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Plant Personalities
You can tell Grace Romero, our research director, is a plant lover by her blouse alone. Usually, women who wear flowery dresses and jumpers express their personality through the blooms, tendrils and leaves that adorn their clothing. Some contemporary young ladies ornament their skin with flowery tattoos—quite attractive. Grace’s lovely blouse sets off the experimental delphinium crosses that we made last winter and selected this past summer. After evaluating the plants for floret, spike, stem and plant qualities, she snips them to decorate her and the other employees’ homes. Although I find them to be extraordinarily striking—if not dramatic—I do not care for delphiniums. Also, mid- to light-blue shades depress me a little. But look at how diverse Grace’s crosses are. She is happiest working in the garden. Who could not be so? John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was the most hated man in the United States for several decades. Scholars note that a day never passed when he was not reviled by a newspaper editorial (there were many more newspapers in the late 1800s than today). His only hobby was gardening—and he adored it. He describes working in his garden as the only time he forgot the world that hated him even existed. Quite a plant person!
Grace Romero is also breeding dahlias. These various excellent bronze-stemmed cultivars will be introduced in a couple of years, after we build up their populations. Production is the other side of the research coin. Same coin, mind you. Such is the eccentric challenge of the nursery business in a post-industrial society.
Chelsey Fields on the left and David Smicker on the right. They are plant people with differing types of hats, literally and figuratively. David is our head gardener. He supervises the work required to grow both the “alpha” (stage one or “root camp”) scientific row trials, and the various plantings we create in the “beta” (stage two or demonstration) gardens. Chelsey manages the product development process for our vegetable seed research crops. She sorts through the “alpha” stage to see what candidates make it to year two or three in alpha, or maybe get lucky and pass our evaluations to beta and then—about a year later after production economics are determined—to you, our customer. Our “plant person” customer, I should say.
Chelsey and Grace review bean trials in the beta stage, about a year from introduction. Unlike virtually all other nurseries and seed companies, we examine and test every single seed and plant we sell. In some cases, it takes many years. However, we shall not suggest that you buy a biological product that we have not tested. This photograph neatly sums up the two keys to plant research: careful observation and meticulous record keeping.
David Smicker is at the beginning and the end of the process of test gardening, which is what we do at Fordhook Farm. It may be a lovely place for visitors, but it remains a working experimental farm, as it has been since 1888, when our founder bought the land.
Here are the sisters Linda Cassidy and Diana Gentile. Linda (at left) is the Innkeeper for me and my guests and executives who stay at Fordhook Farm. She also helps the gardeners whenever we have public events, such as Open Days, and media or publicity receptions, such as our “Fast Food Gardening” demonstration last summer. She has two adult children. Her closely resembling little sister Diana, at right, also helps from time-to-time, when not raising two teenagers and a pre-teen. Nathan, my oldest dog, has no children, unless you count me. They all stand outside our “Kitchen Garden”.
Venelin Dimitrov manages the introduction process of our flower seeds, analogous to the work Chelsey performs in vegetables. They collaborate and even their office cubicles are adjacent. Venelin grew up and trained in post-détente Bulgaria. Science and engineering was a specialty of the former satellite states of the USSR. Venelin’s dedication to sunflowers also reflects his former homeland’s unique love for this genus. Throughout Eastern Europe, the oil of the sunflower is used instead of butter or other cooking oil due to religious customs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. A venerated Native American domesticated crop is prized by millions of folks on the other side of the planet. Just as we drink Ethiopian coffee.
Both “vogueing” for the camera, as well as picking beans for yield measurement, is Larissa Pitrone, one of our two part-time gardeners at Fordhook Farm. Note yet another variation of the common straw hat, all which were essential under last summer’s rather brutal sun.
Hanne Boekell was our intern from Delaware Valley College last summer. She studied various tomato cultivation methods and, in particular, tomato grafting techniques. Perhaps she will achieve higher yields for typically low-yielding heirlooms. She also helped out willingly during our “Fast Food Gardening” media day. Good luck, Hanne!
Our gardener and photographer extraordinaire is named Mary Kliwinski. Quite naturally gifted with a camera, she must have a “perfect storm” of aptitudes for an art that most amateurs never come close to mastering. I used to drop cameras when I was taking my first—and only—class, which I quit after a few weeks. I don’t even like looking at them. However, for Mary, the camera is not merely an extension of her eye-to-brain system, but of her entire body. She floats around our 60 acres taking marvelous photographs all the time. That sort of unconscious activity sums up a natural gift. Plus, she contributes yet another straw hat style, somewhat “Swamp Fox”. . .
If I had a soul mate, it may be the Praying Mantis. I just love their behavior. It speaks to me. They have big eyes and a spunky, assertive quality that suggests an “attitude”, as they say. If he wore a watch cap it might be a few degrees off center, sort of down the left side of his head. Wonderful insect!
On the left is Nathan, my eldest at about 9 or 10. He was rescued from a crack house in North Philly, where the children were using him for target practice. He was a pup, chained to the fence in the backyard. A West Point cadet, visiting his home nearby, jumped into the yard and ripped Nathan off the wall, chain and all. This is what West Point cadets do.
