It’s a season when thousands of tulips blanket public spaces and blossoming magnolia and fruit trees cast a lace-like splendor over home landscapes. Many believe this is the most beautiful Northeast Ohio spring they’ve experienced in years. “The synchronicity of rainfall, sunshine and temperatures has brought the best blooming season I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” observed Clem Hamilton, president and CEO of the
since 2008. He’ll be dedicating Holden’s newest garden and its 500-foot-long lane of trees, called the R. Henry Norweb Allee, on May 18. The 4.5-acre Rhododendron Discovery Garden, the first new arboretum garden in 10 years, will be reached by foot from the Allee, built near Corning Lake where a new visitors center will one day be constructed. When they mature, the Allee’s American elms and oaks will reach 50 feet or more, while its paperbark hazels, serviceberry trees and dogwoods will ornament with seasonal blooms. Pronounced Al-Lay, Allee is a French term for a formal gardening element derived from gardens such as Versailles in France, meant to guide strollers. “It’s probably the only straight line we have at the Arboretum,” laughed Hamilton. “We’re best known for our informal groupings of plants, but the Allee will help to orient visitors.” It also will serve as a likely meeting space for groups of visitors who split up to head in different directions. Both Allee and the Discovery Garden to which it leads are paved for easy access by those in wheelchairs or walkers, and a newly built restroom building also will serve the area. The Rhododendron Discovery Garden opens May 18 with a celebration called Shades of Brilliance, with entertainment, food and family-friendly activities. For adults, the fun will continue into the evening with Rhodies After Dark, a ticketed party from 7 to 10 p.m. with cocktails and food stations, performance art, music and fireworks. The almost plate-sized red, purple, pink and yellow rhododendron blooms are perhaps the most spectacular flowers of the season, typically bursting into bloom around the middle of May and lasting maybe two weeks. During their brief reign, they transform lackluster areas into wonderlands. Look deep into the freckled and more deeply colored maroon throat of the Holden Solar Flair and you’ll understand why some may even swear they’ve seen tiny woodland elves hiding there. The Solar Flair and Holden Spring Herald, named for its earlier-season bloom, both were developed by a team led by Holden plant scientist Steve Krebs, a notable plant geneticist who has hybridized dozens of rhododendrons. Krebs is director of the David G. Leach Research Station in Madison, named after the man who began studying and breeding rhododendrons in the 1950s and donated both his facility and his plant collection to the Holden Arboretum in 1986. Krebs also was part of the team that designed the placards placed along pathways in the new Discovery Garden to help educate visitors about rhododendrons so they can grow them successfully in their own home landscapes. By choosing a variety of cultivars, Krebs said, householders can have rhododendrons blooming from mid-April to mid-July. Beyond giving the facts about ideal rhododendron-growing conditions, the Discovery Garden placards provide examples. The sign that says rhododendrons need well-drained soil, for instance, further advises testing by digging a hole, filling it with water and timing to see if it empties in an hour. Other areas of the Discovery Garden help to familiarize visitors with the diversity of rhododendrons and the heath family, revealing that blueberries and azaleas are also family members. Rhododendrons are anything but new to Holden. They first were planted at the arboretum in the 1940s, but the huge 30-acre Helen S. Layer rhododendron garden got its major boost in 1970 when Harold F. Layer made a generous gift to the arboretum in memory of his wife. Today that garden has more than 2 miles of paths winding among 3,200 rhododendrons, azaleas and their relatives. Those plants have grown to great heights in some instances, prompting some visitors to wonder why the Discovery Garden — built at a cost of $2.5 million — was even needed. Hamilton has been asked that very question. “We are a museum,” he said. “Like any museum, this is a place to learn, and in our Discovery Garden we start with nature and proceed to show how to use these plants in a successful home garden.” The 1,000-plus plants in the Discovery Garden are arranged in a smaller, more approachable scale than those in the larger garden, so visitors can get close to the plants to learn about them. “The soil, like much of Lake County, was heavy clay and far from ideal for growing rhododendrons,” Hamilton said. “We were able to buy 4,000 cubic yards of sandy, well-drained soil from a man who had removed it to dig a pond.” Underground irrigation became part of the infrastructure to give the Discovery area the well-drained conditions needed, and the purchased sandy soil was dug into the clay soil to augment it. “If people could see what’s underground beneath this garden, they’d be amazed,” Hamilton said. Many of the plants used in the garden came from the Leach Research Station, but others were purchased from area nurseries, he said. Hamilton said he’s really proud of the fact that the arboretum is honoring its past with the creation of the new garden, which is named after Eliot and Linda Paine. Eliot, a longtime supporter of the arboretum, was among earlier directors. “And by naming the Allee after Henry Norweb, we are honoring our first director, who led the arboretum for 25 years,” Hamilton said. “Our current board chairman is his son-in-law, Paul Abbe, who has led our New Leaf fundraising effort.” New Leaf is long-range plan for a 250-acre core area of the 3,600-acre Arboretum with several new gardens, a new visitor center, Adventure Woods for nature play, a canopy walk to take visitors into the forest’s tree canopy and a tree house that also will serve as an elevated stage for performers. Holden Arboretum 9500 Sperry Road Rhododendron Discovery Garden opening May 18 Shades of Brilliance: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; free admission everywhere, with food, crafts and music. Rhodies After Dark: 7 to 10 p.m.; $55 per person, $90 per couple. Reserve by May 15. Reservations: 440-946-4400;
Spring is for garden lovers Concord Garden Club times its annual Spring Plant Sale for Saturday for those shopping for Mother’s Day. It’s at Hope Ridge United Methodist Church, 9870 Johnnycake Ridge Road in Concord Township, where tables of houseplants, perennials, annuals and shrubs will go on sale beginning at 9 a.m. Members also host a bake shop with sweet treats. Also, more than 10,000 tulips are now in bloom at Cleveland Botanical Garden, in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood at 11030 East Blvd.
