Marketing Curriculum Based, Conservation Focused Field Trips to Underserved Public Schools: An Integrated Approach

Roots, Botanic Gardens International Education Review. Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Vol. 12, Num. 1, June 2015.

Keith P. Tomlinson, Jules R. Maloney, Carolyn B. Ramwell

From 2012 to 2014 Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (MBG) initiated a marketing strategy with multiple Title I Schools in the suburban Washington DC region through a grant from the Volgenau Foundation Title I schools are defined if 40% or more of the students receive supplemental lunch programs and classroom instructional support. Annually this federally funded program provides over $14 billion to 56,000 schools in the United States for students at risk of academic failure and living at or near poverty.

Anticipating administrative challenges, MBG developed a marketing approach focused on teacher training, classroom enrichment, curricular coordination and financial assistance with transportation.  In addition, the psycho-social benefits of interacting with nature through physical activity and facilitated interpretation formed an overarching theme.  This marketing strategy fostered teacher, parent and student engagement while integrating long established conservation priorities based on native plant conservation and river basin/ecoregion biogeography at MBG (Tomlinson, K., et al., 2005). Previously Title I schools made up less than 10% of our elementary and middle school visitation. This is due in part to the fact that Meadowlark is located in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the United States. However, the economic geography of the greater region is diverse and represents notable household income variability. This is due in part to long-term, dynamic immigration trends to the region. It’s not uncommon to have 30 or more languages spoken at a single Title I school.

Identifying needs and expectations of Title I schools

Student populations at Title I schools are frequently living in homes with limited financial resources and social mobility. There is often a direct correlation in academic underperformance (Borman, G.D., & D’Agostino, J.V. 1996) The program focused on appealing to the unique organizational objectives of Title I schools. We took into account curricular and psycho-social strategies for classroom success in these schools. Field trips reinforced classroom science curriculum and student socialization. Parent and teachers are expected to participate beyond class management. Parents attend field trips as chaperones, their presence is a perfect opportunity to encourage return visits with the entire family. In this process we strived to combine formal and informal learning steeped in the aesthetic medium of the garden.

In marketing these programs Meadowlark staff considered the students and schools from a holistic perspective, including staff support to encourage field trips. It was realized teachers typically needed more planning support than non-Title I schools. The combination of demands in Title I schools makes for a challenging teaching environment. Many of the students speak English as a second language (for which there is special support). This, in turn, leads to learning challenges associated with text and instructional material. I addition, teachers must follow a curriculum dictated by state administrated Standards of Learning (SOLs).

We marketed teacher engagement as a specific need from the beginning in combination with the distribution of ideas; mainly the idea that conserving plant diversity is central to human well-being at the regional, national and global level. As a result, several teacher workshops were held at the garden. These focused on Meadowlarks Potomac Valley Native Plant Collection. Thus, the topics included floristics, river basin geography, clean water access and biodiversity conservation in general.

Collectively our strategy as a public garden for this program focused on the unmet needs of Title I schools. These include: exposure to a high quality natural setting; support with integrating SOL mandated science curriculum, teacher training and actively celebrating the cultural and linguistic diversity of the students.

Integrating the particular garden experience to the underserved audience

In the Washington, D.C. Region most of the nature Title I students are exposed to is highly urbanized. City parks and recreation facilities near Title I schools typically feature paved ball courts, poorly maintained turf and exotic or invasive trees. It’s common that these areas receive less care and funding in municipal budgets. We specifically marketed the garden to teachers as an exceptional space, both aesthetically and biologically. Moreover, we integrated the natural science SOLs into field trip topics. This provided teachers with a curricular foundation to take back to the classroom.

 As a public space Meadowlark embodies several programmatic assets; large ornamental collections, focused conservation collections, three lakes and a visually engaging topography. We knew the garden would be appealing to Title I students and staff as a carefully managed intriguing landscape. Ideally, the emotive quality of the garden has a foundational appeal for all visitors’ especially underserved youth. This broad appeal was a fundamental marketing point in recruiting field trips. Any garden engaging underserved audiences will need to market its particular aesthetic and educational attractions. Ultimately, the gardens and collections must be interpreted as a remarkable open air classroom. This is a baseline for effective marketing to populations with limited economic and social assets.

