NC Great Gardeners and the plants they have introduced, promoted and evaluated

| Tony Avent | Pam Baggett | Dr. James R. Ballington | Richard E. Bir | Dr. John L. Creech |

| Rick Crowder | Kim Hawks | Mr. F. Todd Lasseigne | Michael Lindsey | Ken Moore |

| Dr. Thomas G. Ranney | Brian Upchurch |

Tony Avent
Owner, Plant Delights Nursery Inc., Raleigh, NC 

International mail order business featuring rare and unusual perennials, hostas, native plants.  Creative catalogue including plant exploration and introduction stories.
International Plant Explorer to China, Korea, Mexico, Argentina and multiple areas of North America
Freelance Garden Writer
Received numerous awards including the American Horticulture Society Outstanding Commercial Award for an Individual in 2002.

Tony explains that there are two ways of getting new plants.  One involves wild collecting exploration trips looking for that “one plant that differs in characteristics from the typical species”.  Many exploration trips into North American regions  reveal new plants.  One to fifteen years may be involved in introducing these new and different plants.  The second way that new plants are discovered is through cooperative work with plant breeders around the world.  Plant swaps with these breeders, evaluations of plant performance at Tony’s garden , Juniper Level Botanical Gardens, outside Raleigh, NC ,along with helping to finance plant exploration trips results in many new plants.

Tony is a passionate speaker, often taking the stage to ‘wind up’ an audience in  his plant evangelist sermon style. Most listeners leave feeling bold and empowered to plant something and lots of it!

Pam Baggett   (Bio submitted by Pam Baggett)
Owner, Singing Springs Nursery, Cedar Grove, NC.

Mail-order nursery -specializing in tropical and sub-tropical plants, many of which are hardy in NC, but all of which make spectacular, long-season annuals.
Freelance writer and photographer.
Winner of the Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association. Her articles have appeared most recently in Fine Gardening (March 2003), Horticulture (February 2003), and The American Gardener (January 2003). She curates the entrance garden devoted to traffic-stopping tropicals at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, NC.

Pam studied agriculture at NC State University before apprenticing in the Farm and Garden Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. (Before discovering ornamentals, Pam used to grow far too many vegetables just to satisfy her need to dig in the dirt.)

Pam and partner Chris began developing their nursery in 1997 and mailed their first catalog in January 1999. The Singing Springs catalog lists a broad selection of plants, although several genera are represented by numerous cultivars: Coleus, Salvia (both tender and hardy), Acalypha, Alternanthera, Lantana and Cuphea.

Like every keen nursery person, Pam trials dozens of new plants each year. Coleus are one of her specialties. Raspberry-pink and purple Coleus 'Candy Store', a 2003 Singing Springs introduction, was a mutation of the popular Coleus 'Aurora'. 'Candy Store' shares the shapely form of pale pink and cream 'Aurora', though the two could hardly be more different color-wise. [Coleus genus name is now Solenostemon]

Coleus 'Gold Brocade' (2003), 'Diablo' (2003), and 'Definitely Different' (2002) are seedling selections introduced by Singing Springs. Besides these, there are over fifty new coleus currently in evaluation for possible future introduction.

Salvias are another long-time love at Singing Springs. Pam is thrilled to introduce this year Salvia van houttii 'Caribbean Coral', a seedling selection which bears deep coral orange blossoms and bracts rather than the burgundy typical of the species.

Sometimes wonderful plants arrive at the nursery via friends. Many outstanding tropicals, including fine-bladed Alternanthera 'Red Threads', have been shared by garden designer extraordinaire Doug Ruhren, with a plea to propagate them and make them available to other gardeners. Other friends, Jenks Farmer (formerly of Riverbanks Zoo) and Pennsylvania garden writer Adam Levine, have shared their plants and expertise.

The Arboretum featured Solenostemon ‘Candy Store’ and Solenostemon ‘Gold Brocade’ in 2003 Summer Container Gardens.  They were outstanding, new sun loving coleus cultivars!

Dr. James R. Ballington
Professor, Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Dr. Jim Ballington has teaching responsibilities in plant propagation and small fruit production.  His research responsibilities with small fruits, especially breeding , genetics, and taxonomy in Vaccinium,(blueberries) Fragaria, (strawberries) and Rubus, (blackberries and raspberries).