Nathan’s never recovered from occasional fear and a sort of mild anxiety around children, but he is otherwise a very tough Lab-Chow-Pit hybrid. As usual with hybrid vigor, he’s an extremely intelligent dog. He’s also very handsome. His full name is Nathan “Hurricane” Kelly, who was a famous boxer from Philly. The cadet said he—Nathan—was on the brink of pulling himself off the chain, and that is as a pup.
Turns out the cadet was given orders a year or so later for Afghanistan, and so he dropped Nathan off with his retiree parents who had moved recently to Doylestown, home of Fordhook Farm and me.
I suffered a serious injury in 2002, and when I returned from the hospital, I felt a sudden, great longing for a dog. I had two farm cats, but they weren’t protective and certainly not companionable.
I called a local kennel to recommend a local breeder. Lady answered, “You want a dog?” I told her yes and she asked what color and I said black and she asked what size and I said medium, just to scare deer and bark at intruders. She said, “This is your lucky day.”
So I bought him over the phone for fifty dollars. Seems the parents took him to the kennel a few days before and asked if the lady would help them sell him. “The best dog I’ve ever had here, but I don’t sell dogs, I board them”, etc. I sent one of the gardeners (I was weak for a couple of days) to fetch him and he just scrunched right up to me, and that was that. Took about ten minutes for him to bond with me. My black angel. Extraordinary dog, to say the least. Or “Sugar Cube”, as I sometimes call him.
Actually, Nathan was the first court prophet. He brought King David off his throne and to his knees for his terrible sins and hubris. My Nathan acted in a similar capacity. All I had done was something very stupid and suffered a severe concussion. But you get the point. I wouldn’t name a dog Nathan, but when I thought about it, the name made sense. I was definitely burning the candle at both ends, and Nathan brought me “back to life”.
On the right side is the inimitable Sammy, named—for some bizarre reason—for Sammy Sosa. Who knows?
He’s from a rescue also, this time the local “English Field Setter Rescue Society” chapter that is connected to hunt clubs throughout the south where they kill the runts of every litter and any other “off types”. Sammy is, most definitely, an off-type. Not all there. Also, he was almost a skeleton when I got him. No one thought he’d survive. However, I grow dogs like I grow plants.
He jumps several feet in the air after birds that pester him or that he simply wants to catch. He tracks hawks 100 feet up, helicopters thousands of feet up and even airplanes tens of thousands of feet up. He is like an “Astronomer of Immediate Surroundings”.
He has no more than two commands that he recognizes, and that’s after training. Sammy expresses my “other” side, so to speak. He is a mystery. And never have I seen a dog with such truly boundless energy.
Add his “not there” quality, as well as his freakishly voluptuous good looks, and you have a near-perfect, but yet almost wild, dog. The yang to Nathan’s yin.
The Farm is completely off-kilter without these amazing twins.
One of the many demonstration gardens at Fordhook Farm. This was taken in late July. The fish are jumpin’ so to speak. This is what we all here at Fordhook Farm work for. Plant Personality.
Thanks for the pictures of the gardeners at Heronswood and the wonderful dogs. It helps to humanise a place by meeting the people.
Thank you, Doris. I’m a humanist, so I suppose it had to come out sometime. Hope you come visit us—on either coast—in the new year.
Loved the blog! Great to see Grace and the rest of the crew, including the four-legged kind. All the best in 2011!
Scott Trees
p.s. [Check out our new rescued dog, Annie, on my Facebook page.]
Thank you so much, Scott. Everyone here who worked with you at Pan Am thinks of you often. Best wishes to you as well.
I don’t usually read these postings but something caught my eye and I did. Thanks for a wonderful tale! I truly enjoyed it!
Stephen
Thanks for the compliment, Stephen.
Where is Fordhook Farm? ( Today’s Heronwood Voice)
Thanks for posting. Fordhook Farm is at 105 New Britain Road, Doylestown, PA 18901.
Very nice plant blog about the plants and people at Fordhook Farms. I’ve been there for an open house and it is an amazing place (pictures on my website). As I can no longer walk well, I haven’t been back for a while but miss going greatly.
The trial gardens were beautiful but it was the wonderful people helping out from Fordhook that really made my day. Thanks.
Thanks much, Susan. By all means come and take advantage of our fleet of golf carts. Perhaps you missed them last visit, but we conduct special golf cart overview tours for folks with walking difficulties. Lots of new trees to see. Thanks again.
Thank you for this Burpee info. I missed the open house last year. The hellebores I got a few years ago at your open house are enlarging and so nice in my woods. Deer come every day to my woods, but never eat the hellebores. I hope you’ll be there this spring. And please bring plants. Your puppies are lucky dogs.
Thanks, Elizabeth. We had no open house last summer, except for the media, because we took the year off to prepare for you for next year, dates to be announced soon. Deer don’t eat hellebore, thank God. In fact, it was a common poison in ancient Rome. I shall be all over the farm all next year, our 135th anniversary. We have many new gardens to show you. Finally, I’m lucky to have my dogs as well. Thanks again.
