Another Day at the Races

     Though it may not feel like it, spring is here, and it is busting out at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Some days I get so wrapped up in my work it takes a conscious effort to notice all the beauty around me.  Fortunately, I get to visit when I am not working, and last week I was there all day while my son's crew team was participating in one of the last regattas of the season.  Between races I was able to truly enjoy the garden without having to worry about trying to get anything accomplished.

     One of my favorite spring shrubs is the Chinese snowball viburnum (Viburnum macrocephalum), and they were peaking last Saturday.

     A talented co-worker of mine has a passion for small succulents and other plants appropriate to rock gardens.  There is one bed at the garden where she has been allowed to pursue that passion. 

          Watching over this relaitvely new garden is one of NBG's ancient crabapples.

     One of my responsibilities are the annual beds, and when I came on board last September all the cool season plants and bulbs had been ordered or were growing in our greenhouse.  So I had the plants, but that was it, there were no plans as to how they should be used.  However, I work with people who have vision and between us we got these areas planted, and in the process I now have a new appreciation for tulips.  In another month the plants in these beds will be pulled out and a new summer scheme will be planted.

     This combination reminds me that gardeners do not need to have unusual, hard-to-find plants for a design to look good.  This trio is a simple planting of purple leafed barberry (Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea), lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina) and creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea').

     Much of the garden is maintained in a more natural state, and we make a great effort to promote regional natives. There are several large patches of mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) that thrive without any help from the gardeners.

     Another native we promote are native azaleas, which are far too underutilized and under-appreciated.  This one is Rhododendron canescens (Piedmont or Florida pinxter azalea).

Alabama Azalea (Rhododendron alabamense)

    Despite their sweet fragrance and understated beauty, the native azaleas are overwhelmingly outnumbered by their Asian cousins, which were some of the first plants put in the ground when the gardens began back in 1938.

Rhododendron x 'Formosa'

Rhododendron x 'Kirin'

Rhododendron x 'Tango'

Rhododendron yedoense var. poukhanense

     I know this has been a pic-heavy post, but I have one more to share with you.  The circled rower belongs to me, and he and his teammates did well enough to progress on to the next regatta.  For this, and many other reasons, I am proud of him.

Hoffler Creek

     As I mentioned a few posts back, I am participating in the Virginia Master Naturalist training program, which includes classroom time, but also includes field trips.  One of these was a trip to Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve in Portsmouth, Va. This place was once a waterfront farm owned by the Ballard family. Since the mid 1800's the family made a comfortable life for themselves raising fruits and vegetables to send north by steamer to hungry cities further up the Eastern Seaboard.  This was long before the days of tomatoes from Florida, grapes from Chile or lettuce from California, and when those realities came into being, the family sold the land to the Virginia Dept. of Transportation.  Good topsoil was pushed aside so the clean sand underneath could be mined to use in building local highways, creating a deep pit in the process that soon filled with water. Once the highways were finished, VDOT put the property up for sale, and several developers salivated over its prime waterfront location, but a group of local residents thought of something better. VDOT offered the property to the city of Portsmouth for $1, but the city refused. Of all the cities that make up Hampton Roads, Portsmouth is the poorest, and much of the land within its boundaries is federally owned and generates no tax revenue. So they were not warm to idea of yet another unproductive parcel.  But never underestimate the power of a small group of determined citizens.

     Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve is about 140 acres of forest and tidal marsh centered on Lake Ballard.  There are miles of trails through several different habitats; a couple of blinds where close to 200 different bird species can be seen; there is a visitor center and a kayak dock. This is so much better than yet another vinyl-clad village.

Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud)

Gelsemium sempervirens (Carolina Jessamine) 

On they day we were there oaks unfolded for the season.

Aesculus pavia (Red Buckeye)

 

     The old Ballard mansion is no longer there, but many of the family's plants are still around, and while some have lived a life of good behavior, others have taken far to well to their Virginia home.  Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinensis), Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis), Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), English ivy (Hedera helix) and Vinca minor are all doing their best to choke out Hoffler Creek's natives.

Camellia japonica

Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish Bluebells)

Lunaria annua (Money Plant) is listed as naturalized, or invasive depending on what you source you read.

 

Oxalis crassipes (Pink Wood Sorrel)

Even given its invasiveness and python-like grip, there is no denying wisteria's beauty.

     When the Ballard family left Hoffler Creek, the marked graves of their ancestors were moved to a nearby church, but the unmarked graves of their slaves remain. The site of the old cemetery is covered in Vinca minor, a plant long associated with graveyards. Our tour leader said that vinca was thought to help keep the world of the living and the dead separate from each other.

 

     I say this with no basis in fact, but I feel that Portsmouth probably has the area's most disconnected-from-nature population, particularly its children.  So Hoffler Creek and its extensive education and outreach programs are an essential city service.  Quite the bargain for a buck!

(You can see the complete set of my Hoffler Creek photos here.)