Research emphases include: germplasm enhancement and breeding adapted cultivars of blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries and disease and insect resistance studies among Vaccinium species.  Dr. Ballington is widely published in professional publications, research reports and genetic resources publications.

The North Carolina Arboretum has received, accessioned and planted a number of blueberry cultivars that are being evaluated for their garden performance and hardiness in this climate and altitude.  The plants are located along the Carolina Mountain Trail, Natural Garden Trail, in the Stream Garden and Service Drive landscape at the Education Center.

Dr. Ballington is a keen plantsman and collected Zenobia pulverulenta ‘Oree’ in Horry (O’ree) County, SC in 1979. The Stream Garden has a planting of Zenobia ‘Oree’ featured in the stream trough.  He personally maintains a clonal population of this Zenobia at his home.
Surrounding oneself with great plants is one mark of a true gardener!

Richard E. Bir
Retired Extension Specialist, Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University, Fletcher, NC


Richard (Dick) Bir has served the NC nursery industry since 1979 with responsibilities in the culture, production and utilization of nursery crops, primarily focusing on woody plants. 

His publications list touches on numerous nursery topics and includes a popular and valuable book, Growing and Propagating Showy Native Woody Plants.  University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, NC.  Mr. Bir’s work at the Mountain Horticultural Research and Extension Center encompasses many plant evaluation and plant trials.

Most recently, his Hydrangea performance evaluations in the Southern Appalachian mountain region have helped to sort out ‘great plants’ for garden performance in North American gardens.  Linked with evaluations in USDA Hardiness zones 5 and 7 in Missouri and Tennessee, the North Carolina evaluations studied hundreds of hydrangea cultivars.  Many were not hardy in any of the three locations studied.  A few hydrangeas flowered year after year in all three locations.  The plants had few disease or insect problems, and exhibited great differences in size between plants season to season.

The North Carolina Arboretum Blue Ridge Court is now the garden home for the ‘great plants’ from this study: Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Mathilda Gutges’, ‘All Summer Beauty’, ‘Blue Bird’, ‘Nikko Blue’, ‘Tokyo Delight’ and ‘Caerulea Lace are on exhibit.  An upcoming April 2003 Fine Gardening magazine article by Dick Bir describes in detail the hydrangea evaluations and results.  The value of plant evaluation comes in clarifying qualities and performance of plants for garden regions.

Mr. Bir has served the Arboretum -1990–2002  as Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President and President of The North Carolina Arboretum Society, a private, non-profit agency supporting the Arboretum.  He has also guided horticulture staff in many facets of work benefiting the growth and development of those individuals and the Arboretum.

Dr. John L. Creech
Retired Director of the National Arboretum, Washington, D.C. and Senior Negotiator of the Bicentennial gift of National Bonsai Collection from the people of Japan
Interim Director, The North Arboretum, Asheville, NC
BS in Horticulture University of Rhode Island, 1941
MS in Horticulture, University of Massachusetts, 1947
PhD in Botany, University of Maryland, 1953
Horticulture Instructor, USDA scientist and Researcher 1947-1973
World War II Veteran and Prisoner of War feeding more than 1500 POW’s with greenhouse and field grown vegetables while imprisoned.  Received the Silver Star for gallantry by the U.S. Army for maintaining health and moral of the POW’s he served.

Dr. John L. Creech has received every major American horticultural award plus the British Gold Veitch Memorial Medal.  He authored The Bonsai Saga, How the Bicentennial Collection Came to America , 2001,co-authored Brocade Pillow, 1984, Garden Shrubs and Their Histories, 1992.

Dr. Creech has introduced several plant varieties into commercial production.  His leadership on nine plant exploration expeditions to Japan, China, Taiwan, the former USSR, and Nepal has produced the ‘great plants’ for introduction from this ‘great gardener’.

Dr. Creech is currently serving as Honorary Co-Chair of the NC Arboretum Capital Campaign working to gain special support for bonsai fundraising.

Staff at the North Carolina Arboretum are richly blessed by our work and personal association with Dr. Creech.

Rick Crowder
General Manager, Hawksridge Farms, Inc., Hickory, NC
 Rick Crowder began in the nursery business in 1972 at Childer’s Nursery, Hickory NC.  He graduated from Catawba Valley Community College in 1975 with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture.  In 1982 he joined the staff at Hawksridge Farms, Inc.

