Show #05/7505. A Beautiful Azalea Garden Three Years After Planting
Summary of Show
Visiting The Inspiration Garden Three Years After Planting
THREE YEARS after it was planted and featured on GardenSMART. The transformation is impressive. GardenSMART has visited Gibbs Gardens many times over the past decade and we've seen many changes as the garden has evolved over the years. Jim Gibbs is a brilliant garden designer and we’ve all learned so much from our conversations with him.
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Vision For Inspiration Garden
Eric was lucky enough to sit down with Jim before the project started to discuss his VISION FOR THE SITE. Let's take a step back in time to the first conversation we had with Jim as he was planning to break ground. Well, there's always something exciting going on at Gibbs Gardens. Today we're talking about a pretty extensive expansion that you've just now embarked on and we're so excited to be part of following you through this process.
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Walking Trails
As Jim imagined this space some of his first considerations were how visitors would experience the property. The WALKING TRAILS were a critical piece of the design. They provided structure and determined the angle of each vista, which became the new canvas upon which each design would rest. Many designers will leave the trail design for a later date, as they prefer to see how visitors use the space and from there, reinforce the natural use of the land. This space did not lend itself well to that approach, as the slope of the land is quite steep and would be difficult to navigate without thoughtfully graded trails. Jim explains his approach, the walkways are what guide the viewer through the garden and dictate what they're going to be able to see in the garden.
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Encore Azaleas
Jim had always wanted to have a plant collection of conifers, but he wanted it to be all dwarf conifers. Then he wanted to have a collection of ENCORE AZALEAS because they're evergreen. The Encore azalea will bloom more than one time a year. There are Encores here that bloom, some two, and some three times a year.
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Consulting Experts
Eric points out - Jim’s cultivar selection for this garden began with conversations he had with many of the LEADING EXPERTS in the field. Two horticulturists who were important to the design success were Brent Markus, an expert in conifers and avid collector from Oregon, and Buddy Lee, expert plant breeder who's responsible for the amazing Encore azalea line.
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Buddy Lee
GardenSMART caught up with BUDDY, at his garden, as he discussed his expansive library of plants and the prominent role they'll be playing in the Inspiration Garden. As one of the world's most important azalea breeders, Eric wants Buddy to talk a little bit about the role that azaleas play in the garden and specifically the American garden, since he is primarily breeding for that climate.
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Developing A New Plant
Eric comments, Buddy's nursery in Louisiana is a bit of a botanical garden in its own right. He has lovingly included thousands of selections and is home to the expansive seedling collections that are the lifeblood of his breeding program. Eric would like for Buddy to talk about the process of DEVELOPING A NEW PLANT. Just the selection process, if you will. Buddy will grow a lot of seedlings and a lot of the seedlings he grows are from control pollination and some of them are from open pollination.
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Encore Azalea Significant Parents
Eric asks if Buddy doesn’t mind sharing, what were some of the SIGNIFICANT PARENTS that he started working with to develop the Encore line? The most significant one initially was Rhododendron oldhamii. It's a species from Taiwan. And that particular clone, a friend of Buddy's, Dr. John Thornton, who was a veterinarian and also a plant collector had paid for his venture into Taiwan.
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Inspiration Garden Three Years Later
For Eric seeing the Inspiration Garden project come together has been an immensely satisfying experience. The creative process is often as rewarding as the finished product. It takes tremendous vision, patience and creativity to imagine what the site's going to look like years down the line. And, AFTER SEVERAL YEARS WE’RE BACK and seeing these azaleas finally filling in. Importantly seeing how the whole vision for this garden is coming together. Gardening is truly a marriage of art and science, the work is never finished.
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Show #05/7505. A Beautiful Azalea Garden Three Years After Planting
Transcript of Show
It's so much fun to see a garden go from ideas on the page to completion. Today we take a trip back to one of our favorite gardens to see how it all started, then came together and how it looks THREE YEARS after it was planted and featured on GardenSMART. The transformation is impressive. GardenSMART has visited Gibbs Gardens many times over the past decade and we've seen many changes as the garden has evolved over the years. Jim Gibbs is a brilliant garden designer and we’ve all learned so much from our conversations with him. We were fortunate to have had the opportunity to follow the progress of his Inspiration Garden from its' earliest moments, as just a concept, then follow the progress to completion. Along the way we've have had a rare glimpse into the mind of the designer as he began contemplating the Woodland Ridge that skirts the edge of his vast property and begin the process of imagining an impressive specimen garden that would celebrate many of Jim's favorite plants and inspire generations to come with the possibilities that exist in the world of conifers and azaleas.
