Human Flower Project

Run for the Peonies

The Derby winner gets its Wreath of Roses, but lucky Louisvillians, racing fans or not, get a month of peonies and a chance to buy from one of the nation’s top breeders. Happy belated birthday, Allen.

Tree peony ‘Hephestos’ (God of Fire)  recipient of 2009 Gold Medal American Peony Society

Photo: Songsparrow Nursery

By Allen Bush

What a wonderful month of May. Rapture was scheduled for May 21st —a week before my 60th birthday – so there was no time to waste. Proof of the unfathomable came early. I punched the cosmic button on the first Saturday and hit the board on my Kentucky Derby bet. (I won $3,952.00 on a $2.00 trifecta box with four horses. The $48.00 bet required three of the horses – in any order—to cross the finish line 1, 2 and 3rd.) I’m not a big bettor, and rarely make it to the track more than twice a year, but my dumb luck should cover all bets for the next twenty years. If you can believe it, there was even more to May. The garden was obliging, too. 

I can’t recall a spring so lush.  There wasn’t a hint of frost past the 2nd week in March (we can expect frost until early May). Record April rainfall was one for the books – over 14” (36 cm)—but the garden didn’t wash away.  May brought a series of rocking thunderstorms but no damaging hail or tornadoes.  There was nothing not to like about this May.

Rose Cooper Bush, a winner at the Kentucky Oaks, Churchill Downs, Louisville, May 2011

Photo: Allen ‘Lucky’ Bush



But to the Derby’s conceptual finish-line: Everyone makes a big deal about the Run for the Roses – “The fastest two minutes in sport.” My hunch is the red Derby roses, sewn into a lovely garland and draped over Animal Kingdom in this year’s winner’s circle, were not driven to Churchill Downs by a local grower,but flown from South America a few days before the race.  I doubt there are many cut roses grown anymore in the United States.

Garden roses aren’t so easy to grow, either – not with Kentucky’s summer heat. (What’s worse is our humidity —as thick as day old corn pudding.) It’s a race to see whether black spot fungus or Japanese beetles defoliate roses, first. I shouldn’t make such a sweeping generalization and have a confession: I’ve never gone hog-wild for roses. Hardy Geraniums, yes; roses – no. A bad encounter in England years ago has haunted me since. Blame it on the thorny miniature Rosa ‘Pom Pom de Paris.’ I shouldn’t bad mouth roses – ever. My wife Rose says, “Get over it.”  And John Levett’s beautiful HFP May post stirred thoughts of a rose reconciliation.

But forget about roses for a few minutes (Sorry, Rose!). Just look around next May. You could have bushel loads of fresh cut peony flowers, ripe for the picking all over Kentucky – from gardens, farmyards and cemeteries.  If there is a more worthy herbaceous plant deserving of the title “perennial,” I don’t know what it is. Clumps of peonies will last a lifetime and a few more.

Though the Derby is all about fast horses, mint juleps and big hats, peonies are giving roses a run for the money. A stampeding crowd rushing for the best selections at the 8th Annual Whitehall House and Gardens Peony Festival proved that.

The Whitehall Peony Festival has a proven record track record with talented collaborators.  Here’s how it works.  Director Merrill Simmons keeps a couple of balls in the air at one time.  She has to raise money to pay part-time staff and keep the historic home and gardens in good shape. Simmons admits the Peony Festival is her favorite event. After watching a couple of dozen home gardeners race to pick-out their favorite peonies, it was easy to see why. Annie Wendt and her son Rafe Borders make the beautiful gardens a destination worth visiting all season. Their craft requires artistry, vigilance (weeds never sleep) and a monastic calling to work in quiet solitude in weather good and bad.

Toss Roy Klehm, a 4th generation nurseryman and peony breeder, into the event planning, and you’ve got a nifty package: historic home, beautiful gardens, generous souls and exquisite peonies.  Mike Hayman is the ace in the hole. A community should be so lucky to have a Mike Hayman. Louisville hit the jackpot with a heaven sent micro-rapture. (Actually, it was a microburst but a whole lot of gardening good came from the freak storm.)

Mike Hayman with Hydrangea ‘Twist and Shout’ at Whitehall Garden, June 13, 2011

Photo: Allen Bush



A longtime photographer for Louisville’s Courier-Journal, Hayman had his horticultural epiphany when damaging winds clobbered his Seneca Gardens neighborhood in 1987.  Over one hundred trees and large limbs came crashing down. His instinct was to re-plant.  But how?  He couldn’t tell the difference between the oak and maple in his own yard.

