Smithgall Woodland Legacy - Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Smithgall Woodland Legacy

April 30, 2015

Congratulations SMITHGALL WOODLAND GARDEN

The Smithgall Woodland Legacy at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville, is a shining new gem in North Georgia.The 168-acre “woodland oasis” in the heart of Gainesville will certainly enhance the quality of life in our community.

With its lush plant life, walking trails, 2,000-seat amphitheater and welcoming visitor center, it is a destination that is sure to shine the spotlight on our region and attract visitors from around the Southeast.

We are blessed to be home to a project that will be a haven for families to explore the intangibles of nature’s beauty, while enjoying a peaceful respite from their hectic lives.This new attraction is a treasure not only for our community, but also for The State of Georgia. We are proud to salute the efforts of all those who worked so hard to make the dream of this garden a reality.

Senator Butch Miller Capitol Office: 109 State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334 Phone: 404-656-7454 | Email: butch.miller@senate.ga.gov

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Contents 04 | Mildred’s mission Get to know Mildred Fockele, the director of the garden.

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06 | Meet the Smithgalls

Learn the history of the generous couple who made this all possible.

15 | Curious collections

The garden’s vast array of plants includes a variety of hydrangeas.

16 | About the garden

What the Atlanta Botanical Garden is, and why it’s important to support.

18 | Conservation efforts

A look into the rare plant nursery and the work that lies within it.

20 | Making it happen

The garden’s success lies in the volunteers who give their time.

22 | From site to seed

The garden nursery grows many of its plants in house.

08 | Cover story: How it all started

The development of the garden has come a long way.

Contributors

Mildred Fockele | Atlanta Botanical Garden Ethan Guthrie | Atlanta Botanical Garden Savannah King | The Times Carly Sharec | The Times Michael Wenzel | Atlanta Botanical Garden Photos by Scott Rogers | The Times

Online

View video of the garden and hear from Lessie Smithgall about dreams for the property at gainesvilletimes.com.

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Making history “Garden open” — two wonderful words that we have been waiting for years to hear!

This is a special moment in the history of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. And while there is not enough room here to thank all those who helped us reach this point, this opening of the first phase of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville, is the result of tremendous vision, thoughtful planning and tireless fundraising.

The Gainesville garden is about expansion — of plant collections, our audience, programs, and conservation and our native plant conservation nursery.

And most importantly, it is about the preservation of this beautiful property for Gainesville, Hall County and Northeast Georgia.

Throughout its history, the Atlanta Botanical Garden has been shaped by visionaries, among them Charles and Lessie Smithgall.

By donating their homeplace property to the garden in 2001, the Smithgalls placed great trust in this organization.

As stewards of this land, we have created an enchanting garden that changes and delights with each season.

It will be activated with dynamic programming, fun concerts and exciting events and exhibitions.

Whether you go to enjoy the beauty of the garden, drop by for Wine in the Woodland or experience a concert, I look forward to sharing the garden with you!

A storied career

Garden director has history with Atlanta Botanical

BY CARLY SHAREC | THE TIMES

Mildred Fockele Director

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Mildred Fockele spent her early childhood gardening with her grandmother, perhaps an early predictor of her affinity for dirt.

But it wasn’t until attending Agnes Scott College as a biology major that she realized her predilection for growing plants could open doors to a storied career which has led her from the earliest days of Atlanta Botanical Gardens to the premiere gardens of England — and now to her home in Gainesville as director of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, A Smithgall Woodland Legacy.

“I was in a work-study program and so my job was to prep biology labs, but we had a greenhouse that we used to grow the plants for the botany labs that we had,” she said. “And so I used to go in the greenhouse and work in the greenhouse … and I loved doing it.

“I had a professor who said, ‘You know, you really like doing this. Why don’t we go talk to the Atlanta Botanical Garden? Maybe you can do an internship.’”

