From 1977 to 1979 I rented a small apartment on the 2100 block of North Kimball Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. This neighborhood, Logan Square, was a mile or so south of Albany Park, an easy city walk from one of the greatest concentrations of ethnic Poles in the world. Only Warsaw has more Poles than the city of Chicago. Their language, manner and food are everywhere.Poles move around, and are tough, smart, extremely adaptable and, behind their guards, friendly, though not especially so. They excel in other ways. They focus their affections. Being raised by a mother steeped in a sense of her separation and distance from the South, I’d tasted an exiled world. I found this new neighborhood familiar. However, Poles are at home with few people (outside of the actual home), including fellow Poles. Everyone is to some extent an outsider, due to the continuous partitioning of the last few centuries and the conquests, occupations, and annexations of nearly a millennium. Perhaps no other nation of Europe has been so awash over so long a time with social dislocations, migrations and exiles. States come and go. We Americans know nothing of this experience. This history accounts for the unusual combination of great resourcefulness, fatalism, and solitude in the Polish character. In turn, this seems to explain both their fluid mobility (they can get jobs in Chicago in twenty minutes) and great success.

In my adopted Chicago neighborhood, all of the Polish were from towns and cities. Since the Stalinists moved many people around, they were often deliberately vague about their hometowns. Family members would escape or defect to America, get a job and then immediately begin organizing the extraction of others. I came to know only a few, all through business, which was selling and buying books and records of mostly traditional ethnic music and literature, for which they have a great enthusiasm. But “familiarity”, as we know it, was nil. If you weren’t family, you were simply not trustworthy, a quality more rare and precious to them than the purest gold. The only common, non-family social activity, besides church, that I saw them share was dancing. At all ages, they are prodigious and phenomenal dancers. They learn, practice and then do it every chance they get. In the late 70s—the disco craze— there was a separate polka universe of dance halls on the west side of Chicago, about a half dozen in a thirty block radius. Everyone was Polish and most spoke little English— or chose not to under the circumstances— so it was impossible to enjoy yourself. You could never traverse the ethnic gap. They didn’t want you around their sisters and daughters.

So I let my proximity to them suffice: I shopped at their butcher shops—true sausage emporiums with dozens of varieties of just kielbasa alone. I read their excellent literature, perhaps postwar Europe’s best, and certainly my favorite. I listened to their classical music and especially their jazz, which was on a par with ours. What a surprise to a young music lover! It was hard to get books and records out of Poland in those days, but I “knew someone who knew someone”, a secretary at their consulate or trade mission— it was never clear— and she smuggled them in and out. It was an adventurous and exciting business, but it didn’t last. The new pope was a Polish national hero as well as a renowned poet. The labor unions were becoming aggressive, bold and successful in their actions, especially in the shipyards of Gdansk. The Soviets were losing whatever grip they’d had, and revolution was in the air. By late 1979, the neighborhood was a beehive of gossip, with new faces everyday. Music and poetry, traditionally something of an obsession to the community, faded into the background.

What did I learn from my Polish American neighbors?

They have, like the Russians, a taste for intense colors. Whether from the Orthodox Church or their historic trade with India, their love of warm colors in swirly patterns is passionate. As if compensating for their reserved composure, they sew, weave, paint and garden in sensational colors. Their great preference for Cosmos (C. sulphureus and C. bipinnatus) is unique in the world. They grow Cosmos in mixed colors, with an emphasis on its dreamy orange, to a degree I’ve never seen anywhere except India. However, Indians grow many other flowers as well. Not so the housewives of the Polish neighborhoods in Chicago. Every small yard billows with hundreds of Cosmos, the happiest of annuals.