Eric was lucky enough to sit down with Jim before the project started to discuss his VISION FOR THE SITE. Let's take a step back in time to the first conversation we had with Jim as he was planning to break ground. Well, there's always something exciting going on at Gibbs Gardens. Today we're talking about a pretty extensive expansion that you've just now embarked on and we're so excited to be part of following you through this process. Eric thinks it's a very important conversation for all gardeners embarking on even the smallest space. That conversation of how we think about the planning process ideally starts with having a vision for that space. It may not be very specific, it might be a fairly loose idea of what you want to do.
Eric would like for Jim to talk a little bit initially about what his vision for this space is and what he's trying to accomplish with it. Jim explains, this is an exciting new garden for him. One reason, it's been in the making for many, many years. This garden is over 10 acres in size, a very large garden. From the beginning the plan was a huge azalea garden and a conifer garden that would occupy this space. Of course, Gibbs Gardens is 326 acres. He started the garden in 1980, but a gardener's garden is never complete. He is always working on a new space, and Jim gets excited about new gardens. As he designed the initial garden he was trying to think, at what stage will I develop this particular garden? He had other ways to connect the triangle between the Waterlily Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Manor House Garden so he knew this garden would come later. With the azalea garden - of course, people love azaleas. They bloom in the spring of the year. And there are so many azaleas now that bloom in the spring and the fall. Creating a garden for everyone is essential and if you have a public garden, you've got to give the public what they like.
Eric believes specimen gardens can be tricky to execute and even harder to design. Much must be known about each plant and how they must be arranged in the garden to cast each selection in its best light and to achieve a design that is harmonious and complete. Far from dull or monochromatic, the Inspiration Garden challenges the way we think about collection gardens and underscores how impactful and transcendent great garden design is. So how does this new garden fit into what already is here? Jim knew that he wanted a conifer collection. Plus a collection of dwarf ginkgos in the garden because they work well with the conifers. Jim also wanted dissectum laceleaf Japanese maples, which work well, thus has a collection of a hundred rare dwarf Japanese maples.
Eric comments, there were many challenges initially with the site, just dealing with something as expansive as 10 acres. Jim agrees, so they came in and divided this area up into spaces so that they could work with each space and develop plant collections within the spaces.
As Jim imagined this space some of his first considerations were how visitors would experience the property. The WALKING TRAILS were a critical piece of the design. They provided structure and determined the angle of each vista, which became the new canvas upon which each design would rest. Many designers will leave the trail design for a later date, as they prefer to see how visitors use the space and from there, reinforce the natural use of the land. This space did not lend itself well to that approach, as the slope of the land is quite steep and would be difficult to navigate without thoughtfully graded trails. Jim explains his approach, the walkways are what guide the viewer through the garden and dictate what they're going to be able to see in the garden. So first, and he knows this from experience, try to follow the topography - always. Once you follow the topography, you'll have more gentle level walkways. But this hillside was so hilly Jim knew it was going to be a difficult task to do that. How do we complete those walkways? Well, he knew to get a gentle slope, they were going to have to bring in a tremendous amount of fill dirt. Jim likes to use a lot of curves. Curvilinear design guides you through and you feel it's almost like a stream. It has movement like a stream meandering through a valley. You just can picture the water moving through there. As the walks are moving you, they had to create a lot of interest. So all of the walks at Gibbs Gardens are designed to create interest and they also break up the spaces.
Once the walkways were in place and the topography was addressed the process began. Next he started planning the plants that would go into the site. He had to think about areas that would be sun or part shade or part sun.