At that point, Fockele said, there was nothing to the Atlanta Botanical Garden — “maybe 3 acres of not much” — but she became the first intern the garden had.

“It was more just to see if I really liked horticulture, and I fell in love with it.

Everything from getting your hands dirty to talking with the public, teaching people about plants. I just fell in love with it.”

Then, Fockele was offered a fellowship through The Garden Club of America, allowing her to spend a year in England pursuing her interest in horticulture. She traveled through Kew, Wisley and Edinburgh, spending time in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

“It was amazing,” she said. “At that point, I had done the internship at the (Atlanta Botanical Garden) but didn’t really have a lot of hands-on experience, and so they tailor that program for you to get what you want.

“It’s an amazing program that they have, and it just has such an amazing influence on your career, I think, because you get the practical experience but you get to see so many gardens and you’re exposed to that incredible culture that Great Britain has in terms of gardening.”

She received her bachelor’s degree from Agnes Scott in 1982 and her master’s degree in horticulture from the University of Georgia in 1987.

When Fockele returned to the United States from England, the Atlanta Botanical Garden was beginning its first major expansion. The director offered her a job, and she’s been with the private nonprofit ever since, now serving

as its vice president of horticulture.

“Just about the point when you’d want to start looking at something else, about every five to seven years, the garden went under another expansion,” she said. “So I feel like I’ve been really lucky to be a part of all of that expansion and to watch the garden grow, and then to open this facility and get to see the beginnings of growth here is just another step on that ladder and that path.”

While she is quick to say the entire venture has been a joint effort, Fockele’s fingerprints are all over the Smithgall garden, as she’s brought her lifetime of experience to mold the garden as it grows.

A future stream garden at the Smithgall garden is inspired by one Fockele saw during her time in the United Kingdom.

“There’s a great garden in Wales that has a big woodland component with the stream and large shrubs on either side,” Fockele said.

The property in Gainesville drops 120 feet from the visitor center to the bottom creek that empties into Lake Lanier.

“I really love the stream. When you’re down there, you feel like you’re in the mountains and you don’t hear anything else,” Fockele said. “I joke that if I could do anything I’d have a hammock down there, and I could just go down there. When I retire, I’m going to put a hammock down there.”

Moving to Exit 17 in Early Fall

Welcome to Hall, Atlanta Botanical Garden!

She’s also brought in some of her favorite plants, choosing witch hazel as the Gainesville garden’s winter collection.

“They begin flowering in October and will flower through March … but they have these wonderful colors of pale yellow to bright yellow to orange,” she said. “To me, once they start flowering in late winter, you know that spring is on its way. I’ve always loved that group of plants.”

Fockele said she’s also grown to love magnolias, which are part of the garden’s spring collection.

“Again, when they start to bloom you know you’re in spring,” she said. “Those are just two of my favorites. Come back in the summer and I’ll give you a different plant.”

Her home life very much reflects her professional life, as both Fockele and her husband are avid gardeners — she calls it both “our vocation and our avocation.” She also enjoys being outside and enjoying nature in her spare time, particularly through hiking and traveling.

But for now, pretty much all of her time is consumed by the Gainesville garden.

“I’m just excited about sharing the garden with everybody,” she said. “I know people in the community have waited a long time for it, and I hope that they enjoy it a fraction of as much as I’ve enjoyed helping to create it.”

2350 Browns Bridge Rd, Gainesville • 855-201-7722 • miltonmartintoyota.com

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Charles and Lessie Smithgall:

A legacy of Generosity

The land for creating the new Gainesville location of the Atlanta Botanical Garden was a gift from two of Georgia’s most revered and benevolent residents.

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essie Smithgall and her late husband Charles are as well known for their philanthropy as they are their devotion to conservation.

The garden will be known as a Smithgall Woodland Legacy in honor of their donation of 168 acres.

