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Gardening Glimpses
Visiting public gardens helps keep them in operation
IF YOU LOVE PLANTS, individually, or
garden landscapes, you surely look beyond
your own garden, or gardens of friends, for
inspiration and education and pleasure.
When you do, you appreciate the existence
everywhere, nearby or in accessible locations
where you might travel, public gardens
which can expand your gardening
horizons.
My thoughts on public gardens were
focused recently by a magazine issue and
by a new book.
Horticulture magazine is one of the best
that remains on my subscription list, and the
February issue is one of the most inspiring
issues in recent years. With a new young
editor, Horticulture is changing, adding to,
re-focusing. This issue celebrates public
gardens. I have read and re-read it, and it
sent me also to a more detailed search
through a gift book, “1001 Gardens You
Must See Before You Die.”
How is “public garden” defined? Very
simply, to begin with, as contrasted with
“private gardens,” owned by individuals
and only accessible if “you know somebody,”
or happen on the right tour at the
right time. Our United Kingdom friends,
with centuries of devotion to gardens, blur
the distinction on a regular basis. Through
various programs and supporting myriad
charities, most of the great private gardens
are open once or twice a year, and draw
record crowds.
A public garden can be quite organized
and developed, by some educational entity
or an area government. There can be an
admission fee (and there should be, because
public gardens cost mega-bucks for mainte-
nance and development). There can be
research projects. Or, public spaces can be
public gardens, even though you walk
freely through the pathways. But always,
you the public, within various time restrictions,
are welcome to come and learn, to
enjoy, to return to often, just to be one with
a great garden you could not achieve on
your own, in many lifetimes.
BOTH IN THE UK and in this country,
there’s another set of garden destinations
which should never be overlooked: garden
nurseries. Even if you only learn what new
and tried-and-true plants are available this
season, a leisurely stroll through area nurseries
is an education and a pleasure. (And if
you find displays of plant combinations or
mini-landscapes particularly helpful, be sure
to tell someone in charge, because achieving
this took a lot of work.) I’d never realized
what nurseries could be until Mary
Price and I were in England, and, forbidden
by customs and by shipping costs to buy
anything, we were totally focused on looking
- and on getting acquainted with other
people out for a weekend afternoon.
In the “1001 Gardens” book, I found
many places I’ve enjoyed over the last four
decades, but there were none there from
Mississippi; and the New Orleans Botanical
Garden, which surely should have qualified,
is also noted by its absence. The book was
copyrighted in 2007, so I am assuming that
the damage from Katrina, and the uncertainty
about the NOBG’s immediate future,
contributed to this choice.
This book is divided by continents, and
then by countries. Every garden, large or
IN THE CHANCERY COURT OF THE FIRST` JUDICIAL DISTRICT
OF HINDS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF
RONNIE T. WILLIAMS, DECEASED
DORIS WILLIAMS, PETITIONER
No. P2010-603
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
I, the undersigned, DORIS WILLIAMS, hereby gives notice that on the 4th day of January,
2011, I was appointed Administratrix of the estate of RONNIE T. WILLIAMS, deceased, in the
Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, in the above entitled
and numbered cause. I therefore give notice to all persons having claims against the estate of
RONNIE T. WILLIAMS, deceased, to file, probate and register their claims in said cause in
said Court, as required by law, within ninety (90) days from the date of the first publication of
this notice or they will be forever barred.
THIS the 5th day of January, 2011.
/s/ DORIS WILLIAMS
W.E. GORE, JR.
P. O. Box 186
Jackson, MS 39205
601/355-8775
MSB# 4918
(January 13, 20, 27, 2011)
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small, fills exactly one page, sometimes
with pictures, sometimes none. The authors
and editors wisely make no attempt within
the text pages to give specific locations,
prices, hours of admission - all those items
which can and do change seasonally, and
which are available easily on the Internet.
There is, however, an appendix of 14 pages
called, quite rightly, “Useful Addresses,”
which locates each garden described,
including mailing addresses, phone numbers,
and many times, Web sites or e-mail
addresses.
ONCE YOU KNOW where you might
like to go, you can find out how and when
to get there.
The February Horticulture has a few specialized
articles, all of which I greatly
appreciated.
The first focuses on the work of introducing
new plant finds, both those brought
back to the United States by 21st century
plant hunters, and those developed by present-day
hybridizers. From the Missouri
Botanical Garden, second only to Kew in
London for its range of sponsored explorations,
to the J.C. Raulston Garden in
Raleigh, N.C., which specializes in developing
and propagating and sharing regional
success stories freely, both in education and
in plant samples, with other gardens, gardeners,
and nurseries. There’s a story of a
garden I’d never known about: Quarryhill,
in Glen Ellen, Calif., which specializes only
in plants which are natives of China. Then,
the essence of “public” in gardens: those
surrounding and a part of the Smithsonian
complex in Washington, D.C., (my special
Page 5B
By Mrs. Herman McKenzie
favorite here is the garden gem, the Mary
Ripley Garden, just adjoining the “Castle”).
And the final public-garden story is about
one which should certainly qualify as “most
unique” - a new public garden, featuring
native plants gone wild, (in a slightly tamed
fashion) on an old elevated railway in
Chicago. If I get back to Chicago, the High
Line will be way up on my destination list.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO about public
gardens? We should go there, whenever we
can, and gladly pay the fee charge. The
New Orleans Botanical Garden asked most
of all that we come back, as visitors, not just
with our admission price but with our concerned
interest. If we have time and some
skill, volunteer. All levels of strength and
expertise are welcome. I have had friends in
Richmond who grieved to give up their
own gardens when they moved to the
Westminster-Canterbury retirement complex,
but got up several days a week and
traveled by public transportation to the
Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to do any
kind of volunteer work needed, week after
week, year after year.
Most of all, we should appreciate the existence
of public gardens in any form - just be
glad they are there for us.
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