Jim had always wanted to have a plant collection of conifers, but he wanted it to be all dwarf conifers. Then he wanted to have a collection of ENCORE AZALEAS because they're evergreen. The Encore azalea will bloom more than one time a year. There are Encores here that bloom, some two, and some three times a year. And, of course he used the Encore because it will also grow in full sun, which most people don't realize. Additionally Jim wanted to have a collection of native azaleas. The native azaleas are deciduous thus wanted them to be in the background of the Encore azaleas. Jim has 1800 native azaleas with over 100 varieties. It's probably the largest collection in the Southeast. In this garden Jim has all 33 varieties of Encore azaleas, with over 1200 Encore azaleas following the walkways. They're planted according to the color wheel for their colors in groups. Most have at least 15 in a group. Jim has the dwarf groups and the intermediate groups. Dwarfs are more near the walkways, then intermediates, which are taller, behind them. So he had to think about the colors and color-coordinate them, which he did. And, they also have collections that'll be added in with these.
Eric points out - Jim’s cultivar selection for this garden began with conversations he had with many of the LEADING EXPERTS in the field. Two horticulturists who were important to the design success were Brent Markus, an expert in conifers and avid collector from Oregon, and Buddy Lee, expert plant breeder who's responsible for the amazing Encore azalea line. Jim points out, Buddy Lee is the person that came up with and worked on the breeding program for the Encore azaleas. He asked Buddy to come up from Louisiana, where he lives, and they talked about Encore azaleas. Jim wanted to feature all Encore varieties. Of course, Buddy was thrilled and gave Jim all kinds of tips on Encore azaleas. They talked for probably a half a day or three-fourths of a day on just Encore azaleas. Buddy's an interesting person and very, very knowledgeable. He loves plants and plant collections and has put his life and his heart into the Encore azalea collection. And, it's a wonderful collection. The colors are magnificent. Buddy has dwarf ones, intermediate varieties, you can select whatever you want. Jim color-coordinated all of his Encore azaleas, based on his talks with Buddy about which ones would perform best in this zone. Jim and Buddy worked together, so it was a great experience.
Eric remembers decades ago first hearing of Encore azaleas and the sense of excitement that he had as a gardener when he realized he could enjoy the beauty of azaleas across multiple seasons of bloom. He's known Buddy Lee for years and has seen his collection of Vermontan-blooming azaleas, pumping out flower power from spring to fall. Encore's very much changed the way designers have used and thought about azaleas. These multi-bloomers have also been selected for superior form, most being compact, dense shrubs that are at home in any landscape.
GardenSMART caught up with BUDDY, at his garden, as he discussed his expansive library of plants and the prominent role they'll be playing in the Inspiration Garden. As one of the world's most important azalea breeders, Eric wants Buddy to talk a little bit about the role that azaleas play in the garden and specifically the American garden, since he is primarily breeding for that climate. Buddy explains evergreen azaleas were first planted in this country about 1848 in South Carolina. They were easy, adaptable plants to grow and they just kind of spread all over the country. When evergreen azaleas are blooming, people just love that color. They are easy to grow and they adapt to the soil. But in a lot of cases they can be the backbone of the garden, they can be massive plantings. Eric would like to talk about the Encore series. It's one of the most successful series of plants that have been launched in his lifetime across any genus, it's truly a triumph. What Buddy has accomplished is incredible. Eric would like for Buddy to talk just a little bit about what the Encore azaleas are and what his breeding program has done. Buddy explains, there was a tendency for azaleas sometimes to bloom in the fall, and he thought, well, if you could get a plant that was more dependable or more timed or that would repeat bloom, that would be just a great addition to gardens. He started collecting azaleas that had a tendency to bloom multiple times because he had a wholesale nursery at that time. He grew a couple thousand evergreen azaleas, wholesale for the market, he had already started collecting these different plants when he came upon a species from Taiwan that bloomed in the summer and the light went off. "If he could start control-crossing these, he might create azaleas that would easily go into bloom, in the fall" and it just started. It was a fairly large controlled breeding program in early ‘80s. There was a lot of effort that went into it to make sure that they were adaptable plants, that they would perform well, that it had a good root system. When you're doing plant breeding, you look at the entire plant, not just the blooms.