 

Once the aesthetic theme is established, collections based education follows. Meadowlark conservation collections are specifically developed to educate visitors about regional plant diversity as related to local natural history. Accordingly, we work to interpret landforms, ecoregions, surface geology and basic ecology (Tomlinson, K. & A., Tomlinson, 2010). This approach works well for elementary SOL objectives focused on natural science topics with a local focus. Our experience suggests the classic hands-on experiential approach to nature interpretation is a strong driver of cognitive prowess in underserved students. Recognition of the outdoor recreation-cognition connection has grown considerably in the last decade (ref4)

 Additional experiences that market your gardens mission and resources

With the educational aesthetic and cognitive objectives established as marketing priorities, we also consider the basic tenants of child well-being and physical activity. Most field trips the MBG will involve walking about three kilometers. The 38 hectare property features both paved and mulched trails. Students negotiate these trails at variable walking speeds with interspersed breaks for interpretation. We actively encourage running on our “Great Lawn”. In addition, children are allowed to roll down an adjacent hillside. These actives lend a discreet yet robust physical element to the day’s activities. Several studies clearly illustrate the benefits of physical exertion and increased learning potential (Rauner, R., et al., 2013).  Every garden will have differing resources that engender physical activity as part of the field trip experience. But the specific inclusion of such activities is strong marketing tool.

 Identifying ways to reach potential audiences

This grant funded program was specifically tailored to Title I schools and educators.  Funding allowed teachers to earn a modest stipend for attending a two day workshop. Email, Facebook, websites and tradition mail were used to market these specific workshops. Personal contact with school Principal’s was also useful. Teachers are encouraged to work with MGB staff to foster a continuum of formal

and informal learning collaboration bring the garden and school together. We also offer school visits to supplement teacher led activities. This can include developing school yard gardens.

While attending the workshop teachers were given a newly published map of the Potomac River Basin designed specifically for classroom use. The map emphasizes the physical geography of the river basin and highlights the areas of geologic and botanical interest. Grant funding also paid for travel expenses from school to the garden. This was a particularly welcome aspect of the grant as schools systems cut field trips first when budget short falls occur. Collectively, these incentives proved to be a highly effective marketing strategy in bringing groups to MBG.

 Audience satisfaction and post program evaluation

While Title I students are at the heart of the program, teachers are the best evaluators of the experience. Our post trip evaluations solicit comments in three specific areas:

-Field trip planning process, including-reservations, pre-trip materials provided, friendliness & responsiveness, program content and interpreter quality.

-The Program, including-content & activities, content relevance for your students, activities were engaging for students and overall satisfaction level.           

-The Educators, including-your assigned educator was organized, your educator was well prepared, your educator was knowledgeable.

Increasing the visitation of underserved audiences requires more planning and outreach in the marketing process. Marketing strategies will by necessity vary from one institution to another based on spatial assets, collections, staffing and specific school needs. While these programs are potentially attractive to donors, funding should be included in annual operating budgets when possible. Ideally, social relevance for botanical gardens will increase with programmatic diversity and effective marketing. From conception to execution reaching underserved audiences is a unique challenge. Public gardens that rise to these challenges offer an important service to individuals and groups. Effective marketing need not be a commercial enterprise. Effective marketing need not be a commercial enterprise; it's a social contract endowed by the recognition that every person counts, regardless of social or economic standing. This integrated approach to marketing benefits students, teachers and gardens mutually.

 

Keith P. Tomlinson, Manager, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Biology Fellow Washington D.C. Academy of Science

Vienna, Virginia USA Email: ktomlinson@nvrpa.org

 
Jules R. Maloney, Program Specialist

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Vienna, Virginia USA Email:jmaloney@nvrpa.org

Carolyn B. Ramwell, MSN, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Martha Jefferson Hospital Faculty, University of Phoenix

Charlottesville, Virginia USA. Email:cramwell@gmail.com

References:

Borman, G.D., & D’Agostino, J.V. 1996, Title I and student achievement: A meta-analysis of federal evaluation results. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 18, 309-326.