My friends, neighbors, and colleagues in the Polish American community were unique also for being, oddly, not as nationalistic as other Europeans. I say “oddly” because, in my experience, every other nationality in Europe is extremely chauvinistic by my standard. Except the Poles. They reclaimed their culture from the Soviets, but they have never seemed especially enthusiastic about taking credit for it. One can argue that they should lay claim to having opened the floodgates for the rest of the new democracies in Eastern Europe. The world profoundly underestimated the popular unrest in Poland. Theirs was the battering ram that knocked down the Berlin Wall. However, Poles don’t engage in laying a nationalistic trip on you. Once you get to know them, they love to have conversations— but about the world, about Europe, about other places besides Poland. They are, perhaps by default or due to so many occupations and partitions, naturally gifted internationalists. From the rich to the poor, they’ve long been Europeans, cosmopolitans, citizens of the world. Or, in our lucky case, Americans. This quality may account for their iconoclastic and pioneering artists, scholars, scientists and intellectuals, from Copernicus to Conrad, Chopin to Curie, Walensa to Pope John Paul II— all uncommonly capable of both thinking and acting “outside the box”.

Last but not least, I shall possess, well into my dotage, fond memories of the most delectable food item on earth, The Polish Sausage, found nowhere else but at the ramshackle hot dog stands lining West Roosevelt and West Taylor. This is a large hot dog made of a spiced sausage, scarred down one side, deep fried, placed in a fresh bun, brushed with a piquant mustard and topped with grilled onions.
I see myself 30 years from now, ancient, quickly hobbling down the avenue, and folks will gaze in wonder. “What’s he doing? Where’s he think he’s going?”

“To the dogs, ladies!”

To the onions… to the nameless stands, now abandoned and torn down. Limping my way to lost worlds of taste.

One can find imitations from time to time in the chains, such as Portillo’s. Around here (Bucks County, PA) folks tell me they sell a decent “Polish” up in Reading and Allentown. Eastern Pennsylvania saw a huge influx of miners, metal workers and engineers from Poland in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Just thinking about them makes me hungry.

When I discovered that Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ had been thriving for the last 5 years in my garden, but had been listed by Burpee and other nurseries nationwide as either an “annual” or a perennial hardy only in zones 7 to 11, I was really surprised. I remember seeing it listed as a zone 9-11. Although Fordhook Farm is a solid zone 6, ‘Black and Blue’ is a spectacular perennial here, especially with Zinnia ‘Zowie Orange and Scarlet’. Other years we’ve planted white or yellow petunias alongside it. With its moody blue florets and bold black sepals on tall stems, ‘Black and Blue’ towers authoritatively over the playful, effusive annuals. The sage green foliage is perfectly matched with its blooms, as if it knew how to perfect itself.

Also at Fordhook, plants of Phygelius aequalis ‘Sensation’ are still holding their leaves, staying green and vigorous, despite several killing frosts each of the last several years. Most P. aequalis are zone 8; this unique cultivar is hardy to 7, and here it is doing fine in our zone 6. Plus, we have reports that other varieties of P. aequalis have survived the zone 5 of Lansing, Michigan.

How reliable are zone designations?

I became a bit concerned. So last fall I asked a friend from high school, Nick Rhodehamel, the retired Managing Editor of ‘Crop Science’, the journal of the American Agronomy Society, to help me by reviewing the background of the USDA plant hardiness system. Here’s Nick’s first report:

Dear George,

The current USDA plant hardiness zone map is published as USDA misc. publ. 1475 (1990). It supercedes USDA misc. publ. 814 (1960; revised 1965). The USDA is currently revising the 1990 iteration. Print copies of these don’t seem to be available, however, even at the Natl. Arboretum where the map was devised.

The National Arbor Day Foundation has just completed an extensive update of the USDA 1990 map based on 15 years of data (see http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm for the update; there is an animated comparison of the USDA map with the NADF one).

In addition, the American Horticultural Society (AHS) in 2003 created a zone map that is based on high rather than low temperatures. The AHS map uses 12 years of data. This zone map is intended to be a complement to the USDA map.

