sight. Sander partnered with new plant hunters. Orchid mania waned as the domesticated version became more accessible and wild orchid hunting became increasingly unnecessary. Sander lived until 1920 and his nurseries at St. Alban and Bruges remained profitable until after World War II, at which point they closed their doors. Orchids haven’t lost their allure — Americans now spend more on orchids each year than on any other houseplant. Orchids Galore! provides the opportunity to experience hundreds of orchids from around the globe and learn how they made the journey from jungles, forests, and mountaintops to American homes. (Don’t delay–the exhibit is only here through April 22!)
Though 19th century plant hunters like Roezl wreaked havoc on wild orchid populations by taking as many plants as they could get their hands on, nurserymen and botanists on the receiving end in Europe made the most of the orchids that survived the journey. Through propagation on a massive scale, Sander was able to make orchids inexpensive and widely available without further endangering wild populations. Victorian plant hunters sacked Earth’s jungles in blissful ignorance, but in this more enlightened age, strict conservation laws protect orchids in the wild. Mercifully, the days of savagely pillaging entire populations of orchids for the mass market are long gone. Few known species are endangered today — none on display at the Garden are threatened with extinction, though many are rare. 
The Garden shares the vision of Orchid conservation organizations worldwide with the shared goal of protecting endangered orchids and conserving their unique natural habitats. Ninety percent of all orchids are now grown in nurseries, says Kew Gardens, whose experts also suggest we have probably seen the end of new orchid discoveries. The golden age of orchid discovery, led by romantic explorers, is past. The age of conservation is still in its infancy, however, and that’s a movement that’s up to all of us to lead.
For Further Reading, Visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s Lora Robins Library:
Coats, Alice M., The plant hunters: Being a history of the horticultural pioneers, their quests, and their discoveries from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970, c1969.
Lyte, Charles, The Plant Hunters. London: Orbis, 1983.
Tyler-Whittle, and Michael Sidney, The plant hunters: being an examination of collecting, with an account of the careers & the methods of a number of those who have searched the world for wild plants. New York: The Lyons Press, 1997.
Swinson, Arthur. Frederick Sander, The Orchid King: The Record of a Passion. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970.
Apr 11th, 2012 by Frank Robinson
By Frank Robinson, President & CEO, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Let me begin by saying that there are pockets of the region, specifically in Mechanicsville and Hanover County, where extreme populations of inchworms have emerged this spring. As with anything in the extreme, “too much” is a problem.
If you are reading this post you are most likely a gardener. We all treasure our plants in our gardens. They have meaning and value for us. So, this is not intended to convince those who are overwhelmed with inchworms that they should be thrilled with this spring’s emergence. And for any of us gardeners, when our plants are being seriously damaged, we do feel the need to take appropriate yet responsible action. If your trees or garden plants are experiencing significant defoliation please take note of a paragraph below suggesting some options to ensure their recovery.
An inchworm at the Garden.
I am not an entomologist, so I will not try to answer technical questions in this writing. However, it may be useful to note that the many common names we use for these insects – inchworm, cankerworm, fall cankerworm, etc. –- all refer to a large group of native moths known as Geometers: quite literally “earth measurers” — not a small task an inch at a time! We hope to access the expertise of Dr. Art Evans to answers some of the more specific questions that have been asked through our Facebook page and our blog. Of course your extension agent is also an excellent resource if you have questions about how to manage inchworm populations on your property. Here’s a 3-minute interview with Art Evans on April 10, 2012, on WCVE radio about these insects.
This blog post is less about inchworms and more about finding both wonder and comfort in the context of nature surrounding us. I’m concerned about what feels to be an ever growing disconnection between us and the world that sustains us, and carelessness about the language we use to describe what exists around us. Words are powerful and they leave distinct impressions, particularly on young minds.
For me these thoughts began with a short walk in my neighborhood where I encountered these emerald green acrobats suspended from yards-long silk threads awaiting a breeze or a passerby to transport them to a new host on which to feed. Then a precocious 5-year-old visited with an inchworm crawling up his sleeve. I believe it was his first experience and he was uncomfortable, yet wonderfully curious about this little creature.
Next came the front-page article in the Richmond Times- Dispatch written by Katherine Calos. I have long admired Katherine’s writing, but I sent her an e-mail expressing my concern about the language of some of her sources which seem to me somewhat pejorative — “infestation”, “outbreak”, “invasion.” These words struck me as though we were addressing something more like a dangerous mutation of avian flu than part of the natural cycle of spring in Virginia. Katherine shared with me one of the more distressed e-mails she had received in response to the article from a woman whose property was inundated with the worms. I also overheard a graphic story about inchworms overwhelming the outside of the vehicle and populating the passenger area in uncomfortable numbers. A few days later the Times-Dispatch ran another article by Andy Thompson titled “Seriously, what’s the problem with inchworms?” that featured my perspective.
For the 95 percent of us who are not inundated with these caterpillars, I most importantly want to express that it is easy to fear and overreact to things that we do not understand. (I wonder if our thinking is distorted by mental images created in our youth of the plagues of Egypt!)