Louve, R, 2012, The Nature Principle. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Tomlinson, K., A. Tomlinson 2010, Educating for Sustainable Horticulture. Roots: Botanic Gardens Conservation International Education Review. Vol. 7 # 2.

Tomlinson, K., Becht, G., Brodkey, D. 2005, Conservation Collections at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, USA: Supporting the International Agenda and Educating the Public. Botanic Gardens Journal, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Vol.2 #2.

Rauner, R., Walters, R., Avery, M., Wanser, T. 2013, Evidence that aerobic fitness is more salient than weight status in predicting standardized math and reading outcomes in fourth- through eighth-grade students. Journal of  Pediatrics. Aug; 163(2):344-8.

 

Nezahat Botanical Garden, Istanbul

 

The Catalonian Parliament was beautifully lit from every side. Ancient cobblestone streets at the entrance glistened after a brief April shower. Inside the grand hall a festive social gathering of garden professionals from around the world was in progress. Multiple languages could be heard all at once; Arabic, Russian, English, Spanish, Korean, French and more. A delegation from Turkey came with an English interpreter; I joined a conversation about a new garden being built on the Asian side of Istanbul. Someone mentioned it would be developed in the cloverleaf of a major highway. I must have looked incredulous. An elderly man handed me his card as he gently held my arm. In broken English he told me to “plan a visit someday, it will be very beautiful”. The seed was planted, that was 2004. 

Nearly a decade later I stepped off a listing ferry onto the furthest western fringe of Asia in Kadikoy Turkey, a bustling suburb across the Bosporus from downtown Istanbul. I pulled a crumpled map out my pocket and hailed a cab. The language barrier was complete, but as soon as the driver saw the map we were off on the eight mile drive. The expansion of Istanbul into Asia is stunning. As far as the eye could see, high rise buildings filled the skyline with highways weaving a cacophonous pathway of nearly endless traffic. As I marveled at a particularly opulent high rise we made a sudden turn and stopped. Emerging from the cab, with the drivers cigarette smoke in tow, an intimate landscape beckoned. What was once an urban wasteland is now a flourishing botanical garden.

As one enters the garden traffic noise abates somewhat. Vast collections of Mediterranean flora expand through a shallow bowl, neatly landscaped for public access. The seminal tree of the region Olea europea, the culinary olive, displays it's coveted status as a horticultural and cultural icon of the entire region. No other plant has a more important agricultural role than this long lived species. Now days much of the Turkish olive crop heads to China where the ancient flavor has gained a vast following. Nearby another member of the Olive family grows in a linear mulched bed, the American Ash, one of Virginia’s most common forest trees. I always love seeing a Virginia native plant exhibited in foreign gardens.

Walking up a steep hill one comes to a high point in the garden. A vast view spreads west toward old Istanbul, were the Golden Horn enters the Bosporus. This exposed knoll is surely one of the botanical highlights of Nezahat. Several rectangular, gravelly raised beds rise to waist height. Randomly displayed are the true treasures of Turkeys exceptional native flora; bulbs. Many, perhaps most, of the world bulbs come from Turkeys undulating, porous limestone landscape, a place where geology and climate coalesce to harbor one of the world’s most diverse selections of bulbs. Since biblical times royalty, traders and early naturalist sought to collect and grow these gems. They can be stunningly intricate, colorful and bold. In addition, the bulbs travel well and are easy to collect. Overtime the number of wild bulbs declined due to over-collection. This remains a problem today for Turkey’s natural resource managers. The majority of bulbs grown in Holland are derived from Turkish species.

Since its inception, Nezahat focused as much on conservation as beauty. Among the delicate bulbs on display, Fritularia's, Tulips and Romulea yield dainty flowers compared to hybridized plants that we encounter at commercial nurseries. Generally these plants prefer sharp drainage where water passes rapidly and never stays too long. The soothing Mediterranean sun and cool nights play an equally important ecological role fostering bulb life cycles. The raised beds are carefully built to mimic their natural habitat. Conservation of rare plants in botanical garden collections plays an increasingly important role in reintroducing endangered species back into the wild. Nezahat is well suited to such a role, and the need in Turkey is great.

