LLR: I
have a former neighbor to thank for my interest in gardening. He took me under
his wing when I was fifteen years old. Among other things, he showed me how to
graft. I thought that that was absolute magic. I was hooked.
HC: How do the Amana traditions of
yesterday affect your daily life?
LLR: My wife Wilma and I try to live frugally, a virtue
that was important in Old Amana. We save seeds and start plants from cuttings.
Ziploc bags are washed and used over many times. Tinfoil is straightened,
carefully folded, and used again. No food goes to waste unless it’s spoiled.
HC: Do
you and Wilma experiment with new flowers and vegetables every year, and if so,
what’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked?
LLR: Wilma and I are more conservative about the
vegetables we grow (see my comments below regarding heirloom vegetables) than I
am about the flowers. To be sure, we have preserved some of Wilma’s mother’s
flower beds and even the type of flowers grown in them. We have some very old
flower varieties and some very old individual plants.
But I like to explore. And I like challenges. That’s
why I’m in contact with plant explorers and purveyors of rare plants. Growing
in our gardens this year is a wild petunia from Brazil. According to the latest
account I’ve been able to find, there are only fourteen plants of this species known
to be growing in the wild. So far, the plants in our gardens are very vigorous
and blooming with abandon. The flowers are bright red and the fused petals are
pointed.
On the other side of the coin, several years ago
I ordered—at some expense—the only blue impatiens known to horticulture. I was
ecstatic when it bloomed, only to be crestfallen when it started to collapse
and die. It evidently doesn’t like life indoors in a pot and prefers to grow in
open ground.
HC: You’ve
been gardening in the same place for many years. What changes have you seen in
your plot and in the weather over the years?
LLR: We’ve changed the layout of several garden beds
and added new ones as well. In making changes, we were careful to respect the
integrity of the beds first started by Wilma’s mother. That’s especially true
of the beds bordered with rocks my mother-in-law had gathered from various areas
of the United States while on family vacations.
I’ve had fun expanding the rock theme. One
example is the no-wa-wa fountain in the book. Another one I created recently
features a head by George Carruth, a well-known rock sculptor, that
incorporates other rocks to make an interesting display. I later added a small
water feature to the display that is bordered by rocks as well.
Changes in the weather intrigue me. I’m fully
convinced that climate change is a fact. We can argue about its cause, but not
about its existence. My best guess is that our gardens are currently
experiencing weather almost a full zone further south. By that I mean that
while our geographical location in Iowa is zoned 5a/b, our weather has been
more like zone 6. And I have proof. For two years in a row now, I’ve
grown—without any pampering—two perennial species that are hardy only as far
north as zone 6. One is the beautiful, orchid-like melittis and the other is a
yellow-flowered, vining bleeding heart.
HC: Seed catalogs are a sign that winter
may not last forever. What are some of your favorite catalogs? How do you
decide which seeds to order?
LLR: I’m
interested not only in heirloom varieties but in newly discovered or rare
plants as well. For heirlooms Old House Gardens is unbeatable. Run by my good
friend Scott Kunst, the plants and bulbs he provides are of the highest quality
and are meticulously researched. He genuinely cares about his customers and his
integrity shines through in everything he does and says.
For
new, rare, and unusual plants, Tony Avent at Plant Delights is my go-to guy. I’m
always impressed by the variety, size, and quality of the plants he ships. A
great side benefit is his off-beat humor that comes through loud and clear in
his catalog. He cracks me up.
Other
favorite mail order sources include Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, Bluestone
Perennials, Burpee, Caladium World, Colorblends, Forestfarm Plant Nursery,
Garden Crossings, Heronswood Nursery (when it was still owned by plant explorer
Dan Hinkley), Park Seed, and Wayside Gardens. As
far as seeds are concerned, most of our vegetable seed comes from our seed
bank, although we use other sources as well. These include Burpee, Park Seed,
Seed Savers Exchange, Select Seeds, Stokes Seeds, and Thompson and Morgan. Like
our ancestors, we raise standard vegetable crops, nothing really exotic: string
beans, lettuce, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, spinach, sweet corn,
cucumbers, bell peppers, beets, turnips, peas, squash, onions and garlic,
tomatoes, potatoes. We also grow celeriac and salsify, which might be
considered exotic by American gardeners, but they were standard vegetables in
Old Amana gardens and still are in Europe today.
Deciding
which plants and seeds to order is great fun and is one of the highlights of
the winter season. Sometimes, when it’s snowing and the wind is howling, I hole
up with my catalogs in our tropical garden room. Before I make a final decision
on what to order, I consult my garden files. I keep a record of every order
I’ve ever placed since about 1986. I consult last year’s orders and decide what
worked and what didn’t. Then I decide what I want to order again this year. Aside
from the files, I go through the catalogs (usually about thirty or so) and mark
anything that piques my interest. Once that’s complete, I go back and make
final decisions on what to order. I’m careful to order only those varieties I
can’t buy locally. First of all, there’s no shipping charge and second, local
plants aren’t quite as stressed as those that have been subjected to the rigors
of shipping.
Check back Monday the 7th for part two of the interview!