My request: when we have these sorts of opportunities, to take the time to learn more and understand that inchworms, or other elements in nature — in reasonable numbers and balance — have a purposeful and productive role in our ecosystem. In this specific case, they provide an early spring food resource for birds, amphibians and reptiles. Later in the season, in their adult form as moths, they are important pollinators of our native plants as well as food for the same species as mentioned above. Birds are more dependent on insects for food than most people think.
It might also be worth pointing out that these Geometer moths are native insects -– nothing like the voracious and highly damaging Gypsy moth imported from Eurasia –- and they have a specific niche in our forests and gardens. While they feed on a broad spectrum of plants, like humans they particularly enjoy the gourmet-flavors of the members of the rose family (Rosaceae), which includes everything from rose bushes to the majority of our fruit trees and flowering ornamentals.
Also, I hope we will take the opportunity with children to introduce them to the many intriguing and fascinating creatures in the natural world and to encourage their curiosity and understanding of the meaningful roles they play beyond a momentary encounter in the outdoors. Pull out those smart phones and make these memorable moments of discovery about natural science like this YouTube contributor did:
We shouldn’t be casual about bathing our gardens and the broader environment in pesticides to manage transitory and often short-term appearances of insects. The toxicity and cumulative impacts of indiscriminate pesticide use endangers all of us, and the quality of what we eat, breath and drink. Too often we tend to be reactive as opposed to big-picture when something is munching on our plants.
Dr. Doug Tallamy, entomologist and professor at the University of Delaware, talks about how accustomed we have become to sterile landscapes — that when we look out our windows we don’t even expect to see varied and robust animal life. A healthy garden and a healthy environment should welcome and encourage a broad spectrum of living beings.
If your property has trees which have been seriously defoliated, chances are they will recover. It won’t hurt for you to give them a little TLC. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, if possible, be sure to provide an inch to an inch-and–a-half of water on a weekly basis (depending on rain amounts). Some slow release organic fertilizer will also help them overcome the stress that they have endured, (Plant-tone® and Milorganite® are two good options readily available at your garden center.) The biggest concern would be defoliation over multiple springs, draining the trees of all their reserve energy, and then making them vulnerable to secondary infections.
Homeowners and gardeners cultivate vast acreage of land across this country (21 million acres of lawn alone). It is a privilege and joyful enterprise — yet not without its responsibilities.
Respect for and comfort with nature, for us and for future generations, in the end, will benefit us all.
Apr 10th, 2012 by Janice Hunter
by Janice Hunter, Children’s Garden Volunteer, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
When I was growing up, spring break family vacations were often built around road trips that my parents planned to places none of us had seen before. A road trip was literally the experience of seeing new territory from the back seat of a diesel Mercedes 220D. It was like driving through the countryside in the bow of a Panzer 38: built for dependability and hardly for comfort. We passed through many towns, motored many mountains and spied several waterways. We saw things. But due to a lack of time, we saw things quickly and returned back home. My dad rarely had extended time for vacations. He owned a retail store that required his presence, so when he could take time, we would take off, at a rabbit’s pace, and return in a leap.
I enjoyed our vacations, but I often wondered what it would be like to stop in those places we saw, to just live and be still in them for a while. How would it feel? What would I hear? What would I eat? Many of the very best meals are discovered from asking local residents for restaurant recommendations and then exploring the foods that are specific to each region. That is something we did not always have time for. We had places to go.
photo by Barb Sawyer
I stopped to rest at the bench by the lake. That’s when I started to hear things. It sounded like this. To my surprise, I was being watched. Actually it felt more like I was being studied by one of the Garden residents, one of the locals.
I recognized his type. He was a red-breasted robin, the kind of bird you see in most towns in North America. What I could not be sure of was whether he was a year-round resident or a newcomer. While some robins remain in the garden throughout the winter, others migrate to warmer places and return as the weather warms for spring. Perhaps this was his story. Many call the American Robin a Harbinger of Spring because of this migration. His arrival to the garden serves as a proclamation, saying, “Spring is here!” Many Native American stories are woven about wildlife and are created to honor the importance of the creatures in our world. I found a Native American story about how the robin earned his title and am happy to share this tale with you.
I continued to watch the robin watching me. Apparently he was also watching for worms, bugs, caterpillars, and such. Periodically, he would leap to the earth for a snack and return to his study. I learned that later in the season he will be looking for fruits and berries as they become available. I also learned that robins hunt their food by sight, which gives me a new perspective on ‘watching what you eat’.
This year we can all watch what we eat as we follow the progress of all that is planted in the Lewis Ginter vegetable garden. And I will begin to watch what I eat as I anticipate summer’s approach and how I will soon be pulling on bathing suits when I go on vacation.
I was satisfied that I could take some time to watch the birds at Lewis Ginter. New flocks are arriving daily, some as new residents and some as migrants. Perhaps the ones just passing through will pause long enough to enjoy the garden and fill up on some of the local food. Perhaps I will do the same. I hear the Garden Cafe and the Robins Tea House serve a delicious roasted red pepper and crab bisque!
Early bird
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early bird—
But if you’re a worm, sleep late.― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
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