 

Descending the high knoll one passes by the rock garden exhibiting numerous alpine plants native to eastern Turkey, including the dormant stratovolcano, Mt. Ararat. A fine collection of European alpines are also found here, many from the Carpathian Alps in neighboring Romania. Near the rock garden is a meticulously maintained propagation and holding area for plants being prepared for exhibit. Once at the base of the hill a curious question comes to mind; how does one get to the next "lobe" of the garden in the highway cloverleaf? Like many aspects of Nezahat this has been given special attention. Between each lobe a sophisticated pedestrian tunnel crosses beneath the highway. Discreetly engineered for foot travel, electrical needs and water drainage, the tunnel is also an exhibit space. Upon stepping into the tunnel lights turn on illuminating marvelous collections of education exhibits ranging from flower anatomy to herbal medicines. A special section depicts Ethno botany...the use of plants by humans. Here ancient paintings document the gift of pomegranates for the Sultan Mehmet to celebrate the circumcision of a son.

Emerging from the tunnel you find an entirely different space in the garden. The western most lobe sports a colorful children's garden, picnic area and shady conifers providing respite from the sun. Nearby a water garden with many species of aquatic lilies and giant Koi fish mingle together. People of all ages are mesmerized by the colorful combination of animals and plants.

Returning to the parking lot adjacent to the roaring highway, I'm struck that an urban wasteland could be so usefully converted into a public space devoted to the understanding and appreciation of plants. On the way out I pass the busts of the founder and his wife, to whom the garden is dedicated. On closer inspection I realize the founder was the elderly man who invited me to visit ten years earlier in Barcelona. He said it would be beautiful. It certainly is, and remarkable innovative too.

From the BGT Team-more info at

www.ngbb.org.tr

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden: the Ultimate Urban Garden

Keith P. Tomlinson

The Virginia Sportsman, Garden Column, February/March 2015

Our taxi cut a straight line south on Franklin Roosevelt Drive aside the endless concrete canyons on the right and the East River to the left. With a rapidly swaying turn we ascended onto the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing commending views of endless city from east to west. A few blocks later the shaded entrance of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden emerged in a park-like cloak of soothing greenery. But this no city park, it’s one of the world’s premiere public gardens. We dashed through the library entrance and reached a long-scheduled meeting just in time. The next few hours focused on ways to implement a newly hatched initiative…The International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation. After fruitful discussions and lunch we ventured into the garden, bathed in the early fall sun. Few gardens combine aesthetics, education, research and public outreach with such seamless skill and longevity. Since the spring 1911 BBG has been growing literally and figuratively into the storied institution it is today.

Having spent five years working in the tropics I was eager to see the Steinhardt Conservatory, divided into three specific habitats it’s a classic layout for education and display. The warm tropical pavilion embodied the humid organic aroma, hosting species of equatorial flora I had seen in Singapore, Thailand, India and West Africa. While it’s impossible to recreate the ecological diversity of tropical forests in a conservatory, the sense of fascination with the “jungle” is a wonderful visitor experience. The two other smaller pavilions exhibit desert and warm-temperate habitats respectively. Also housed in this complex is the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum. This notable collection features temperate and tropical trees carefully cultivated over centuries in some cases.

Adjacent to the Steinhardt is the Lily Pond Terrace stretching east toward the Magnolia Plaza. It’s here that some of the design pedigree of BBG comes to light. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were early designers for Prospect Park; ultimately part of that property would become BBG. In 1897 ideas for a botanic garden on the site received legislative support. Twelve years later BGG was founded. Harold Caparn was the most influential landscape architect for BBG having designed many major features visitors enjoy today. Planning for a laboratory and the original conservatory began in 1912. From very early on BBG was evolving into a botanic garden not only committed to fine ornamental horticulture, but to the understanding and conservation of plant diversity at large. In fact, the first developed garden on the site featured native plants.

Wondering north out of the formal garden spaces one encounter’s the Plant Family Collection. This is the classic interprtation of plants arranged by familial relationships. Along with medicinal plants, family collections are prominent features of early European Gardens…American gardens followed accordingly. These collections are invaluable resources for students of plant taxonomy, the science of how plants are classified…but times are changing and the grand pursuit of “plant systematics” is it self evolving. With the advent of recent scientific work at the molecular level the long established hierarchy of plant relationships is changing in several ways. Students of botany today are getting a rather different education than those of even twenty five years ago. But they have it easy compared with students of ornithology; the evolutionary organization of birds is changing much more dramatically. BBG employs senior scientists who contribute important work in botanical research of several important plant families.