The original USDA plant hardiness zone map (1960) was developed by H.T. Skinner (1907-1984; director Natl. Arboretum 1952-1973), the second director of the Natl. Arboretum. In cooperation with AHS, he incorporated pertinent horticultural and meteorological information into the map. The basic considerations underlying the map were the following. (i) Zones-The contiguous USA and southern Canada were divided into 10 zones on the basis of a 10°F (6°C) difference in average annual minimum temperature. (ii) Winter hardiness-Survival of landscape plants over winter was selected as the most critical criterion in their adaptation to the environment. (iii) Classification-The zone ratings were intended to indicate “excellent” adaptability of the plants. Many plants may survive in warmer or colder zones. Under this scheme, survival alone does not represent satisfactory performance. (iv) Interactions with other environmental factors-Many other factors may come into play in determining satisfactory growth. Wind, soil type, soil moisture, humidity, snow, and winter sunshine may greatly affect the adaptability of plants. (v) Interactions with cultural factors-The way plants are placed in the landscape, how they are planted and their size and health can greatly influence satisfactory adaptability.

The 1990 USDA version expanded the earlier map and showed in detail the lowest temperatures that can be expected each year in the whole of North America. As in the earlier iteration, these temperatures are referred to as “average annual minimum temperatures” and are based on the lowest temperatures recorded for each of the years 1974 to 1986 in the USA and Canada and 1971 to 1984 in Mexico.

It is this concept that is used to define the zones. If, at a particular site, the lowest recorded temperature for five successive winters is 7 (-14), 10 (-12), 17.6 (-8), 3 (-16), and 30°F (-1°C), the mean coldest temperature is 14°F (-10°C). The site is then assigned to Zone 8a.

This map shows 10 different zones, each of which represents an area of winter hardiness for agricultural and natural landscape plants. It also introduced Zone 11 to represent areas that have average annual minimum temperatures above 40°F(4°C) and that are essentially frost free.

Data used for this map were obtained from 14,500 stations from USA, Canada, and Mexico; 8,000 of these stations can be identified by latitude and longitude and by a valid average annual minimum temperature. Only data from these stations were used in the map. The map was computer generated on the basis of latitude and longitude but because of the large area involved, it is not possible to draw one map that is accurate for all of North America. The part representing the USA has the least distortion. ARS proposes periodic updated maps when necessary and appropriate.

On the basis of empiricism and plant passport information, the USDA assigned particular plants to particular zones. Presumably, the data that are found in industry catalogues are also based on breeder and grower information. However, I can find very little hard information on this.

The hardiness zones are effective for the most part because cold is the primary limiting factor in whether a plant survives at a particular location. However, there are obvious drawbacks. One major one is that summer heat levels are not incorporated into zone determination. Sites that may have the same mean winter minimum but quite different summer temperatures will still be assigned to the same hardiness zone.

The 2003 ASH map (http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm#1) attempts to address this weakness by defining zones on the basis of “heat days” or temperatures over 86°F (30°C) rather than average annual minimum temperatures. The ASH map is used in the same way as the USDA hardiness zone map. However, there are 12 zones that indicate the average number of days each year that a given region will experiences heat days, and a heat day is defined as “the point at which plants begin suffering physiological damage from heat.” The zones range from Zone 1 with less than one heat day to Zone 12 with more than 210 heat days. AHS plant heat-zone ratings assume that adequate water is supplied to the roots of the plant at all times. AHS has coded thousands of garden plants for heat tolerance and suggests that their map be used in conjunction with the USDA plant hardiness zone map. Apparently, some nurseries have adopted the AHS scheme, and many garden plants are coded for both schemes at retail nurseries.

All three zone maps (USDA, 1960, 1990; NADF, 2006; AHD, 2003) use the same source of climatic data-archives of the National Climatic Data Center, though the years of data are not identical. The NADF zone map is (apparently) purely an update of the USDA scheme. The other two were created by essentially the same group using the same assumptions and methods and overseen by the same person.

