New Partnership with OHS
We are proud to welcome the Oklahoma Horticultural Society (OHS) as an AHS Horticultural Partner. Members of this venerable organization, formed in 1970 as a statewide horticultural group for both professional horticulturists and hobby gardeners, will now receive The American Gardener and be eligible for all the other benefits of membership in AHS. “We are extremely excited about this partnership with AHS,” says OHS president Warren Filley. “We share a similar mission and goals, and I’m sure affiliation with a national organization such as AHS will be of great benefit to the members of our society.”

OHS is actively involved in gardening activities throughout Oklahoma, sponsoring lectures by prominent garden communicators and tours of private and public gardens, including Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City. Members receive a quarterly newsletter and the society now has a website at http://connections.oklahoman.net.okhorticulture

As a reciprocal benefit of this partnership, AHS members will now be admitted free to the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory at Myriad Botanical Gardens by showing their AHS membership card.


 

Lighty Retires
Richard W. Lighty, director of the Mount Cuba Center for the Study of Piedmont Flora in Greenville, Delaware, for the last 15 years, retired at the end of last year. Lighty came to Mount Cuba as its founding director in 1983, following 16 years as coordinator of the Longwood Gardens Graduate Program in Public Garden Administration at the University of Delaware, Newark. Before that, he was a research geneticist at Longwood Gardens. “I’ll be doing things pretty much as usual, except I won’t be going in to Mount Cuba,” says Lighty, who plans to maintain his busy schedule of lecturing, writing, and serving on various boards and committees. He also hopes to spend more time in his seven-acre garden near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

In the course of his career, Lighty collected numerous horticultural awards, including the Perennial Plant Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Silver Medal, and the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. To add to his accolades, Lighty has been named the 1999 recipient of AHS’s highest honor, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award. See below.

At Mount Cuba, Lighty’s mission was to educate the public about native plants and conduct research on plants native to the Piedmont geologic province, which runs along the eastern slope of the Appalachian mountains. Of the 20 new plants he introduced to the nursery trade, eight were developed while he was at Mount Cuba. Among these are Aster novae-angliae ‘Purple Dome’, Cornus sericea ‘Silver and Gold’, Heuchera americana ‘Garnet’, and Solidago ‘Golden Fleece’. As part of an effort to prevent endangered wildflowers from being collected in the wild, Lighty also initiated research to develop marketable cultivars of difficult-to-propagate natives such as trilliums and terrestrial orchids.

As we went to press, it was announced that Rick Lewandowski, director of horticulture and curator of living collections at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, has been hired to replace Lighty at Mount Cuba.


 

Lyons to Head J.C. Raulston Arboretum
Robert E. Lyons, formerly with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, has been hired as director of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh. The arboretum, formerly known as the NCSU Arboretum, is named in honor of the arboretum’s former director, who died in an automobile accident in 1996. Since that time, Bryce Lane, a member of the NCSU horticulture department faculty, has been serving as interim director of the arboretum, which is internationally renowned for its introductions of ornamental plants.

“We have been searching for someone to fill J.C.’s shoes for nearly two years, and I’m happy to say we have found him,”says James Oblinger, dean of NCSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “J.C. was a giant in the world of horticulture. He combined an encyclopedic knowledge of ornamental plants with a tireless dedication to teaching, public education, and industry outreach. Dr. Lyons has those same skills and qualities. He is the right person to build upon J.C.’s accomplishments and lead the arboretum into the next century.”

“I’m really excited about the position with NCSU,” says Lyons, “It’s very much what I do here—but on a grander scale.” In addition to directing the arboretum, Lyons will continue teaching, a condition he insisted on as part of the job. “I wouldn’t have taken the job unless I would be teaching as well. That’s what I do here [Virginia Tech] and I didn’t want to lose that touch.”

Lyons faces a couple of challenges in his new position. Raleigh, in USDA Zone 7, is a full zone warmer than Blacksburg. Not only will he have a wider palette of plants to embrace, but he will be changing his emphasis from herbaceous to woody plants. “My strength is really herbaceous materials,” he says, “but I’m prepared to encounter the learning curve with woody plants and a warmer zone.” While acknowledging the decision to leave Virginia Tech was difficult because of his close involvement in the development of the university’s Horticulture Gardens and his relationship with the students, Lyons describes himself as “stunned” by the reaction to his departure. “The fallout has been amazing,” he says. “I’ve been delighted to realize that the impact I’ve had on the students and the industry has been valuable.”

Lyons says he is honored to be carrying on the work begun by J.C. Raulston but hopes not to be immediately measured up against the standards of his legendary predecessor. “I want to further J.C.’s legacy but not be compared to what he has done,” he says. Lyons earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in horticulture at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis–St. Paul before moving on to Virginia Tech as an assistant professor in 1981. He was promoted to full professor there in 1995 and has directed the university’s Horticulture Gardens since 1994. While at the university, he won several teaching and research publication awards; he has also won journalism awards from the Garden Writers Association of America for his writing and photography. He will officially begin work at NCSU on February 1.


 

Unwanted Foxglove
Conservation groups are keeping an eye out for Grecian foxglove (Digitalis lanata), which appears to be potentially invasive in wild areas throughout the United States. Reportedly the plant has established itself in wild areas of Kansas, northern California, and several eastern states. A 120-acre infestation found on private property in eastern Kansas caused the state’s Department of Agriculture to begin negotiations with the nursery industry to prohibi sale of the plant through the state’s Plant Pest Act.

Like all foxgloves, Grecian foxglove contains digitalis, a powerful cardiac stimulant that has been linked to fatalities in humans and grazing animals. Ingestion of plants at the infestation in Kansas reportedly caused the death of livestock. The American Nursery and Landscape Association has suggested that nurseries offering Grecian foxglove “may wish to re-evaluate its importance and consider offering alternatives.”


 

1999 Award Winner
It has just been announced that Richard W. Lighty is the 1999 recipient of AHS’s Liberty Hyde Bailey award, the highest award the Society offers to an individual. The award, which will be presented to Lighty at the Society’s annual conference in Boston, June 9 to 12, is given to an individual who has made significant contributions in at least three of the following areas of horticulture: teaching, research, writing, plant exploration, administration, art, business, and leadership.