Wondering north through the conifers one comes to the Cherry Esplanade. Few public gardens in North Americas rival the spring bloom of this exquisite linear space. Some 200 cherry trees of differing varieties line a grand open lawn. The first trees were planted here after World War I as gift from Japan. A few years earlier many of the same species were planted at the Potomac Tidal Basin in Washington DC. Recent genetic work suggests these classic “Japanese Cherries” may in fact have their origins on the Korean Peninsula and were exported during the Japanese occupation. With a tree so revered and celebrated a bit of “political horticulture” is not entirely surprising. One thing is for sure; throughout the northern hemisphere few plants elicit the absolute joy of these noble little trees as spring arrives. BGG host a weeklong celebration called the Sakura Matsuri during the peak bloom. Not far south of the Cherries is the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, this was first to be built in a North American public garden. It will turn one hundred years old in this year.

Next to the cherries another ornamental gem of BBG is found in the Cranford Rose Garden. Almost 1400 roses grace this remarkable collection dating from 1928. Several of the rose shrubs are original plantings. Beyond the Rose Garden is the Native Flora Garden. One might not think of highly urbanized boroughs of New York City as having a large native flora. The original landscape of greater Manhattan and Long Island hosted stately temperate oak-hickory woodlands on glacially scoured soils. Add to that the influence of an intricate coastline with the Atlantic Ocean and variable native plant habitats abound. BBG is a leader in the research and conservation of the native plants in the great New York City region.

In addition to the visiting public, BBG has extensive educational offerings for nearly everyone. In the past twenty years children’s gardens have sprung up at many public gardens. BBG created theirs in 1914; its thought to be the first garden in world created exclusively for children. For the avid gardener the BBG 21 ST-Century Gardening Series books are unsurpassed in promoting ecologically responsible gardening.

BBG’s extensive collections and exceptional landscape host nearly 900,000 visitors a year. The new Visitor Center obtained the LEED Gold certification for sustainable and environmentally friend design.  The combination of multiple “gardens within gardens” warrants a full day visit for any garden enthusiast. A public garden of this magnitude and quality is not to be missed…and it’s just a short taxi ride form Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Images courtesy of BBG.

Dolly Sods: The Wilderness Next Door

 

Keith P. Tomlinson

The Allegheny Highlands harbor many secrets. Comprising the highest elevations in both the James and Potomac River basins, it's a place of subtle contrast and northerly climes. Perhaps no place embodies this remarkable region better than West Virginias Dolly Sods. The "Sods" as it's known among wilderness enthusiast, is a rich mix of northerly hardwood forests and dense stands of red spruce among a random mosaic of shrubby blueberry plains and sphagnum bogs. Buffeted by rocky ridges on the east and west it forms a discreet sky island, biologically more akin to New Hampshire than Virginia. Vast expansive views spread across boggy hollows and steep ravines. For committed backpackers, a winter trip to the Sods is a rite of passage.

 Indeed winter is severe, temperatures can fall to 5 degrees or lower on many nights. Single snowstorms of ten inches or more routinely pummel the area. Camping at the edge of a vast open shrub-land you could be in northern Michigan. Its a winter wonderland of gnarled red oaks with bonsai-like crowns and red spruce growing in the trademark "flag pole"...branches pruned by consistent winds howling in from the west. In winter, the curiosity about this intrepid place is woven by snow squalls, frozen waterfalls and panicles of ice dancing on ones tent. But severe winter weather is just one aspect of the Dolly Sods, each season enlightens the senses.

 

The peak fall color change in the ever-undulating Appalachians arrives early at Dolly Sods.  Mid October is replete in orange, red and yellow hues. During this time, one of West Virginias great ethnobotanic rituals commences. Locals and tourist alike wade through the seemingly endless, waist high shrubs collecting the sweet fruits of wild blueberries. Ebbing baskets of the small deep blue fruits bear testament to the areas rich biodiversity. In the adjacent valley towns, the wild fruits make a culinary splash.

