This bulletin is a bimonthly publication of the Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS

Jim McKenney, Editor jimmckenney@starpower.net 301-770-1867

July 14-17, St. John’s, Newfoundland. "Rock Garden of the North Atlantic" NARGS Annual Meeting. Finn Haugli, Todd Boland, Bruce Ryan, Maria Galletti, Bernard Jackson, Jamie Ellison, Wilf Nicholls. Field trips. Contact Bodil Larsen, 709-437-6173. blarsen@mun.ca.

September 10 – Walk through Southern Exposure, a new planting at the U.S. Botanic Garden led by Bill McLaughlin, curator of the plants and the architect of the garden. Bill grew all the plants in this special zone 9 and 10 garden.

September, date and place TBA - Our Fall Plant Exchange

November 12- Our Annual Meeting, Elections, and Members’ Slide Show, Meadowlark Gardens, Beulah Road, Vienna, Virginia. . 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. Coffee at 9:30 A.M. See Directions Page below.

Please contact Betty Spar if you wish to show slides. Betty will need to know about AV needs well before meeting time.

Betty Spar, United States Botanic Garden

245 First Street SW, Washington, DC 20024

202-225-5002, Fax 202-225-1561

January 7 Carlo Balistrieri, Curator of the T.H. Everett Rock Garden at the NY Botanical Garden, place TBD.

February 11 Brookside Gardens, 9:30A.M-1 P.M.

John Scott, founder of the Rockland Botanical Garden in Berks Co., PA.and a student of Dr. Wherry.

Feast for the East, an account of the tour he led in June with the Hardy Fern Foundation and the British Pteridological Society.

March TBD, but Betty has two things in mind

April 1, place TBA Marion Jarvie from the Ontario Chapter NARGS, Rock Garden Goodies

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Our website is up and running!!! Check at

To access the Members’ Section;

our "username" is pvcnargs

the password is plantsrock

Thanks, Marge!

The E-Robin

GARDEN HELPERS

On one of the lists in which I occasionally participate, there has been a very lively exchange this week regarding the sort of plants which qualify for consideration as "native" plants. Several of us were provoked to make some outrageous statements. Things got hot!

In an effort to make peace, I posted this. I hope not too many of you will smile – or grimace - in self-recognition as you read this.

About a decade ago Wayne and I were hiking in far southeastern Virginia shortly after a night of hurricane-force winds and came upon a downed tree with a mighty crown of Smilax laurifolia. Better yet, it was full of ripe seed which only a day or two before had been basking in the sun sixty feet up.

Smilax laurifolia is one of the most magnificent evergreen vines native to North America. It looks a bit like Clematis armandii. It's all but unknown in cultivation, partly because it is only dubiously manageable as a garden plant, very slow from seed and probably slow to propagate vegetatively. I've never seen it offered in the trade. Seed is hard to acquire because it is produced high up off the ground, usually well out of reach.

I collected several dozen seed and planted them when I got home; they germinated a year or so later, and then grew very slowly. Now, about ten years later, the several surviving plants are still youngsters only about six feet or so long. They grow in a tangle of bog plants. Remember that word tangle.

About an hour ago, I noticed the other member of the household giving the Smilax area a lot of attention. When I investigated, I discovered her busily ripping out the "strangle vine". There in her sweet hand were clutched the partial sum of ten years' worth of patient waiting.

After I calmed down, I resolved to plant more tomatoes and dinner-plate dahlias: at least they look like "plants". And let’s face it, there really wasn’t room for a dozen sixty foot evergreen vines, magnificent or not.

[After writing the above, I Googled Smilax laurifolia and found a commercial source. So if you don’t want to wait ten years...]

Jim McKenney

After living 27 years at my current address I will be selling my home and garden in July. It's a Cape Cod with three levels including an attached greenhouse and walkout basement that opens to a 700 square foot flagstone terrace. The house sits on a third of an acre and has a rock garden, woodland garden, pond, lots of evergreens, some perennial beds and so on. The details have not yet been set on the sale price but it's going to be something over four hundred grand. I'm hoping to sell to a garden-friendly person, but who knows what evil might lurk in the hearts of any non-gardening type who might buy the place. They could bulldoze the whole thing into oblivion. I'm announcing this in case anyone in the chapter might be interested in a new house and garden. In the event that an evil person buys the place I will ask them if I can remove the plants or if Brookside Gardens might have first pick of the corpse (I don't have a copse or they could take that, too).  Eric Grissell [(301) 384-7346, 210 Piping Rock Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20905)

View of Eric Grissell’s garden

Silene virginica in the garden of Eric Grissell

The Faden tufa garden in Simpson Park, Alexandria, Virginia

Sempervivum and Aethionema in the garden of Paul Botting.

Top to bottom:

Sedum pulchellum in the Faden garden

Aethionema caespitosa in the Botting garden

Cholla and contrasting foliage in the Botting garden

Top to bottom:

Conradina verticillata in the Faden garden

The stuff of dreams in Sasha’s garden

One of Sasha’s famous newspaper walls

Want to see these images in color? E-mail jimmckenney@starpower.net and request either the 781KB version or the 15000KB version of this Bulletin. Both are Microsoft Word files. Or, ask for the images only to be sent in four groups of four, about 450KB for each group.

OUR ANNUAL PICNIC

Our summer picnic this year will be held at the Fairfax Station home of Val and Bill Lorenz, on Sunday, July 24, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. (directions inside)
The club will provide plates, utensils, napkins, cups and soft drinks - BYO wine or beer. Please bring a dish to share, along with serving utensil, a chair or blanket to sit on, and one or more plants for door prizes or perhaps a short plant exchange. Val describes her garden as a work in progress, a description I think we can all relate to. There is very little lawn, the area being given over to beds of plants connected by paths. Please let Val know if you'll be coming – see the Calendar inside for her number.