The Smithgalls, who founded The Times in 1947 and owned it until 1981, met while working at Atlanta radio station WGST, where she was a copy writer and he was an announcer. Lessie turned down Charles when he asked her out for a date; she was more interested in another announcer, Bert Parks, who went on to Miss America pageant host fame.

But Charles eventually won her heart and the couple married, making their home in Gainesville on land that he had begun acquiring in 1949. Early on, the couple decided the site would never be commercially developed.

Lessie Smithgall told The Times her husband trusted the Atlanta Botanical Garden to preserve the land and make it available to people so they, too, could enjoy the woodlands.

A media magnate, Charles Smithgall built an empire of radio stations, cable television and newspapers. In the 1970s he began assembling another group of land holdings, the 5,562-acre Dukes Creek property. Smithgall hired a like-minded staff and set out to plant thousands of indigenous trees to restore the old-growth

forest. They cleared truckloads of garbage from streams to prepare them for limited catch-and-release trout fishing. His first choice was to take his beloved woods with him, he often told people. Realizing that was not an option, in 1994 he sold the acreage near Helen to the state for $10.8 million — half its appraised value.

“At some point, a man has to put something back,” Smithgall said in a 1988 interview. “I hate to see people just take from the land and never put something back.”

Today, Smithgall Woods Conservation Park is a heritage preserve, assuring that its oldgrowth forests, 12 miles of icy trout streams and wild turkey, bear and deer populations will remain undisturbed.

In addition to the two land gifts, the Smithgalls’ philanthropy ranges from donating the building force for the White County animal shelter to buying, renovating and donating the old train depot to The Arts Council in Gainesville.

More recently Lessie Smithgall donated “Rembrandt’s Father in a High Hat” by Rembrandt van Rijn to the Quinlan Visual Arts Center. The Dutch ink etching on paper dates back to 1630 and Amanda McClure, the Quinlan’s executive director, said the donation is the biggest contribution to the collection.

Charles Smithgall died in 2002 at age 91. Lessie Smithgall is 104 and still resides in the family home in Gainesville.

Times staff reports

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A timeline of events

2001: Charles and Lessie Smithgall donate their 168-acre property north of Gainesville to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The gift preserves the acreage as green space and assists in achieving the Vision 2030 goal of establishing Hall County as possessing the largest amount of green space per capita in Georgia.

2002: EDAW (now AECOM), one of the world’s leading landscape architecture, urban design and environmental planners, is contracted to create a conceptual master plan that maximizes the community use of the land while preserving its natural beauty.

2004: A 5,000-square-foot greenhouse and 4-acre nursery are built to begin propagating and growing plants used in the garden.

2005: First volunteers begin work in greenhouses. Initial land conservation efforts begin, including removal of invasive species.

2009: Maple collection of both gardens named part of multisite National Maple Collection of North American Plant Collections Consortium.

2010: Atlanta Botanical Garden moves its native plant conservation nursery to the Gainesville garden.

2011: Magnolia collection of both gardens named part of a multisite National Magnolia Collection of the North American Plant Collections Consortium.

2013: Ground broken on initial $21M phase of the garden.

2015: The garden opens to the public on May 2. Programs and events throughout the year to include outdoor concerts, Wine in the Woodlands and Nature Connects, art with Lego bricks by Sean Kenney.

Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville A Smithgall Woodland Legacy Grand opening

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 2-3 Where: 1911 Sweetbay Drive, off-site parking at intersection of Cleveland Highway and Limestone Parkway How much: $8 adult, $5 children 3-12

Features

■■ 5 acres of gardens, including 1,200 different kinds of plants, 400 of which were grown on site in the garden’s nursery ■■ Two half-mile walking trails ■■ Ivester Amphitheater seating 2,000 ■■ Visitor center including classroom space and gift shop

Upcoming events

■■ Wine in the Woodland, evenings each last Thursday of the month May-October ■■ Concerts in Garden, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, June 13; The Temptations, July 11; Scott McCreery, July 17 ■■ Nature Connects, art with Lego bricks exhibit in the fall.