Why do you see plants that are assigned to particular zones that don’t appear to be able to withstand the conditions in that zone? How do you assign a zone to an exotic cultivar? The zone maps are simply rating schemes, and as you see, they’re rather basic and rely on only a few assumptions. The interaction between plants and the environment is dynamic and complex. And even though there is an average minimum temperature for a particular zone, in some rare years, it may get considerably colder in that zone, analogous to a 25-year flood. Or there may be an unusually severe, early cold spell that occurs before plants have adapted to cold temperatures. Cold and heat tolerance are complex traits for which there are no generic laboratory tests, and there is certainly no simple way to quantitate something as non-discrete as the effect of wind on a plant. Obviously, in assigning a plant to a zone, a pretty conservative approach should be adopted, and short of passport data and/or fielding testing, I don’t see that there’s any reliable, simple way to make this assignment-particularly since some of your germplasm may be fairly exotic and niche-limited.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Nick

It’s not a coincidence that people between the ages of 40 and 70 years comprise 90% of gardeners. Gardening takes—and gives—time. Time spent, invested, and enjoyed. Like a house, a garden is meant to be inhabited. Hours savored, not minutes; weeks satisfied, not days; years fulfilled, not months. To garden is to live. The origin of the word, “season”, is “the time to sow seeds”, from which the meaning led to a general period of time within a year. Folks who have the most time to garden are today’s boomers, whose first members, born in 1946, have entered their 60s, the gardener’s most dedicated decade. Their largest segment is entering their 50s, the most fulsome decade of entry to the pastime. And since, lately, a popular saying goes, “Forty is the new sixty”, it follows that the relaxed generation of early 1960s babies should be gardening in even greater numbers. And the facts—our data at Heronswood, The Cook’s Garden and Burpee—prove it. The percentage of our customers in their 40s has grown (pardon the pun) from 15 to 25% over the last 10 years—a remarkable rise in youthful enthusiasm, helped along by the popularity of the fitness movement, as well as the advances in gerontology, during the same period. Our overall numbers are rising—even of gardeners in their 80s—and yet gardening is gaining ground rapidly also among younger adherents. Interestingly, the types of flowers, vegetables, perennials and herbs have remained remarkably stable and consistent for all age groups. The “news” is the exception to the rule. Gardeners are creatures of habit or, more precisely, practitioners of tradition. They get into a groove and stay there. With its vast array of unique plants, shrubs and trees, Heronswood lays down new grooves for the beginning—as well as the adventurous—gardener.Gardening is both taught and learned: no one is born gardening. However, the basics require only a year to learn—one complete two-to-four season gardening cycle. There is no better program available than the Master Gardeners, a loosely confederated organization, not widely known but soon to be, since the demographic trends are definitely in its favor. It is appropriately decentralized, since “all gardening is local”, to paraphrase Tip O’Neill. And, as with politics, you get out of gardening what you put into it. It’s an active hobby—you have to “do it”. Like with a pet, don’t start a garden without careful consideration of the duties involved. It is not a coincidence that the basis of Judaism, and then indirectly Christianity and Islam, is a series of instructions about the care of the land, expanded into a discussion of rules, regulations and codes of family and community behavior, known as the Mishnah. To live is to garden.

When I bought my first large land parcel and started farming trees, I thought I knew what I was doing, but I really didn’t. I learned from experience and episodic lessons of trial and error. Lots of dead trees, confused farm managers and wasted money. Yet, ultimately, it was worth every penny, because I learned the ropes. I didn’t have the luxury of a teacher, or the obligations of a family, to test and shape me more quickly. However, I could have used a few chapters of a bible. I could have prepared myself better. You can always prepare better. Poor planning is the greatest cause of mistakes.

The tropical Chinese—along their southern coastline and in island communities like Taiwan and Borneo—are fantastic planners. Farmers can easily fit five cropping seasons into a year there. They’ve become not only skillful growers (it’s one of their highest ranking professions) but also excellent plant breeders, legendary for developing cultivars that mature quickly, both to beat the odds of potential drought and to feed an ever-expanding population. By the 18th century the mainland Chinese census was already well over three times that of Europe. Comparable to a priesthood, an apprenticeship to become a farmer in China takes a decade. It is easier to become a college professor.

