Growing the world's garden
When author and botanist Bobby Ward gives a tour of his home garden, it's like sampling gardens from around the globe.
(Photo by Daniel Kim)
(Photo by Daniel Kim)
Bobby Ward, who earned a doctorate in botany from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, worked as an environmental scientist at Carolina Power & Light for 25 years. As soon as he could, he retired to a life of writing, gardening and travel - and that's produced his new book, The Plant Hunter's Garden: The New Explorers and Their Discoveries.
Ward lives in an A-frame house on the side of a hill in north Raleigh. Behind and below the house is a falling stream, which you can hear from the street. Ask for a tour of the luscious garden that surrounds the house, and you get a tour of the world: There are plants from Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Madagascar, the Carpathian Mountains and places in between. Amid the fragrant white ginger, the Ryuku Islands banana plants and the giant elephant ears are native North Carolina redbud and magnolia trees. Tiny, fragile flowers poke up among the fallen leaves, and even the mosquitoes seem at peace here.
Ward has a story for each plant. Some came from his friends at the JC Raulston Arboretum, others from seed catalogs or local nurseries, still others from eBay ("The secret's out," he says). He collected others during trips to promote his first book, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, and when he visited other countries to speak about his experiences as president of the North American Rock Garden Society.
When his editor asked him for his next book idea, Ward said he wanted to write about the men and women who have scoured the planet over the last 40 years to find plants, that eager gardeners in North America and Europe would buy up. The searchers aren't Indiana Jones-like swashbucklers or Orchid Thief hooligans, but dedicated entrepreneurs who balance the excitement of great finds with the thrill of increased sales of tubers and bulbs.
Without them, Ward's garden, and maybe yours, just wouldn't be the same.
"These plant explorers are increasing the horticultural palette," he says. "They're simply giving people more diversity for their gardens and houseplants."
Plant trading has been going on ever since 1495 BC, when Egyptian Queen Hatusu's ships brought back frankincense and myrrh from what is present-day Somalia, says Ward. Political boundaries don't matter to plants, he says, though he does acknowledge that "responsible collectors will do their best to abide by international laws."
Ward had a simple formula for his new book: Each chapter begins with an introduction to the person, provides brief biographical information, then reviews the many plants he or she has introduced to the market. Two hundred and fifty color photographs document the variety of plants and flowers found by these explorers.
Barry Yinger, for instance, operates the nursery Asiatica and haunts rooftop nurseries at Japanese department stores. He got himself onto a restricted South Korean island, where he found Camellia japonica. Thanks to Yinger, says Ward, American gardeners now have a hardy form of that small, flowering tree.
Another chapter is about Don Jacobs, a professor and experimental gardener in Georgia. His collecting trips to Asia strengthened understanding of the links between plants in eastern Asia and eastern North America. Ward points to a magnolia tree, which is similar to trees in China, to prove the point.
- Anton Zuiker
Ward lives in an A-frame house on the side of a hill in north Raleigh. Behind and below the house is a falling stream, which you can hear from the street. Ask for a tour of the luscious garden that surrounds the house, and you get a tour of the world: There are plants from Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Madagascar, the Carpathian Mountains and places in between. Amid the fragrant white ginger, the Ryuku Islands banana plants and the giant elephant ears are native North Carolina redbud and magnolia trees. Tiny, fragile flowers poke up among the fallen leaves, and even the mosquitoes seem at peace here.
Ward has a story for each plant. Some came from his friends at the JC Raulston Arboretum, others from seed catalogs or local nurseries, still others from eBay ("The secret's out," he says). He collected others during trips to promote his first book, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, and when he visited other countries to speak about his experiences as president of the North American Rock Garden Society.
When his editor asked him for his next book idea, Ward said he wanted to write about the men and women who have scoured the planet over the last 40 years to find plants, that eager gardeners in North America and Europe would buy up. The searchers aren't Indiana Jones-like swashbucklers or Orchid Thief hooligans, but dedicated entrepreneurs who balance the excitement of great finds with the thrill of increased sales of tubers and bulbs.
Without them, Ward's garden, and maybe yours, just wouldn't be the same.
"These plant explorers are increasing the horticultural palette," he says. "They're simply giving people more diversity for their gardens and houseplants."
Plant trading has been going on ever since 1495 BC, when Egyptian Queen Hatusu's ships brought back frankincense and myrrh from what is present-day Somalia, says Ward. Political boundaries don't matter to plants, he says, though he does acknowledge that "responsible collectors will do their best to abide by international laws."
Ward had a simple formula for his new book: Each chapter begins with an introduction to the person, provides brief biographical information, then reviews the many plants he or she has introduced to the market. Two hundred and fifty color photographs document the variety of plants and flowers found by these explorers.
Barry Yinger, for instance, operates the nursery Asiatica and haunts rooftop nurseries at Japanese department stores. He got himself onto a restricted South Korean island, where he found Camellia japonica. Thanks to Yinger, says Ward, American gardeners now have a hardy form of that small, flowering tree.
Another chapter is about Don Jacobs, a professor and experimental gardener in Georgia. His collecting trips to Asia strengthened understanding of the links between plants in eastern Asia and eastern North America. Ward points to a magnolia tree, which is similar to trees in China, to prove the point.
- Anton Zuiker