Private rentals

Spaces are available for weddings and parties. Contact the Private Events team for more information at 404-591-1585 or events@ atlantabotanicalgarden.org.

A decade in the making

BY SAVANNAH KING | THE TIMES

A

ll was quiet in the garden, except for the croak of frogs following an afternoon rain shower. A man in a widebrimmed hat planted flowers in a container near a pond.

Staff and volunteer workers at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, a Smithgall Woodland Legacy, in Gainesville added a few finishing touches to the garden in preparation for the opening celebration.

After more than a decade, the garden off Cleveland Highway on Sweetbay Drive is finally ready to be enjoyed by the public.

The opening weekend celebration starting May 2 is expected to draw a crowd of thousands. Those who would like to attend are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance on the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s website, atlantabg.org. A shuttle will carry visitors to the garden from an off-site parking area at the intersection of Cleveland Highway and Limestone Parkway.

Mary Pat Matheson, garden president and CEO, said she couldn’t be happier to celebrate the garden’s opening weekend.

“We’ve been working on it for such a long time, and the community has waited as patiently as possible,” Matheson said. “So to finally be here and have these wonderful opening celebrations, it couldn’t be a better thing.”

General admission to the garden is $8 and annual memberships begin at $69. Members of the Atlanta Botanical Garden are able to visit both gardens at no charge.

Activities will include children’s performances, live entertainment, crafts, face painting and family games. Stations will also be set up throughout the garden offering lessons on plants.

The garden will also host concert series this summer featuring acts including Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell on June 13, The Temptations on July 11 and Scott McCreery on July 17.

The concerts will take place in the garden’s 2,000-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The garden features a visitors center that can be rented for events, a porch with a fireplace, outdoor seating, an amphitheater with woodland backdrop, two half-mile walking trails around the woodlands and a model train garden. More than 1,272 plant varieties are planted in the woodland, including more than 300 hydrangeas, 150 magnolias and 32 different maple species.

The garden has four seasonal collections: magnolias in the spring, hydrangeas in the summer, maple trees in the fall and witch hazel in the winter.

Mildred Fockele, vice president of horticulture and director of the Gainesville garden, said there’s something for everyone to enjoy, even if it’s just sitting in a rocking chair with a book.

“I think they’ll enjoy seeing the garden, seeing the horticultural quality and just coming to the different events we have, whether it’s Wine in the Woodland or just coming up to visit with your family on the weekend and enjoying the train garden … I think there’s going to be events all the time that people will enjoy participating in.”

Plans for the garden began in 2001 when Lessie Smithgall and her late husband Charles Smithgall donated 168 acres to the Atlanta Botanical Garden in perpetuity.

Smithgall noted how uncommon it is find that many acres of woodland within the city limits and hoped people will appreciate the ability to experience nature so close to home.

Smithgall said it was very important to

her husband to have the garden available for people to visit. She said she feels confident the gardens will become a destination, not just something on the way to somewhere else.

“He wanted people to be able to come out there and hike and walk and enjoy the woodlands, as he did as a boy and later on too,” Smithgall said. “He was hoping people could go out there especially in the summer time, they can go out there after work and hike and have the experience of real woods.”

She praised the efforts of several

individuals, including donors Doug and Kay Ivester, for whom the amphitheater is named, and Jack Burd, retired president of Brenau University, who has led the garden’s fundraising efforts.

The opening ceremony marks the completion of the first phase of the garden.

Donors provided $21 million for the project.

A $50 million fundraising campaign is already underway, a portion of which will go to the construction of a children’s garden at the Gainesville location.

“You know, I think this is going to be a destination for people, rather than just a stop on the way to Florida or Washington D.C. or wherever,” Smithgall said.

GLADE GARDEN

MODEL TRAIN GARDEN

STREAM GARDEN

OVERLOOK GARDEN

WOODLAND PROMENADE

Explore the natural beauty and tranquility of the new Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville.