Mr. Crowder served on the Board of Director’s of North Carolina Association of Nurserymen (NCAN) from 1995 – 1999, serving as President in 1998.  He is currently on the Board of Advisors of JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, NC. , and formerly served on Board of Advisor’s for NC Arboretum in Asheville, NC.  He is active in International Plant Propagator’s Society Southern Region.  He received the NCAN Copeland Award of Achievement in 2003.

Mr. Crowder has traveled many times to the U.S. West Coast and British Columbia searching for new plants.  He has made three trips to Japan and a combined trip to Holland, England and Scotland, as well as Germany and Italy in the last four years visiting various nurseries, arboreta and gardens in search of ‘great plants’.

Rick Crowder has been instrumental in promoting Cupressus arizonica var.glabra ‘Carolina Sapphire’ throughout North Carolina beginning propagation and nursery production in 1995.  Original cuttings for this ‘great plant’ came into the nursery trade from JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University via Clemson University.  Researchers at Clemson named the plant.  A similar cultivar ‘Blue Ice’ is also a ‘sturdy’ Cupressus and is more requested by gardeners.  In Eastern NC, Cupressus arizonica var. glabra ‘Carolina Sapphire’ is grown in the Christmas tree industry.

The Arboretum is featuring this upright, blue foliaged evergreen in the Education Center Entrance Plaza seasonal landscape exhibits in Spring 2004.

Kim Hawks   
Former proprietor of Niche Gardens, Chapel Hill, NC
National retail mail order nursery
Horticulture degree,1977, from NC State University, Raleigh, NC.

Since 1977 Ms. Hawks has worked with landscape designers, managed a retail garden center and started Niche Gardens.

She started Niche Gardens for two main reasons.

#1. Her love for wildflowers--15 years ago she couldn't seem to locate sources except for plants that had been dug in the wild. 

#2. Quality.  Many of the plants she had purchased through mail order resembled rooted cuttings.  Most had a slim chance of survival.  She vowed to grow larger plants with healthy root systems that would transplant with little "shock" or adjustment.

[Niche Gardens] focuses on growing nursery propagated North American native plants with a special emphasis on southeastern natives.  They especially look for perennials that tolerate our heat and humidity in the South.  They also offer selected garden perennials, ornamental grasses and underused trees and shrubs.

[Niche Gardens also offers] garden design services with a focus on perennials, wildflowers, mixed perennial-shrub borders, butterfly gardens, wildlife habitat gardens, medicinal gardens or gardens unique to the client.

Ms. Hawks has written articles that have appeared in Fine Gardening, The Herb Companion, NC Wildlife, Carolina Gardener and other horticultural publications.  One garden she designed was featured in the magazine, NC Homes.

In 1991, she won a writing award for the newsletter, Niche Notes, Volume 2 from Garden Writers Association of America, and in 1992, Niche Notes, Volume 3 won a Quill and Trowel Award.   In 1993, the Spring 1992 Descriptive Catalog received a special judge's recognition.

Many articles have been written about Niche Gardens and have appeared in local newspapers and national magazines including Southern Living, Cosmopolitan, House Beautiful, Smart Money, Garden Design and Carolina Gardener.

She lectures around the country on many aspects of gardening.  Niche Gardens is considered a leader in the field of mail order nurseries and in running a creative and highly informative nursery dedicated to educating anyone who is interested in gardening.  They encourage gardening for many reasons and hope to help people be successful in their gardens.

Now that she has sold Niche Gardens, she plans to garden totally for fun and to share her love of plants and gardening through writing, garden design and lecturing.

In the Plants of Promise and Holly gardens at the Arboretum, we are featuring Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ (See the article with Ken Moore about Kim’s involvement in the introduction of this plant.).  We also feature Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Knee-High’, a Niche Gardens/Sunny Border introduction in 1999.  Kim writes in her catalogue about this Echinacea, “Winner of the Best New Perennial of the Year Award for 2000 in the Netherlands.  Our compact purple coneflower has wowed gardeners world-wide with its brilliant pink flowers, incredible long season of bloom and sturdy height, typically topping out a foot shorter than the species.  Niche customers keep coming back for more, for massing in sunny borders and for containers planting.  Plants are a result of years of selection and tissue culture.”  This plant was named for Kim’s short stature, yet she is a ‘giant great gardener’.

Mr. F. Todd Lasseigne
Assistant Director, JC Raulston Arboretum, Department of Horticultural Science,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Mr. Lasseigne received his M.S. from the University of Georgia in 1996.