Rex Murfitt Creating And Planting Alpine Gardens — Fantastic, workable introduction to alpines, with adjustments for the unique challenges facing US growing conditions. Murfitt also co-wrote the excellent Creating And Planting Garden Troughs.

Roger Swain The Practical Gardener — Best overall gardening primer. Groundwork: A Gardener’s Ecology — Beautifully written. Earthly Pleasures — Collection, mostly, of his excellent magazine columns. Field Days — Ditto, never too much of a good thing.Note: Roger has a great illustrator, Abigail Rorer, helping him; makes best gardening drawings I’ve ever seen.

Ken Druse The Collector’s Garden — The “gold standard” on the subject. The Natural Shade Garden — Also one of the best.

Marina Schinz Visions Of Paradise — one of the all time great picture books, by a first rate artist and photographer, helped greatly with text by Susan Littlefield, published in the early eighties and still gorgeous as well as timely.

Brian Capon Botany For Gardeners — The best overview, including great articles on cell biology and genetics.

Julie Moir Messervey Contemplative Gardens — Groundbreaking classic on a poorly understood subject. Julie was a meteor on the scene in the late 80s and her work is still highly compelling. Outside the Not So Big House (with Sarah Susanka) – Originally designed and well-photographed coffee-table style overview of about a dozen garden and landscape architecture projects across the country, focusing on making the most of typically sized homes most serious gardeners own. Cutting edge insights that truly opened my mind to new ways of looking at my house and garden.

Mark Francis The Meaning Of Gardens — A strangely wonderful, fully satisfying trip into the mind of a philosopher/ naturalist/ landscape designer who bases his history, practice and theory on unusual gardens and landscapes in California and Scandanavia. One of the most fascinating books that few have heard of, and fewer have read. Top of my stack, most of the time. Like Schinz’s, about 25 years old and could’ve been written yesterday.

Maggie Keswick The Chinese Garden — Well written and thoroughly researched survey of a vast subject – the best of the bunch, and others are quite fine.

Emma Clark The Art Of The Islamic Garden — A lively survey of the entire panorama of this fantastic side of horticulture history. One of my favorites.

Karel Capek The Gardener’s Year – Wonderful journal-like chapters discussing the tasks, projects and pleasures taken by one of Czechoslovakia’s greatest and most celebrated writers and literary personages. Droll and informative observations, commentaries, fantasies and philosophical musings about all aspects of a working garden and nature-oriented household in the early 20th century. His brother Josef, a renowned illustrator, contributed witty and whimsical drawings. Capek possessed an inimitably friendly and engaging style.

Jeff Gilman The Truth About Garden Remedies – Comprehensive and well-researched analysis of homemade and “urban legend” plant pathology and pest cures. Well-organized and with a helpful bibliography, it demystifies many daunting problems related to everything from soils to deer, and offers many practical suggestions.

Ralph Snodsmith Tips From the Garden Hotline – An essential “Q & A” book by one of America’s great horticulturists, whose breadth of knowledge and experience is unmatched, especially when it comes to the northeast and midwest. Ralph also hosts a long-running, very popular call-in radio show on New York City’s WOR and syndicated nationwide.

Natural History related:

David Attenborough Life On Earth — Most of you probably own this, but if not, find it in an early edition. I bought it when it came out in the early 80’s, due to Attenborough’s TV charisma. A beautiful “legacy” book. He covers, literally, everything on the subject.

Gary Paul Nabhan Songbirds, Truffles And Wolves — One of the best books I’ve ever read on any subject, one of my favorite writers. He traces the walks of St. Francis through Italy, and much more. If you like Thoreau, you’ll love this.

Wade Davis Shadows In The Sun — Travel, philosophy and the sharp observations that have made him justly famous in one very lyrical book. My favorite of his. One River — Remarkable epic narrative of plant exploration up and down the Amazon. Also a moving reflection on the life of the river and the jungle. A big book, best read in hardcover.