The initial phase of the 168-acre site, located off Cleveland Highway, offers five acres of display gardens, a model train garden, amphitheater and more!

atlantabg.org 1911 Sweetbay Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30501

IVESTER AMPHITHEATER

HOLLY RIDGE TRAIL

SOURWOOD TRAIL

Ivester Amphitheater

Performances of all types and sizes – from major concerts to cooking demonstrations – find their home on a stage surrounded by lush green terraces and named in honor of longtime garden supporters Douglas and Kay Ivester.

Overlook Garden

Perennials, shrubs and ornamental trees form the back bone of this garden, where seating allows visitors to experience a relaxing moment in the breeze.

Stream Garden

Taking full advantage of the site’s topography, the wooded hillside features small footbridges that cross a cascading water feature flanked by bulbs, spring wildflowers and summer-blooming hydrangeas.

FOREST POND

Glade Garden

An opening in the woodlands creates a sun-drenched garden room focused on the ever-changing colors and patterns of the landscape.

Model Train Garden

Both the young and young at heart are captivated by trains.

When combined with the beauty of the landscape, the imagination goes wild in this special little garden.

KAY & DOUGLAS IVESTER VISITOR CENTER

EVENT LAWN

Woodland Trails

Take a half-mile stroll around the outer edge of the display garden on the Sourwood Trail or take a more strenuous half-mile walk up and along the Holly Ridge Trail, both with beautiful views of the woodland, streams and ridges.

Kay & Douglas Ivester Visitor Center

A contemporary setting welcomes visitors as the gateway to 168 rolling acres of beauty and includes private event rental and classroom space and a gift shop.

Another Smithgall Legacy...

We join the community in celebrating the opening of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville – The Smithgall Woodland Legacy. The Garden was a dream of beloved benefactors and Times founders Charles and Lessie Smithgall, who wanted to create a special place in nature for folks to enjoy.

The Times, founded in 1947, itself is one of the most enduring of the Smithgall legacies and the Garden will most certainly be another lasting one as well.

This project did not bloom overnight. Rather the seeds were sown long ago, beginning with the generosity of the Smithgalls, who were then joined by many others who cultivated the garden into a reality.

Thanks to all who made the dream come true.

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Options galore

Courtesy Atlanta Botanical Garden

Hydrangeas offer beautiful variety with hundreds to choose from

T

By Ethan Guthrie | Atlanta Botanical Garden

he first hydrangea bloom signals the arrival of summer, much like that first daffodil heralds the start of spring. Also like daffodils, hydrangeas offer hundreds of different varieties to choose from.

At the new Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville, visitors will be amazed by a collection of more than 250 different types, with more than 300 shrubs planted in the garden.

One of the hot new topics

with hydrangeas is the ability to rebloom. What this really means is whether a hydrangea will bloom on new season’s growth.

Typically, the traditional big leaf hydrangeas, H. macrophylla, bloom only on last year’s growth, or old wood. With new developments in breeding, there are many new hydrangeas that bloom both on last season’s and the current season’s growth.

Some of these new plants include “Endless Summer,” “Bloomstruck”

and “Let’s Dance Starlight.”

Another wonderful group of hydrangeas are the many cultivars of the panicle hydrangea, hydrangea paniculata. The great thing about these is that they can tolerate full sun. They actually love and crave it. Most may know them as the old giants of the garden with their large floppy blooms. Well, no more. There are many great options available that have sturdy stems, and even some dwarf varieties are available.

Hydrangea “Limelight” really spurred on the development of H. paniculata, and now there is even a more well-behaved version called “Little Lime,” which tops out at about 3 to 5 feet, along with “Baby Lace” and “Bombshell,” which grow to about 3 to 4 feet tall and wide.

All of these hydrangeas make wonderful plants in the ground, but with the introduction of the dwarf varieties some also are right at home in container gardens.