Eric comments, Buddy's nursery in Louisiana is a bit of a botanical garden in its own right. He has lovingly included thousands of selections and is home to the expansive seedling collections that are the lifeblood of his breeding program. Eric would like for Buddy to talk about the process of DEVELOPING A NEW PLANT. Just the selection process, if you will. Buddy will grow a lot of seedlings and a lot of the seedlings he grows are from control pollination and some of them are from open pollination. He looks for certain traits in a plant and growing each seedling is different. He starts from the seed, grows the seedlings, and it's kind of an elimination process. The ones that do not do that well are eliminated and the progression just keeps going year after year. He then narrows his selection down to blooms and foliage or just good plants. With the Encore azaleas he was looking for repeat bloom or fall bloom. He found numerous selections, because he grows a lot of seed, as they narrow it down, there may be 30 or 40 from one cross. And then he just slowly and meticulously propagates them and grows them in groups, like wholesale production, to see how they pan out in production. Once they get in the ground, they've been through several years of evaluation. He just keeps monitoring for pest resistance and for heat tolerance and cold tolerance. With a lot of the seedlings, it's easy to discard. He's looking for those unique plants, unique colors, plants that have good root systems, just good garden plants, something that homeowners have success with.
A lot of people think that Encore is just one line of plants, but there are a lot of different genetics. It's a broad spectrum, genetic background, so that's why you get so many different variations of short plants and tall plants and different leaf colors. There are a lot of genetics, a lot of different species come in. One of the things he tried initially was to go with cold, hardy plants because he wanted to expand their range. A lot of times you can get a really cold hardy plant, but it's not very heat-tolerant. But if you grow those genetics, looking for plants that have both those traits, certain plants start showing off.
Eric asks if Buddy doesn’t mind sharing, what were some of the SIGNIFICANT PARENTS that he started working with to develop the Encore line? The most significant one initially was Rhododendron oldhamii. It's a species from Taiwan. And that particular clone, a friend of Buddy's, Dr. John Thornton, who was a veterinarian and also a plant collector had paid for his venture into Taiwan. He got a little azalea cutting for his donation and he didn't really care for azaleas. He put it down and the thing grew and thrived. Buddy had been collecting cultivars that were already on the market that had a tendency to bloom in the fall, a repeat bloom. There are numerous azaleas that have that tendency. When he saw Dr. John's azalea, it was probably four or five feet tall, it was beside his veterinarian shop, it was in July and in full bloom. Buddy was familiar with it, but had never seen one that heavily blooming. The Dr. gave Buddy some pollen. And even though Buddy had already started collecting clones that had a tendency to bloom in the fall, it was an easy step from pollen in July to plants that had a tendency to bloom. Buddy started crossing immediately. At that time, he had 40-something already named clones from all these different hybrid groups. So Buddy just started and that year was just super crazy. Everything he pollinated set seed, so he had a lot of stuff to work with. But now with Encore and Knock Out and other brands there's a tidal wave. There are a lot of plant breeders now looking for those plants.
For Eric seeing the Inspiration Garden project come together has been an immensely satisfying experience. The creative process is often as rewarding as the finished product. It takes tremendous vision, patience and creativity to imagine what the site's going to look like years down the line. And, AFTER SEVERAL YEARS WE’RE BACK and seeing these azaleas finally filling in. Importantly seeing how the whole vision for this garden is coming together. Gardening is truly a marriage of art and science, the work is never finished. The result happens to be a living, breathing composition that grows with a gardener and imparts life to the viewer. As the plants went into the ground, it wasn't always easy to see how this masterpiece would come together. Each small plant seemed dwarfed by its surroundings. The mind of the designer has to imagine something that would, in time, grow into the space allotted, thus making the picture complete. This is one of the challenges of great design and a process that requires tremendous hope and optimism. Eric thinks perhaps that is why there's such a sense of peace one feels moving through a mature garden. While it's never finished, there is, at the same time, a sense of completion that is palpable. Eric thinks the most important thing that he's learned in designing gardens is patience and humility. It takes time to consider the possibility a space holds. Pausing long enough to dream about what your corner of heaven could be is the first step in the direction of thoughtful design. In the same way that Jim involved many of his best friends in this design, there's a humility required to build something that endures. It is that thoughtfulness and attention to detail that has Eric excited about visiting this garden for years to come. The aptly-named Inspiration Garden is a place that will continue to excite visitors for generations. Eric feels lucky to have seen it all come to fruition.
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