Art and History Related:

William Weaver A Legacy Of Excellence: The Story Of The Villa I Tatti — The exquisitely written story of the renaissance scholar Bernard Berenson’s gem of an estate in Tuscany. Impeccably researched and beautifully illustrated. Great garden too.

General Interest:

A.A. Dornfeld “Hello Sweetheart, Get Me Rewrite!” – Rare glimpses and amusing anecdotes of mid 20th century Chicago newspaper reporting. The City News Bureau and the old Chicago dailies were the radicals of their day. Life was tougher and tighter in the news business before television. Chicago was a dynamic city that was filled with readers. Ernest Hemingway, Ben Hecht and Mike Royko started at the CNB, as did many lesser known novelists and journalists. It was a scribbler’s paradise and Dornfeld gives an elegiac view of their vagrant but inspired lives. Occasionally, you can still find a tough and witty style—The Beechwood Reporter in Chicago is a good example. Dornfeld’s granddaughter, Jennifer Stevenson, is an interesting writer too.

Bob Garfield Waking Up Screaming From the American Dream – A skilled commentator and media critic whose essays make it look easy. Also, very funny. Many people know his radio pieces on NPR. I think his writing is far better. Reminds me of Sidney J. Harris.

Linda Obst Hello, He Lied – An amusing and pithy book that came and went quickly a decade ago by the producer of ‘Contact’ and ‘Sleepless In Seattle’ as well as many other movies. Being hugely sentimental, I blow holes through Kleenex, and went through boxes during those two flicks. So when I saw she’d written a “guide” through the narrow halls of Hollywood, I took notice. Turns out to be one of the best business books I’ve ever read. Witty, talented and hardworking, she offers advice that’s helped me over the years.

Ryszard Kupuscinski Shah of Shahs, and The Emperor – The first is a portrait of the late Shah of Iran and the second of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, by one of the world’s greatest journalists. Perhaps curious to today’s readers, R.K. remains fresh, incisive and penetrating after more than 30 years. Interviews from a remote world.

W.J. Cash The Mind of the South – If you want to know what makes a southerner tick, read this milestone of history and social commentary from 1941. Marvelous insights that leave you shaking your head at how little you realized. Also, it’s written in an elegant and mannered style that has disappeared. Since half my family is from South Carolina – the “deep south” – it has always been a treasure to me.

Truman Capote A Christmas Memory – a charming yet mysterious evocation of the South; peculiar, distinctive, and utterly original. It’s sad that our media and movie industries focus on the author at the expense of his books, especially jewels like this, and the neglected novel that in my opinion showed his genius best, The Grass Harp.

Jean Shepherd  In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash — Tender and brilliantly funny stories of growing up in the Midwest in the early 50s.  Seinfeld was asked who was his greatest influence and, without hesitation, he replied, “Jean Shepherd”.  The follow-up, Wanda Hickey’s Night Of Golden Memories And Other Disasters, is also excellent.  Many parts of “In God” were used in the classic holiday movie, ‘A Christmas Story’.  As hilarious as that is, it’s not as funny as these books.

Ben Stein — All his “How To. . . ” books are provocative and engaging.  I was a fan of his TV show, the LOL funny “Win Ben Stein’s Money” that featured Jimmy Kimmel.  Alas, it seldom reruns.

Calvin Trillin  American Fried, Alice Let’s Eat, and Third Helpings — Also known as “The Tummy Trilogy”, these three books contain the sharpest, and often funniest, observations about American food and dining ever written.  Trillin invented a genre, particularly in American Fried, his masterpiece.

Donald Westlake  Dancing Aztecs — Witty and entertaining late 1970s “caper” novel that stands out from his many others.  Everyone gets in trouble—no exceptions.  He’s written many more novels as well.  His wife, Abigail Adams, is a very smart Erma Bombeck-style garden writer, of all things.