Visual beauty A look into what the garden is, and why you should help

By carly sharec | The Times

W

hen Lessie Smithgall and her late husband Charles Smithgall contemplated donating a large swath of land for community enjoyment, it ended up being fortuitous for both the couple and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

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“At that point, we were thinking long term for the garden in terms of expanding our audience, expanding plant collections and really looking long term at what the garden might need, as well,” said Mildred Fockele, director of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s new Gainesville location. “So it worked out really well. The timing was right.”

The Smithgalls donated the property in the early 2000s, with the dream finally being realized when it opens May 2.

Fockele, who also serves as the garden’s vice president of horticulture, said it was just “a great opportunity” for the botanical garden to branch out of Atlanta and expand some areas they are unable to do in an urban setting.

“Not all gardens do, but we have a very active native plant conservation program, and (the Gainesville location) has allowed us to expand our native plant conservation nursery and grow the plants that are then put back out on protected sites around the Southeast,” Fockele added.

While a botanical garden offers the obvious visual and physical benefits of being outdoors, this space is unique. What distinguishes it from a park or nature center is its commitment to five purposes — display, enjoyment, conservation, research and education.

“Gardens combine horticulture, collections, education and then, in our case, we also have a great conservation and research program,” Fockele said.

“It has a very definite, specific purpose,” she continued. “Those purposes or parts of the mission will vary from garden to garden, just depending on the age and the size and the community in which it resides.”

As a private nonprofit, Atlanta Botanical Garden is sustained through donations and annual memberships that range from $69 for individuals to $99 for families, with select other price points. The annual memberships include admission to both the Gainesville and Atlanta locations.

Fockele said there are multiple reasons to support a botanical garden — the visual beauty of it being No. 1.

“Gainesville has an amazing cultural community for a town its size,” she said. “I think a botanical garden is part of that cultural community. I think that the cultural community is really one of the backbones of a great community and a great place where people want to live and raise their families.”

But the garden’s strong commitment to education and conservation is also of importance, Fockele said.

“I think the other thing that you find at botanical gardens (is) combining horticulture and collections with educational opportunities,” she said, “whether they’re children’s educational programming or adult programming, and trying to make that connection between people and plants.

“Plants really are essential to life on earth. They provide the air we breathe, the clothes that we wear, the medicine, the food. They really are essential to life.”

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10 REASONS TO SUPPORT PUBLIC GARDENS ■■ Provides a sanctuary, an oasis, for reflection, meditation and peaceful co-existence with nature. The world moves at a dizzying pace. In the garden, time magically appears to slow down.

■■ Serves as a center for like-minded people to coalesce and share their concepts and knowledge about plants, conservation, ecology, design, ad infinitum. Offers symposiums, workshops and classes with universal appeal.

■■ Acts as a repository for threatened and endangered species. Vital programs in propagation, reproductive biology, genetics, habitat preservation, etc., can be structured around the plant collections.

■■ The universal appeal of gardening brings together all races and creeds, transcending socioeconomic status.

■■ Fosters appreciation of green spaces and their contribution to the vitality of the city.

■■ Entices visitors and serves as a tourist attraction. Serves as a piece of the museumand-attractions puzzle that broadens the education of the citizenry and out-of-city visitors. Is the green heartbeat of a city.

■■ Works with the parks and school system to introduce children to plants. Fostering appreciation for the green world guarantees a continuum of stewardship for the environment from future generations.

■■ Assembles plants from the corners of the globe for education, preservation and research. Displays the newest plant introductions that offer promise for area gardens.

■■ Co-mingles horticulture, botany, art and design into an understandable whole.

Synergistically, the whole becomes greater than the parts. Art in the garden programs entices visitors who otherwise might never come. Atlanta Botanical Garden has demonstrated that it thinks holistically about serving Georgia.

■■ With its established credibility, the Atlanta Botanical Garden should be the purveyor of logic and data for green space creation and preservation, tree-planting initiatives and the coalescing agent for all green groups.

