The following is one of five profiles that appeared in Pond
& Garden May-June 2000, Volume 2, Issue 1 as part of
"People, Places & Plants of the PCL of Waterlily Names".
The Introduction, linked below, explains how the articles came
about.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reprinted from Pond & Garden May-June 2000
Click images to enlarge
I really wanted a fifth "victim" for this article and decided that, since I have been so blatant in my curiosity about the others, it would only be fair to reciprocate. When it came to the PCL, my email voice was probably all business, only part of who I am.
 |
I'm a native Floridian, born and raised in the Orlando area, with water an integral part of my life. Though the inland lakes are fabulous, the Atlantic Ocean in all its moods has been my Siren. My husband Ben too is a native in all but three years of life and is as drawn to this Cocoa Beach of ours as I am. Some years ago I built a group of small ponds which utilized the overflow of a well and my mother gave me a pot of waterlilies from, of all people, Bill Frase. I thought they were pretty but it took a trip to Longwood Gardens to hook me. I should mention that the trip wasn't plant related but horse related. I train dressage horses, especially my own Lipizzan stallions, in this Olympic sport/art. |
|
|
|
||
Though interested in plants as a child, the idea of creating
the garden we have now didn't really occur to 
me
until Ben and I were married 10 years ago. He is a Family (sometimes
Emergency) Physician, today just keeping his hand in with friends
and family. A seemingly unlikely couple, the "Paradise"
we have created is even more unlikely! We are hobbyists gone
mad.
Ponds are everywhere. We dig a hole to get dirt to fill waterlily pots; it eventually becomes a pond which needs more dirt for the pots of waterlilies. The ponds have to have decoration around them -- all sorts of plants, exotic tropicals, natives, orchids. The passion has really become full-blown with Victoria.
We both also have a passion for learning. Though many of Ben's interests have been within medicine, mine have been widely divergent, from journalism and photography to art galleries to real estate development to gourmet cooking and wine to horses and gardening. Each area of interest has been very rewarding and I have a thing about giving back in the areas that are so good to me. As a result I have been involved with local, national and international organizations, undertaking very interesting projects for them.
These have included writing for various national publications in many fields, organizing national and international meetings, art shows, horse shows including an Olympic Selection Trial, writing the dressage tests performed by riders throughout the US, setting up and keeping records of these activities and more. When our dear con-artist Betsy broached the possibility of undertaking the Registry project for the IWGS, I said "Piece of cake!" HA! Think again!
Let's come back to the fact that we are hobbyists! We have learned a lot as we've developed the garden but that was no preparation for the intricacy of the PCL. We have a basic botany text in our library now and of course "The Code". The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants is always at hand, as well as the dictionary needed to read it.
The
work itself, the challenge of finding all the missing pieces
of the puzzle, was almost addictive. Keeping up with John Wiersema
when he was on a roll or Walter Pagels or Piers Trehane when
they were sending information as fast as I could enter it in
the database was almost obcessive. Now, the PCL is as finished
as it ever will be, it's waterlily season and the garden bekons.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|