 

Forest route 92 runs along the Sods eastern margin, it transects flat boulder fields rambling from one forest edge to another. Upon close inspection the whitish rocks have a nearly concrete appearance with thousands of small pebbles embedded in the surface. Know to geologists as Potsville Conglomerate, this fascinating rock also forms many outcrops along Dolly Sods eastern escarpment draining into the Potomac basin. The best place to visit these cliffs is Bear Rocks. Located at the north eastern end of the Sods, Bear Rocks sports a commanding view of the myriad ridges to the east. Flagpole spruce creep out to the most exposed locations often sheltering roots in deep cracks with shallow acidic soil.

 

In the middle of Dolly Sods a vast valley dissects the plateau, revealing long views to the south towards Spruce Knob, West Virginias highest mountain.  Here, the head waters of Red creek eventually coalesce into a highland river cascading into a swift running, steep watercourse. Along Red Creek towering eastern hemlocks form a deep shade habitat where cinnamon fern colonies weave along an emerald stream bank. Red Creek’s swift cool, oxygen rich waters provide excellent habitat for native brook trout. Numerous deep "holes" invite swimmers and anglers alike. In winter, crossing Red Creek can prove to be both challenging and potentially dangerous.

 

Once the severe winter abates, Dolly Sods hosts a relatively late spring wildflower bloom. Many highland species dot the landscape. Among these, painted trillium stands out. It's often nodding, three petaled flower displays a cranberry colored center reaching toward the larger white margin. In similar habitats gaywings are true beauties; at first glance they look like an orchid. In fact, they are members of the milkwort family, wholly unrelated to orchids. Requiring very specific soils, pink lady slippers can be found in handsome clumps with their puffy, bulbous flowers. Later in the season, large flowering trilliums of pure white decorate the hardwood forest floor before leaves begin to mature. Sharp-lobed hepatica mingles along the stream bank, hosting small brilliant blue flowers.  A northern curiosity, cotton grass (actually a sedge) grows in wet areas and sprouts a delicate tuft of silky white hair. They are easy to spot waving in the breeze above bogs. When summer arrives milkweeds are abundant and Turks cap lilies grow on the forest edge. Native roses and raspberries show variable hues of pink and red blooms.

 

Throughout Dolly Sods tiny ecosystems of moss and lichens lend an elfin woodland affect to the forest. Dome shaped mounds of star and plume moss provide an important seed nursery for trees and shrubs. Intermixed in the moss mounds are many lichens, some leaf-like, others like tinny green flakes. A solitary liverwort frond stands out for it's relatively large stature...maybe a quarter inch wide.  Rain deer moss (a type of lichen) forms demur tendril-like fingers to create a tiny ghostly, pale green shrub. Most interesting perhaps, are the British soldier lichens. Like miniature trees the "soldiers" frequently exhibit a stunningly bright red cap of spores, some curiously trumpet shaped. Often attending the mounds of moss are clubmoss, the most primitive vascular plant in the forest. Not a moss at all, but a fern ally. Club mosses are indeed club-like or like perfect minute pine trees. Fox tail is likely the most wide spread clubmoss at Dolly Sods. The average life cycle for clubmoss is twenty years. Spores require highly specific soil conditions, rich in fungus and undisturbed by human activity. One such species is shining clubmoss that prefers damp soils and deep shade.

 

Part of the beauty of Dolly Sods is accessibility. Superb fly fishing is easily reached by meandering up Red Creek from the village of Laneville. Even mid-sized RVs can negotiate the steep dirt roads to the top. Red Creek campground has eleven basic RV sites and walk-in tent sites. A crystal clear spring yields superb naturally refrigerated water. Just steps away one can hike the Blackbird Knob trail into the back county. A mile to the south of the campground a short looping nature trial interprets the areas unique environment. If you look closely in the bog area small reddish rosettes of the carnivorous sundew can be seen peeking from the carpet of sphagnum moss. During the spring this is an excellent location to spy numerous warbles migrating north along the spine of the Appalachians.