His responsibilities at NC State involve Teaching, Research and Extension.  Mr. Lasseigne teaches plant identification, a fundamental, introductory course for Horticulture students.  His research responsibilities center around stress physiology of ornamental plants in urban environments.  Extension areas of work relate to the Statewide Plant Evaluation Network – a network of sites across NC that assist in researching plant adaptability and performance.  The network also extends into a partnership arrangement with NC Department of Transportation in assessing suitable highway plants, Extension work also includes lecturing on plant collections housed at JC Raulston Arboretum, nursery and landscape industry outreach, and Master Gardener training. 

As Assistant Director at JC Raulston Arboretum, Mr. Lasseigne oversees all existing plant collections including the field and container nursery spaces (collections now over 6000 taxa), and he takes an active role in acquiring new plants from nurseries, botanical garden/arboreta and formal plant exploration/collecting expeditions.  Mr. Lasseigne has recently traveled to Georgia in the  Transcaucasus region. All formal plant distribution programs are guided by Mr. Lasseigne with the help of the Arboretum Research Technician and the JC Raulston Arboretum Plant Selection Committee.

In 2003 Ipomoea batatas 'Sweet Caroline Bronze', Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine, was featured.  A familiar foliage vine in the dark burgundy and chartreuse green color ranges, ‘Sweet Carolina Bronze’ introduces a coppery foliage color to the ‘great plants’ repertoire.

Michael Lindsey
Twelve year old, Michael Lindsey, has a plant named after him.

To honor his birth in 1991 and nursery worker/mom Tracy Lindsey, then Holbrook Farm owner, Alan Bush named his newly released sweet shrub Calacanthus floridus ‘Michael Lindsey’. Michael’s parents, Tracy and Craig Lindsey lived at Holbrook Farm with this lustrous, dark green leaved plant with fragrant reddish brown flowers growing in their cottage garden. The plant’s outstanding characteristics were noted by Dr. Michael Dirr, University of Georgia, while visiting the nursery.  Dr. Dirr encouraged Alan Bush to propagate the plant.

Michael lives in Asheville with his parents and helps out his mom and customers at BB Barnes Garden Center several afternoons a week.  He is a good student and ‘Great Young Gardener’ preferring pumpkins and orange flowers for his garden.

Calicanthus floridus ‘Michael Lindsey’ is featured in the Plants of Promise Garden near the Education Center.

Ken Moore (Bio submitted by Ken Moore)
Assistant Director
North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Ken is a class of '62 graduate of Davidson College with MA in English from UNC-CH, earned in 1964, during which period he decided he wanted to work with plants rather than spend most of his time in libraries.  Following a couple of years in the US Army, he returned to UNC-CH to pursue studies in Botany.  Before completing work on a Masters in Botany, he accepted a position working with Dr. Ritchie Bell in 1968 to assist with the development of the Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.  Ken is still at the Garden, serving as Assistant Director since 1983.  During the 1970s and mid '80s he was instrumental in developing the Garden's  "Conservation through Propagation" programs, including the well known "Wild Flower of the Year" program, now in its 22nd year.

In addition to his duties at the Botanical Garden, Ken served as president of the North Carolina Wildflower Preservation Society in 1976 -78, spent several months studying gardens and natural areas in Great Britain in 1983 as a  recipient of the English Speaking Union's Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship, and has served for many years on the Steering Committee of the Landscaping with Native Plants Conference (The Cullowhee Conference) including three years as Director of the Conference.  Most recently Ken was honored as a Year 2002 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for public service at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ken's gardening philosophy is one of laziness in that he prefers to let nature have the upper hand and spend most of his gardening effort enjoying the surprises of native plants as well as selected exotic species, and most importantly celebrating the unexpected beauties and rewards of letting yard grasses grow tall and allowing room for a diversity of plants that many conventional gardeners consider weeds.

The Story behind Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ 
(Submitted by Ken Moore)

During the 1970’s most of the plants procured for the North Carolina Botanical Garden resulted from an active plant rescue effort of garden staff and volunteers.  One such rescue took place adjacent to a motor repair shop out in the countryside near Wilson, NC.  A boggy pocosin type habitat was being cleared and filled to make way for more storage of vehicles.  A number of pitcher plants and associated woody pocosin species were rescued for planting in the Garden’s coastal plain habitat display.  During the next several years an unusual goldenrod made itself visible within the planting zone of that rescued pososin collection.  It was unusual in being a most un-goldenrod-like goldenrod.  Ken Moore, the Garden’s first permanent employee became keenly interested in this most unusual native goldenrod exhibiting long gracefully horizontal arching flowering stems.  Taxonomically it keyed out to the Solidago rugosa complex (the leathery dark green, deeply rugose leaf is a real give-away) and most closely resembles var. celtidifolia, as described in Gray’s Manual of Botany.  The original single clump became more vigorous during several growing seasons.

