Manager's Message
by Judy Zatsick, Site Manager, Green Spring Gardens
Judy Zatsick
For the Love of Gardeners
I have heard so much positive feedback this year about how lush and beautiful the gardens look at Green Spring. Mother Nature was kind to us this spring, offering gradually increasing temperatures and cool nights, just enough rain, just often enough. Certain flowers looked better than ever before. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ positively beamed under the cedars in the Iris Bed. Pansies smiled up at us for weeks, cheery and colorful. Peonies in the Arbor Garden bloomed in glorious succession. The Edgeworthia enticed guests from 40 feet away with its gorgeous scent. Trimmed back and sporting new green growth, the Beatrix Farrand hedge provided a backdrop to the lovely plantings in front—multi-hued poppies, foxgloves in pastel shades, orlaya, penstemon, and larkspur, echoing the lovely hues she frequently selected in her gardens.
How does all this magic happen? Gardeners. Gritty, tenacious, artistic, passionate, plant-focused gardeners. Gardeners are responsible for growing and cultivating the plants and gardens you see and love at Green Spring. And they work hard to make it all happen.
Some gardening tasks include:
- raising plants from seeds or cuttings,
- digging, planting, and weeding flower beds and borders,
- pruning shrubs, deadheading, and cutting back herbaceous plants,
- identifying any pests or diseases and controlling them,
- maintaining moisture levels,
- cleaning and maintaining tools and equipment.
Summer interns at the pondsGardeners are artists, combining texture, shape, form, and color. They know plants like friends—who likes sun, who prefers shade, who loves the coolness of spring but fades by summer, who shines in winter. Like conductors, they bring out the best in each performer, helping blend the color notes, the rhythm into one harmonious symphony.
Gardeners are also stewards of the land. They understand how to provide habitat and select plants that support nature. Staff and guests delight in spotting turtles seeking out locations in the gardens to lay their eggs. Tree frogs trill on humid afternoons. Hummingbirds feast on nectar from plants selected by our gardeners to draw them in, where they bring smiles to guests and photographers.
Gardens are beautiful places to visit and to learn. They are also places of connection. They help us realize that we are not separate from nature. Gardeners prioritize collaboration and the long-term management of our land and local ecosystems, helping us to understand that people and wildlife both inhabit these beautiful spaces.
Liam, summer VNPS intern, installs pots in the ponds at Green Spring.Many thanks to our gardeners!
Did you know that FROGS supports two horticultural interns, gardeners in training, each year at Green Spring Gardens? If you wonder what gardeners do on rainy days, they get wet. Claire and Erica (FROGS-supported interns) and Liam (VNPS intern) are helping to install pots filled with water lilies in the ponds at Green Spring. Each intern researched and selected a water lily and learned about soils, pots, and cultivation. Liam swam into the pond and placed the lily pots in position.
Photos taken at the ponds by Judy Zatsick