The learning commenced, as latched onto Buddy Hubbuch the horticulturist at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. Hubbuch, pursuing his calling with precision and passion for over thirty years, had planted the arboretum with spectacular trees and shrubs. He rarely traveled; the gardening cognoscenti came to him.

Hubbuch invited the eager Hayman to tag along when visitors came calling.  Lightning struck again when Roy Klehm traveled to Bernheim. Hayman describes the visit: “No lunch, just trees all day long.” Klehm, an internationally renowned nurseryman, returned the favor of the tour with uncommon gratitude.  He told Hubbuch to send a truck to his nursery in South Barrington, Illinois and he’d fill it up.  Naturally,  Hayman began his own regular pilgrimages to the Roy and Sarah Klehm’s Songsparrow Nursery,  his “continuing education”  in their array of farm-raised peonies and other choice perennials and woody plants.

Peony ‘Bowl of Cream,’ Gold Medal winner hybridized by Carl Klehm in 1963

Photo: Songsparrow Nursery

Meanwhile, he went vigilante in his Louisville neighborhood and planted a traffic island. The mayor liked what the prodigious self-taught gardener was doing on the sly and enlisted him to replace the lost hardwoods. Hayman took-up the challenge and has planted over 1,000 trees and shrubs in Seneca Gardens since he dug his first hole.  (He and his wife Leslie have also planted their home garden with a glorious mix of hardy and tender perennials, xeric succulents, and, of course, rare trees and shrubs.)

Hayman didn’t stop there. The folks at Whitehall House and Gardens sought his help in the early 1990s. Whitehall is a Southern-style Greek Revival mansion, a short drive across Beargrass Creek from Hayman’s neighborhood. Hayman signed on as Landscape Director – with no pay – and began another daunting project.

The historic home and gardens had seen better days.  The Junior League tackled the house, which is approached off of Lexington Road by a majestic curving drive. Sherri Evans of Shooting Star Nursery in Frankfort, Kentucky was hired as a grounds consultant and asked what woodland plants were worth saving on the 10-acre property.  Her report: none. The gardens were choked with bush honeysuckle. There was no budget for plants but Hayman happily accepted small trees and shrubs – many quite rare – from gardeners and nursery folks. The white barked ‘Sutternii’ London plane tree came from Ben Cecil via Bernheim; a hardy giant redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Hazel Smith’ from Fred Spicer; a weeping mimosa from Harald Neubauer; and the hardy Croton alabambensis came from Weesie Smith and D.D. Martin. Hayman never overlooks the meaning of a gift.  His plants regularly appear on doorsteps – often by surprise – spreading value (the gift) to gardens all over the country.

Fundraising was still essential; Whitehall’s light bill can’t be bartered.  Hayman and Klehm put their heads together eight years ago and the Peony Festival was born. The idea was simple: sell a colorful collection of peonies, plus a few other rare trees and shrubs, and have some fun. 

And they’re off! at Whitehall’s annual peony sale, May 16, 2011

Photo: Allen Bush

When the idea for the original Festival was hatched, Klehm donated all of the peonies that are now on display in the Whitehall gardens. (Talk about a good marketing tool!) This year he brought 75 herbaceous peonies for the sale, and Whitehall purchased another 75 at wholesale from Songsparrow. After the dust settled from the sale stampede and the 2-gallon pots of peonies were picked clean, Klehm gave a fascinating talk.

His family’s nursery began in 1852. His grandfather Carl was a co-founder of the American Peony Society and planted the family’s first peony fields in Illinois in 1916.  Klehm’s talk spliced a marvelous history of peony breeding with horticultural tips (plant the 2 year old eyes 2” below the soil surface) and cut-flower advice (regularly re-cut the stems and change the water).  Following the slideshow the audience got to bid big prices on five tree peonies and 10 rare Magnolias that Klehm brought along for the benefit of Whitehall. 

Peony ‘Senorita’—Whitehall Garden, May 17, 2011

Photo: Allen Bush

I missed-out on the award winning tree peony ‘Hephestos’ but won the bids on two Magnolias (‘Angelina’ and ‘Toro’) that I couldn’t do without. (Of course, I’d never thought of buying anything beforehand, but my wallet was fat with a stack of twenties—those Derby winnings.)

Temperatures started to creep into the 90s in the last few days of May. Memorial Day matched the record of 94 (34 C) set in 1895.  The forecast looks hot and dry for June. I wish I could linger awhile longer in May. Oh Happy Days.

Comments

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.