— Former University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley in his book “Vince Dooley’s Garden: The Horticultural Journey of a Football Coach,” with assistance from UGA professor Dr. Michael Dirr.

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Safe haven

Conservation nursery serves as a refuge for endangered plants

By Michael Wenzel | Atlanta Botanical Garden

Nestled in a corner of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Gainesville location, out of public view, is a unique area devoted to the preservation of some of the most threatened and endangered plants in the Southeast.

The conservation nursery safeguards species that have been an active part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s conservation program for the past 25 years.

Pitcher plants are growing in raised bogs, each constructed to recreate the water and soil conditions that natural habitats would provide. Some populations represented no longer exist in the wild.

The world’s largest collection of the critically endangered native conifer, Torreya taxifolia, is grown at the garden. These plants produce seed valuable for conservation research and safeguarding while the natural populations in Georgia and Florida continue to decline.

CetlheebrAatrets

In the small facility, more than a dozen habitats are represented, with endangered plants hailing from such diverse conditions as mountain bogs in Northeast Georgia, dry prairies in Northwest Georgia, threatened alkaline waterways, granite outcrop ephemeral pools, ravines and bluffs in Florida and rare wetlands from across the Southeast.

These plants represent decades of collaborative projects with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Forest Service, Georgia Natural Heritage Program, Florida State Parks, Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, the State Botanic Garden of Georgia, dedicated private landowners and others.

The plants are used not only to help safeguard, build and enhance populations from threatened habitats but also continue to provide valuable material to students and researchers throughout the region.

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James Van Horne tends to pitcher plants at the conservation nursery nestled away in a corner of the Smithgall garden. Below, Van Horne pulls weeds in a bed of pitcher plants ready to bloom and moves about the conservation garden.

Diane Korzeniewski searches for weeds among the phlox on a recent morning at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville.

CONGRATULATIONS SMITHGALL WOODLAND GARDENS! Proudly serving the community for over 60 years Call 770-536-9864 www.ngdc.com

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The heart of the garden

BY CARLY SHAREC | THE TIMES

Volunteers remain a key part of organization’s success Gardening requires a lot of weeding.

And a botanical garden requires much more — from weeding and planting to educating and assisting visitors.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Gainesville location, a Smithgall Woodland Legacy, will open with a carefully cultivated 5 acres, featuring gardens and walking trails along with an amphitheater — and a need for volunteers.

“You’re going to help us grow and maintain our plant collections, both indoors and outdoors,” Josh Todd, volunteer manager with the garden, told a group of interested volunteers just before the opening of the Gainesville location. “You’re also going to help enrich the visitor experience. That is what we’re relying on you guys for.”

A group of around 30 interested men and women had gathered, many who are current volunteers.

“There’s actually quite a few people who are here today who have been volunteering since 2004,” Todd said. “...We do have an existing group of volunteers who have been here for 10 years.”

But now with the garden gates opening May 2, the nonprofit needs volunteers to fill many roles.

“Because we are new, we are a very small garden,” said Mildred Fockele, director of the Gainesville location and vice president of horticulture with Atlanta Botanical Garden.

“We’re proud of the horticulture and the garden that we’ve created. We do great programming. We do great special events.”

And whether your thumb is green or brown, there are opportunities for anyone to get involved — from working outside pulling those weeds to staying inside with the air conditioning.

Volunteer options at the Gainesville location include: ■■ Greenhouse and nursery maintenance ■■ Greeter and gift shop ■■ Office support ■■ Outdoor garden maintenance ■■ Special events ■■ Educational programs, including festivals and discovery stations

Volunteers who enjoy engaging with the community may be more interested in some of the education programs or special events, while those who would rather get their hands dirty might prefer ongoing maintenance and working in the greenhouse.

