Winter 2005

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Exchange

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Prerequisite

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Zip 01003

UMass Trees

Books Received

Alumni Photos

Features

A Fruitful Partnership

A New Kind of Farm a New Breed of Farmer

A Spoonful of Sugar

Flower Powerhouse

Cranberry Culture

Trees We Love

Dear One Absent This Long While

Feature

Flower Powerhouse

–Katy LoConte ’04

Weezie’s Garden for Children is one of several new installations at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s headquarters in Wellesley. Lisa Palange ’83, Keith Hutchins ’68 and Carolyn Weston ’87 are helping cultivate fresh ideas for the 135-year-old society. (photo by Ben Barnhart) With UMass Amherst Alumni at its helm, the New England Spring Flower Show offers a fresh perspective Vegetation spirals in bursts of color and creativity. Birdhouses totter on slender poles, stretching high up into the sky. Small pieces of paper bearing scribbled crayon requests dangle from The Wishing Tree’s branches, asking for puppies or to be magical like Harry Potter. This is Weezie’s Garden for Children, the newest of numerous gardens and attractions at Elm Bank, the 36-acre grounds of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on the Charles River in Wellesley. Most East Coast folks are familiar with MassHort’s annual rite of spring: the New England Spring Flower Show, held every March in Boston, since 1871. But, says Keith Hutchins ’68, co-chair of the board of trustees, the society is much more than that: “From the beginning, our mission has been to educate, inform and enlighten the public. There’s a whole generation of people who have lost the idea of agriculture in a state that is steeped in it.” The society’s outreach takes many forms, from classes and lectures to public gardens and greenhouses, from plant clinics to meeting space. MassHort’s library is one of the oldest such resources in the world, renowned for its collection of books related to early agriculture, horticulture, and landscape design. Through projects and curricula, the Society reaches thousands of school children a year. The New England Trial Garden at Elm Bank is a cooperative effort between UMass Extension, the Massachusetts Flower Growers’ Association and the Society. Breeding companies from all over the world contribute the newest and best varieties of annuals; the gardeners test unreleased varieties competing for All-America Selections awards and grow hundreds of cultivars submitted for evaluation by commercial breeders. Still, the flower show is the brightest bloom in the society’s bouquet and has helped the society spread enthusiasm for nature and gardening for 133 years. “Some people have a misconception that the show is just vases filled with flowers. But it’s more than that,” explains Carolyn (Rosenbaum) Weston ’87, the show director. “For homeowners it’s a chance to see expert garden design and unusual plants. We want to show people that plants do well in New England and that we have tools available for them to make their own garden manageable and an expression of themselves.” Lisa Palange ’83 manages the retail area of the show, a favorite with visitors looking for the latest in garden-related art, food, outdoor furniture, ornaments, and statues. “The show gives you a visual experience, in the sheer variety of flowers and the way they are presented,” she says. Hutchins, Weston, Palange and many other MassHort staffers work on the show year-round, but they find time to heed the call of their own gardens, too. For Hutchins, horticulture is a way of life. Straight out of the Stockbridge School, Hutchins began his career at Wilson Farms. Ten years ago, he and his family started The Flower Hutch, a thriving wholesale potted-plant operation in West Townsend, Mass. “My vocation is agriculture and my avocation is gardening,” says Hutchins. “It’s what I love to do.” Weston and Palange are gardeners, too, albeit on a different scale. “I have a postage stamp-sized yard where I’ve set aside some patches for annuals like mums and tulips and a shrub every now and then,” says Weston. “With my job people expect me to know the Latin names for all the flowers.” She admits she doesn’t: “I always feel humbled by amateur gardeners who just know volumes about gardening.” Palange treats gardening as simply something to enjoy. “I try to garden,” she says. “I have a pale green thumb, or maybe even a yellow-green thumb.” It’s fitting that these UMass Amherst grads run the gamut in their gardening expertise. That’s what MassHort is all about—being a resource for the amateur and master gardener alike, teaching that there’s room in the backyard patch for everyone.

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Flower Powerhouse

Flower Powerhouse: more images