SOUTHEASTERN CONIFER AMERICAN CONIFER SOCIETY SOUTHEASTERN REGION ALABAMA, FLORIDA,GEORGIA,KENTUCKY,LOUISIANA,MISSISSIPPI,NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA,TENNESSEE,VIRGINIA,WEST VIRGINIA From the Editor: I HAD THE EXTREME PLEASURE OF ATTENDING THE SOUTHERN NURSERY ASSOCIATION S ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN ATLANTA LAST WEEK. IT WAS HOT OUTSIDE, BUT COOL AND INFORMATIVE IN THE CONFER- ENCE. THIS WAS THE 14TH YEAR FOR THIS EVENT AND THE SPEAKERS WERE STELLAR. OUR OWN TOM COX AND JOHN RUTER WERE SPEAKERS AND THEIR SLIDES WERE BEAUTIFUL. TOM BROUGHT UP THE TOPIC OF UNDERSTOCK FOR GRAFTED CONIFERS AND JOHN HIGHLIGHTED A GREAT SELECTION OF PLANTS FOR THE LANDSCAPE.. MATT AND TIM NICHOLS OF NICHOLS NURSERY IN EAST FLAT ROCK,NC. GAVE A LIVELY TALK ON WORTHY MAPLES AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THEY SHOW OFF CONIFERS WITH THEIR LOVELY FALL COLORS. ALL AND ALL IT WAS A SPECTACULAR ASSORTMENT OF SPEAKERS AND TOPICS WHICH WERE ENJOYED BY ALL IN ATTENDANCE. IT IS HOT, HOT, HOT HERE IN MEMPHIS AND PLANTS ARE SUFFERING DURING THE EXTREME HEAT OF THE DAY, BUT OUR CO- NIFERS KEPT MOIST ARE SURVIVING WITHOUT DAMAGE SO FAR. KIND REGARDS CELIA 2015 Southeast Regional Meeting The regional meeting this year will be in Chattanooga TN September 18 th to 20 th. The hotel is the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Hampton Place. The hotel was recently built and is considered to be a boutique full service hotel, and is in fabulous condition. The room rate is $99 per room and this includes a full buffet breakfast for up to 2. Volume 3 AUGUST 2015
Jennifer Harvey Jeff got a call from Mrs. Frye. She needed a favor. She asked, Can you go to the airport and pick up a few boxes? Jeff was quite experienced with picking up boxes of plants from the airport as he has done that in the past for his own plant orders. We are quite lucky to have in Nashville an airport that does that kind of shipping. It was perfect timing since we already planned on a visit to Mrs. Frye and Mrs. Jones gardens the next week. Mrs. Frye wanted her garden to be extra special for the SE Region meeting so she had contacted Bob Fincham and he had made arrangements with Larry Stanley to send some plants. How exciting! Jeff thought he was picking up three boxes. He drives a Hyundai Elantra. It s not all that big, but it has fit three boxes from out west before. Just on a whim, Jeff called the airport to see if the boxes had come in early. No, but there were seven boxes coming. Should be in at midnight Monday. Seven boxes! That meant taking the van for the pickup. Glad he did since the seven boxes were huge and they just barely fit in the van! It was a long night Tuesday, thinking about the unopened boxes, since we had to wait till we got to Chattanooga Wednesday morning to peek inside. It was like Christmas morning when we got there. The suspense was killing all of us. Jeff carefully opened the boxes and removed all the packing. If you have ever received anything from Stanley s in the mail, you know how carefully he packs the plants. Not a drop of dirt out of place or a broken branch. They were in perfect shape. Jimmy Stewart was near by and raced over to help. Think he was the most excited of all of us and was like a little kid ripping open the boxes. We all stood back and looked over all the boxes and the gifts! What fun. Then we toured the garden looking for places to put them all. What a morning! Now that I got you excited, no doubt you re wondering, what plants did she get? I m not telling. You ll find out when you visit Mrs. Frye s garden at the Southeast Region Conference, in September! Then we went to Mrs. Jones garden. We had not met her before and were excited to see her garden. It is on the ridge of Signal Mountain,
overlooking parts of Chattanooga. There are three main paths that run along the ridge and they go on and on. Mrs. Jones took us to the end and back on the upper and the middle path. Over the years, she has bought many of the neighboring houses and lots. Some of the houses she has removed; some she has kept. She also collects art, and you just don t know what you might see next. The fauna is very interesting and there are great views, too. We stopped to visit on a great patio that used to be a pool. We could have stayed for hours but we had to get home to our dogs. I hope that you are planning on attending the regional meeting. It is a great place to meet other conifer lovers and learn something new. See you in September!
These pictures were taken this month by friends Caroline Brown and Anne Riordan, at Chrissie D Esposo s Avon, Connecticut home.
Historic Whitehall By Jeff and Jennifer Harvey In the spring, Jennifer and I were able to tour some gardens in Louisville, KY, with the American Peony Society. One of the gardens we saw was the historic estate named Whitehall (http//www.historicwhitehall.com). It is located right in the middle of the city. The last owner of the house left it to the historic homes foundation of Louisville. They have restored and protected the house and for us gardeners have restored much of the garden and grounds. Michael Hayman is the horticulture director and is a conifer collector. He is interested in learning more about becoming a reference garden and, hopefully, he will make it to our meeting in September. We wanted to share some of our pictures with you. If you are in the area you should stop by for a nice garden walk. Even though Whitehall is much farther north than we are, they are able to grow some plants that we enjoy in the South, such as this Pinus palustris.
This is a nice, overall view of one of the gardens behind the house, with several conifers.
Here is a closer view of the foliage: This is Jennifer's favorite family of spruce. We believe it to be Picea orientalis Early Gold.
Here are two more photos of prominent conifers at Whitehall. They are so lucky they can grow larches!
American Conifer Society: www.conifersociety.org ACS Southeast region: www.southeasternconifers.com ACS Southeast Region President: Dr. John Ruter - ruter@uga.edu ACS Southeast RegionVice President: Dr. Sue Hamilton - sueham@utk.edu Southeast Regional Director. ACS Board: Neil Fusillo ACS Southeast Region Secretary/Treasurer: Jeff & JenniferHarvey - jeff@dirtdawgnursery.com ACS Southeast Region Reference Gardens: Barbie Colvin, Amelia Lane, and Beth Jimenez Newsletter Editor: Celia Chastain - celiajonesch@gmail.com Web Editor: Sandy Horn - littletrees@earthlink.net The 16 ACS SE Region Conifer Reference Gardens Florida Gardens of the Big Bend, Quincy, FL Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, GA Lockerly Arboretum, Milledgeville, GA Smith Gilbert Gardens, Kennesaw, GA State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Athens, GA North Carolina JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, NC South Carolina Hatcher Garden, Spartanburg, SC South Carolina Botanical Gardens, Clemson, SC Tennessee East Tennessee State University Arboretum Johnson City, TN Memphis Botanical Garden, Memphis,Tn University of TN-Jackson West TN Research & Ed Center Gardens, Jackson, TN University of Tennessee Gardens, Knoxville, TN MANY THANKS TO JEFF AND JENNIFER FOR THEIR PICTURES OF WHITEHALL. Virginia Al Gardner Memorial Garden-J.Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Goochland, VA Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA Norfolk Botanical Garden, Norfolk, VA State Arboretum of Virginia, Boyce, VA DON T FORGET TO REGISTER FOR THE SOUTHEASTERN ANNUAL MEETING IN CHATTANOOGA SEPT. 18 20 SEE YOU THERE!!!!!,