“Really, the key I think to a successful visit is the experience that the visitor has,”

Fockele said. “Most of the time, that can be either interacting with the person that sells them the ticket and maybe interacting with a volunteer. That may be the only people that the visitor interacts with. So (volunteers) are really key to making this a great garden and to getting people to come back time after time.”

Bill Jackson moves coleus plants to be pruned inside the greenhouse.

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Home grown Garden features many trees, shrubs cultivated at the nursery from seeds

Ethan Guthrie, greenhouse and nursery manager at the Gainesville location of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, checks on seedlings on a recent morning inside the greenhouse.

BY ETHAN GUTHRIE | ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDEN

M

any don’t think about growing plants, especially trees, from seed, but that’s something the staff does every day at the garden nursery at the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Gainesville location. Though many annuals and perennials are cultivated this way, the main focus is trees and shrubs to add to the woody plant collections in Gainesville as well as in Atlanta.

The seeds are acquired in several ways. Some staff are fortunate to be able to collect the seed directly from their native habitat around the Southeast each year. The garden also sponsors a group of plant explorers who travel to parts of Asia every year and bring back a seed lot for the staff to grow. Finally, horticulturists are involved in many seed exchanges by various botanical gardens nationally and internationally. All these different avenues lend access to a wide variety of plant species.

As it opens this spring, the Gainesville garden will feature many plants that have been nurtured from seed in the greenhouse. One is the native Moosewood, or Acer pensylvanicum. It’s among a group of

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maples called snakebark or striped maples, known for their green and white striped bark. Most of these are native to Asia, with A. pensylvanicum being the only one native to North America.

North Georgia is the southernmost range where these trees grow, and the Gainesville garden’s trees were cultivated from seed collected in Rabun County. Others can be found in the Atlanta site’s Southern Seasons Garden.

Along with many maple species, the Gainesville garden also will include a wide variety of native azaleas.

Among them is the rare plumleaf azalea, Rhododendron prunifolium.

This shrub is the latest blooming of all native azaleas, flowering well into July with brightly colored blossoms ranging from red to orange to yellow.

The plumleaf has a very small native growing range, including an area south of Columbus known as Providence Canyon State Park. Five years ago, staff were able to collect seed from some of these plants, and now they have matured into beautiful specimens for planting in Gainesville and Atlanta.

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Gainesville Opening Weekend COME CELEBRATE!

SunTrust

concerts

Grand Opening of the Ivester Amphitheater featuring EmmyLou Harris & Rodney Crowell at the new Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville JunE 13

Saturday & Sunday May 2 – 3 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

CHILdREn’S PERfORMAnCES Miss Gail and the Crazy Cartoon Band Saturday, 11 a.m.

Tahino, Saturday, Noon, 1 p.m.

Bluegrass Flashmob, Saturday, 2 p.m.

The Temptations JulY 11

Scotty McCreery JulY 17

Pippy Thomas, Sunday, 11 a.m.

Shiver Me Timbers, Sunday, Noon Mr. Michael, Sunday, 1 p.m., 2 p.m.

dISCOvERy STATIOnS

Musical Instruments Made from Plants Plant a Seed Touch a Worm Toy Train Play Box and more!

CHILdREn’S GAMES fACE PAInTInG LIvE RAdIO REMOTE

also in atlanta Josh Turner Smashmouth | Toad the Wet Sprocket | Tonic The Beach Boys Colbie Caillat John Hiatt & The Combo | The Taj Mahal Trio Melissa Etheridge: This is M.E. Solo The Mavericks | Los Lobos

WXKT 103.7 Chuck FM, Saturday, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Advanced Tickets Recommended

atlantabg.org 1911 Sweetbay Drive, Gainesville, GA 30501 Garden shuttle available from parking at the intersection of Cleveland Hwy and Limestone Pkwy

Tickets and complete details on attending a show are available at

concertsinthegarden.org

JunE 20 JulY 23 JulY 24 Aug 7 Aug 21 Aug 22 Aug 28

2015