P. G. Wodehouse  Uncle Fred In The Springtime — I have a friend who reads Wodehouse to combat depression, and he says all of his books work.  A bit like Westlake, but British and set in the early 20th century.  Perfectly normal eccentrics get caught up in sophisticated, idiotic plots.

Speech to Garden Writers Convention, March 6, 2006

Good Morning. It is a pleasure and privilege to speak to you. Mr. Evison will be a hard act to follow. I especially appreciated, sir, the idea of pruning a plant while upside down. Never heard that one. It is a great image to take away from this lecture. So I hope I can be as imaginative as he. I am going to present 3 topics today that address the great growth taking place in gardening. First, I am going to talk about the Baby Boom and its characteristics, how it is going to work. Then, second, I am going to talk about the significance of the quality of people who make up the Boomers: what kind of people, what they think, how they feel. Third, I am going to talk about their specific tastes and preferences in gardening, and then finally I shall conclude with a discussion of what all these points mean in the major ways that make an impact on the future of this industry.First, Baby Boomers – I struggle sometimes when I make the point of how utterly phenomenal this “big bang” of population growth is. There are lots of figures mentioned,but most agree that this one generation of Baby Boomers, spreading across 20 years from 1946 to 1966, is about 4 times larger than previous generations. Some put it a bit lower, but suffice it to say that in sheer numbers we are talking about a very significant increase. An explosive increase, this is why I call it a “big bang”. Another reason I call it a big bang is for the same reason the sociologists call it a “structural trend”, meaning that it represents permanent growth: it’s not going away. The reason that I say this should be obvious. Babies become reproductive adults. Being themselves, as well as producing in the future, adult gardeners, which we will get to shortly.Also significant is the consumer society of today, most notably ours here in North America. We can buy a great number of things, and in an assortment unheard of in the past, and of a general quality higher than ever before and costing us significantly fewer dollars than before. I am not a historian, so perhaps a similar phenomenon took place in the ancient world of Greece or Rome or Persia, I don’t know. What is unique today is when a sort of “Perfect Storm” occurs, which is the coming together of a fourfold increase in the size of a generation, an age group, and an unprecedented level of affluence, combining with an unprecedented quantity of inexpensive goods.

Now let’s talk about these people’s personalities, their tastes and preferences in living, homemaking and especially gardening. The Baby Boom generation is extraordinarily “taste conscious”. What I mean is they are very conscious of the stories behind the products – much more so than their parents and grandparents. Today, we want to know where things come from, what their names mean and who else likes them. As we age we also become more relaxed and broader minded and in fact more interested in the little details than we were when we were young. We are not rushing around so much anymore. Also we are very interested in living longer and better than our parents and grandparents did. This is both qualitative and quantitative. One friend I know is taking up baking her own bread, another has started making his own cheese, still another has taken up brewing beer in his kitchen. Probably half the women I know have discovered knitting. But I see everyone doing these different things in a very knowledgeable way and with a great deal of emphasis on knowing and being familiar with as many details, aspects, stories and background information as possible. Look at the knitting websites—they’re fantastic. Plus, boomers like to take time to do stuff. Instant gratification isn’t gratifying to them. To get time, you have to take time. The so-called “aging hippies” have known this for a long time. The rest of us are getting to know it more slowly.

Now let’s take a look at gardening.

Gardening is a function of age, which is to say of time available to a person. Our statistics at Heronswood, Burpee and The Cook’s Garden are hard as rock. I’m confident of what I can tell you about committed, dedicated gardeners. People begin gardening seriously sometime in their early to mid 40’s and they typically do not slow down until their late 60’s or early 70’s. Why is this? Why does gardening reflect such a demographic? Well, the house will probably, by your early to mid 40’s, be the one you will live in for the rest of your life. Most, if not all of the children are past puberty, and they become relatively low maintenance by that point, at least, in terms of time needed caring for them. At the office, as well as in your own life, these are the years when you begin to pass over the hump, if you haven’t already. Indeed, like your house, your job is probably going to be the last one you will have. The “rat race” is over. Also, physically, as we know, “Time is metabolism”. Few can argue persuasively that we move faster when we reach 50. In fact, it is universally true that everyone slows down quite a bit, and in our case we’re addressing the of hundreds of thousands of affluent Baby Boomers. All these changes in life point to an interest in, if not a growing love affair with, home gardening.