Other staff shared Ken’s enthusiasm and the plant was then extracted from its chance occurrence in the Habitat Garden, divided and grown by staff members Rob Gardner and Janie Bryan in several of the more open wildflower borders where for the next several years in a more cultivated situation it became even more vigorous and began attracting attention from garden visitors.  Experience over the years at the Garden determined that this special form did not come true from seed and thus all the multiples of the plant were produced by division and cuttings.

Wanting not to race to add to the abundance of named cultivars in the perennials world, Ken was not at first keen to give it a special name.  But, after a number of years of observing goldenrods throughout the State and never, ever finding one in the wild that resembled the one that so fortunately turned up in our planting of rescued plants, Rob and Janie’s enthusiasm along with that of Kim Hawks of Niche Gardens convinced Ken that it was indeed worthy of special status.  They all got their heads together and after much consideration of several potential names, finally settled on “Fireworks” which Kim Hawks’ Niche Gardens introduced with the Botanical Garden in 1993.

Success followed.  ‘Fireworks’ has become a regular feature in many perennial gardens throughout the country and you can certainly anticipate seeing it at several locations in the Coker Arboretum and around the Totten Center at the Botanical Garden.  It is truly a prize for an extended season, if you appreciate its upright almost dome shaped arching architectural form, which is evident for many weeks before its flowering period and continues throughout the fall and winter season in its dried state until snow and ice or the very neat gardener cut the arching stems to the ground to emphasize the almost evergreen basal foliage.

Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ is located in the Plants of Promise Garden and Holly Garden at the Arboretum.

Dr. Thomas G. Ranney
Professor, Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, Fletcher, NC
 Dr. Ranney has 100% research responsibilities in production, culture, physiology and improvement of nursery crops.

Major areas of research include:

Dr. Ranney has published numerous research findings.

This year, Dr. Ranney is introducing a new river birch called ‘Summer Cascade’ into the nursery trade.  Tobacco farmers John and Daniel Allen at Shiloh Nursery in Harmony, NC spotted a seedling of this native tree growing in one of their tobacco fields.  The tree has a graceful weeping habit, is easy to propagate, disease and common pest resistant, and is truly a unique form for river birch.  Dr. Ranney believes Betula nigra ‘Summer Cascade’ has international appeal and production licensing in Europe and Asia is underway.  Partners in this new plant introduction include Dr. Ranney, John and Danny Allen, NC State University Department of Horticultural Science, and North Carolina Foundation Seed Producers, Inc.  Funding and assistance in marketing and releasing this plant provided by NC Specialty Crops Program, NC Department of Agriculture and consumer Services, and the Golden LEAF Foundation.

Betula nigra ‘Summer Cascade’ is located prominently in the Education Center Entrance Plaza.[Click here to see attached plant data sheet]
(This link requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Brian Upchurch
Owner, Highland Creek Nursery, Fletcher, NC

Wholesale Nursery specializing in unusual and new woody ornamentals; both container and bare-root.
Recently began offering unusual and specialty conifers.
Founder:  PendulourPlants.com in September 2002 ~ an internet based mail-order retail company offering weeping plants.

Brian Upchurch is a ‘great gardener’ searching for the newest, different, or oddest forms of numerous genus.  His specific genera of interest includes Hamamelis, (witchhazels), Acer (Asian species and hybrids), Enkianthus, Parrotia and Halesia (silverbell).

Mr. Upchurch has traveled widely to gardens, nurseries, and arboreta in North America, Europe and Japan seeking collector plants.  His nursery features collector plants –a niche market for the discriminating ‘great gardener’.  He has published articles in American Nurseryman magazine.

Mr. Upchurch served on the Board of Directors for the NC Association of Nurserymen and is currently the President Elect.  He is a NC Certified Plant Professional and an active member of the International Plant Propagators Society, the Southern Nurserymen Association, Western Carolina Horticulture Alliance, and the Blue Ridge Horticulture Association.