It was a lovely gift to see these pictures. Thank you, and may you and your dogs flourish.
Thank you, Mona, for the kind words.
Bless you for taking in such handsome doggies. I bet they were just meant to be yours.
Thanks, Janni. No question that I was lucky. Fate does play a role in life at certain, unexpected moments.
it’s wonderfull !!!
Thank you, Kambon. Hope you can see it during 2011 Open Days (dates coming soon).
Well done, thanks so much for the introductions.
Nice to meet the crew.
We all have much to be thankful for.
Thank you very much, Jerry. All the best to you.
Loved your tale of Nathan and Sammy.
After our dog Chevy was killed by a car, I was feeling lonesome and visited the local shelter for a pick me up. Some beautiful dogs there, but they all seemed rather lethargic and depressed. Until I saw the friendliest shaggy dog in the last kennel on the end, which I later found out was “death row”, dogs scheduled for euthanasia. I was told he had been running loose for several weeks when he was caught and brought in to the shelter. When I brought him home, my kids were thrilled and so was he. We took this shaggy gray and black dog, bathed and groomed him and found we had a beautiful ivory colored soft-coated Wheaten with a reddish brown saddle. We loved “Teddy Roosevelt Haldane” for 17 years. Long after my kids had moved out he gave me joy every day with his happy go lucky style and always affectionate nature.
Wanda, thank you so much for your wonderful story. Someone told me once that the shelter dog (or cat) “picks you out”, so to speak. I have found this to be the case with cats. I have four, and all were a result of “love beam” connections—even “tough love” beams in one case. The feistiest can often be the most rewarding, but not always. I have never gotten a dog from a shelter that worked out. The two I tried ended up biting me and I was obliged to return them. Thanks again.
Enjoy your articles and pictures.
We have an 11 yr old fox hound mix who chases jet contrails. He tries to get under them.
Toby will sit in the house by french doors and stare up at the sky, if he spots a contrail he goes nuts and when let out races at full speed.
One morning he swerved around the corner at top speed and injured his knee. $1,000 bucks and eight weeks later he was good as new! He didn’t learn a lesson.
Chases contrails? Now I’ve heard it all. Sounds like Sammy on steroids, and I would do it if I didn’t think it would hurt him. Wow. That is some dog you have. And you describe it perfectly: Sammy seems obsessed about the “underneath” part, like he might have a better chance with a vertical jump at the helicopter.
Thanks very much for the amusing story. Please post again.
absolutely loved this blog and ‘meeting’ the crew and ‘personalities, and the two dogs. thanks so very much for sharing all this.
You’re welcome Wayne. Thanks for posting.
Loved the blog and the pictures – even though we have a colorful fall here in NC, it’s still nice to see the summer gardens. What a heartwarming ‘dog’ story, they are two lucky canines!
Thank you very much, Anne.
George, thank you for spotlighting the stars in the Heronswood universe. Your blog is always a treat and I’ve learned alot reading it. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us. Have a wonderful holiday!
Thanks, Diane.
i just wanna come tomorrow and join the group [i already have a bunch of straw hats] i have recently been adopted by 2 pups,sisters, who are king cavalier/schnauzer mix who certainly would take care of the “varmits” around there when they’re a little older -right now they’re pretty small and thus might become quarry themselves – but then who’d take care of my own little acre of floral obsession here on the other side of pa.? talk about ocd i’ve been known to push the snow aside to see what’s comin’ up [i'm sure the neighbors have seen me do this]
Randy, I appreciate the offer, but indeed my dogs are so jealous they would consider your pups savage prey. Sabine women! No, enjoy them—they sound wonderful. (Please send photos.) So, as for “o.c.d.”, wait until you get to be my age and become “b.a.d.”. You absolutely must come to one of next year’s Open Days. Please stay tuned for dates. Thanks much for posting.
enjoyed watching your “personalities, especially those children with four legs……they are so fortunate for you to have themand those gorgeous flowers…. must be what the entrance to heaven looks like………….
Thank you for your vision of our gardens. I have not looked at them that way before. It is a beautiful thought and image. Thanks again.
Great to see all the personalities at Fordhook, some familiar, some unfamiliar faces. I can testify that deer DO eat hellebore, or at least munch them to death. Maybe the deer died afterward (I can only hope).
Thanks, James. I haven’t seen deer eat them here at Fordhook. Odd! Perhaps you have “superdeer”. If so, I would be grateful if you kept them on your side of the mighty Delaware.
The pictures and story made my day.It is very special to hear about your caring for dogsand I am a flower nut also. THANKS
Thank you for sharing your ‘family’. The people, their energy and passions are evident. Your four-legged friends warm my heart. Have a wonderful Holiday Season….you and all the wonderful people you surround yourself with .(Please let your photographer know that her photos speak volumes.)
George, I love your blog and wondered if you might steer me in the right direction. I am researching my family history and determined from an 1876 Bucks County Land Ownership Map that my great grandfather once owned Fordhook Farm. Do you know if someone in the company might have more specific records, to determine the exact year it changed hands? Thank you for the great blod and even more so, thank you for keeping Fordhook Farm the showplace and masterpiece it is today!