Think of the immediate impact that a vegetable and herb garden has on the back yard, and that flower and perennial beds have in the front yard. Suddenly, your house is truly beautiful. It’s like a woman in a dress versus a pair of overalls or a uniform. No comparison! As we slow down our immediate surroundings, actually become filled with light. We notice this – we want our surroundings, as distinct from, but also in addition to ourselves, to be brilliant and attractive.

Also, the impact that aging has on health causes Baby Boomers to take a hard look at what they are eating, and this is something we do every day. Suddenly, fresh vegetables and herbs look very interesting. Remember, this is the generation that 20 years ago was smoking a lot of cigarettes and enjoying fine wine, whiskey and restaurant meals. Now we are discovering antioxidents, lycopenes, good fats, and bad fats.

Finally, we can’t forget gardening when we talk about the quality of life and when we refer to the inner self versus the outer self. I can tell you that there is no single thing that gives me more satisfaction – in fact, that gives me more pleasure – than spending all day gardening. These are the days I’ll take to my grave: getting up at dawn and going outside and gardening straight through the day until the light fades out. Words cannot express the feeling that this experience gives a person. You just feel perfectly happy. I understand the attraction of golf, I really do. I’m not very good at the game, but there are moments on the course when I walk around the corner and suddenly there is this vision of landscape beauty I never saw before. I have to say I golf almost entirely in New Mexico where there are very unusual golf courses. And, if you want to see a good example of the way a company has handled the Baby Boom perfectly, check out the way that Nike has developed their golf business. What they did to make jogging easy, fun and sexy, they are doing the same to golf. Take my word for it. However, golf does not hold a candle to day long gardening – it’s not even close. The soil is mine, the roots are mine, the plants are mine and, in a weird way, the sunlight and the air become mine too. And everywhere I turn, every day of the Spring, Summer and Fall, I see beauty that only I created or helped along, as if I was breathing life into creation. This is the secret of the attraction of real gardening. This is the reason we call it, “The Burpee Army”. And the Heronswood regulars call themselves, “Heronistas”. Passion rules.

In conclusion, people ask me sometimes what makes a good gardener? I am reminded of what a friend told me when I bought Heronswood, our famous rare plant nursery in Washington. He said if you can survive one complete winter in Seattle without leaving, and you are willing to try another year, you are a survivor, you can be a resident if you want. Perhaps it’s not a neat or perfect comparison, but I like to say that if you can garden one full season – dig in the ground outside in the summer time several hours a day all summer, digging lots of holes on your hands and knees, and still want to do it again next year – you’re a gardener. It is as simple and unmistakable as that. Everyone knows if they’re a gardener or not, and everyone knows who the gardeners are. It is very similar to pet ownership. It is not a subject of fashion. In fact gardening is “anti-fashion”. Like “anti-matter”, it’s very real. People garden to get away from the world of trendiness, faddishness and fashion. “What’s hot”, “Are you in or out?”… These are questions that gardeners find uninteresting if not boring. The garden is their refuge. Social status may have been part of their youth but now it is very much part of their distant past and they do not want to hear about it. Gardeners like things the way they are in the garden: simple, direct, wholesome. “Garden variety” means traditional to the point of being ordinary. Gardeners are not interested in razzle dazzle. There is quite enough of that going on in their flower bed, and they aren’t interested in the flashly lures of the fashion world. On the contrary, they shun them. They’ve put down their roots, and it is in their front yard and back yard gardens that they wish to stay, and keep on “booming” forever.

Thank You.

Speech Delivered at Philadelphia Flower show, 03/06/06