 

Dolly Sod embodies a rare environment in the southeast. A place where northerly hermit thrushes sing all summer and August nights can feel like early October.  The combination of altitude, topography and climate has nurtured this Adirondack-like setting. Few people realize the Allegheny Front of West Virginia is the highest landform encountered by the massive weather systems formed over the Great Plains as they churn eastward toward the mid-Atlantic. The resulting encounter breeds weather extremes and corresponding ecosystems. It’s a wilderness in which to discover the intertwined secrets of the ancestral Appalachians. Whether you’re a seasoned backpacker, birder, blueberry picker or fly fisherman the Sods is worth exploring again and again.

From the Botanic Garden Traveler Team

So Long Appalachian Outfitters

 

Washington Post Letter to the Editor Spring 2005 (original text, reduced in published version)

 

At the corner of rt. 123 and Lawyers Rd. in Vienna a northern Virginia landmark awaits destruction. As a boy in 1969 I recall visiting Appalachian Outfitters in Vienna and marveling at the seemingly endless selection of outdoor equipment…replete with enough gear to equip an afternoon hike to Great Falls or an extended trip to Alaska. The selection of canoes, hiking boots, guidebooks and climbing gear fascinated me. Little did I realize at the time, this one store would help foster my love for the outdoors, the natural world and ultimately my career choice.

 

Six years later my collection of outdoor gear bought at Appalachian Outfitters grew. A Kelty external frame pack, flashlights, tent, cooking pots, boots, backpacking stove, ground pad, compass and sleeping bag. This equipment was my passport to the outdoors, to year- around adventure in the Appalachian Mountains. From starry summer nights on Hawksbill Peak in Shenandoah National Park and winter backpacking trips to Dolly Sods West Virginia. When gear broke or wore out I would return to Appalachian Outfitters to find exactly what I needed for the next outing. The staff was always knowledgeable and ready to foster the aspirations of young adventurer.

 By the late seventies other fine outfitting stores in the region offered similar equipment. Yet AO, as regulars affectionately knew it, embodied the outdoors in its very setting. The tatty brown park-like buildings, shaded by tall maple trees with a canoe hanging above the entrance. It was a portal to adventure through the equipment it sold and the knowledge its staff willingly shared.

 

During the eighties my experiences backpacking evolved in to a passion for rock climbing and foreign travel. AO sold a fine selection of technical climbing gear. Everything I needed to access the vertical world safely. Perhaps no other purchase equaled the sensation of a new climbing rope…a supple lifeline that allowed one to access the elusive space between ecstasy and terror on a remote mountainside. In time, I would store my climbing gear and depart for Asia, Hawaii, Europe and the New World Tropics in search of a new passion…birds and plants. On all these excursions I lived out of a Lowe Expedition internal frame pack, bought at AO in 1983.

 

These days I drive by AO several times a week. The parking lot is void of battered, dusty cars sporting environmental bumper stickers, kayaks, canoes, bikes and trunks full of climbing gear. My faded and beaten Lowe pack still fits like glove. I use it routinely when leading various natural history outings from the Chesapeake to the West Virginia highlands. AO may be history, but much of my outdoor gear purchased there lives on. I am forever endowed by countless encounters with the natural world made possible in part by this one unique store.

The Jewel of Marrakech- Majorelle Garden

Keith P. Tomlinson 
The Virginia Sportsman Garden Column, Winter 2014

A brisk fifteen minute walk east beyond the ancient ramparts surrounding Marrakech, a forested enclave beckons. Once past the cacophonous traffic replete with gasping mules and the occasional camel the extraordinary sanctuary of Majorelle Garden comes into view.  Consistent with much of Morocco’s architecture, a walled courtyard functions as an intimate entrance way. Once inside visitors are embodied in an aesthetic of desert plants, linear water features, meandering pathways and pastels of green, orange, turquois and blue that seems to glow. It’s the deep blue for which Majorelle may be most famous, first observed by the artist in colorful Berber clothing. Often imitated, but never fully reproduced without collaboration of the full Moroccan sun. There is only one garden in the world where a trademark color is its most famous feature. 

Having been waived from service in the French army during World War I due to heart ailments, Jacques Majorelle traveled to North Africa in search of artistic inspiration. His was raised by his well-known artist Father Louis Majorelle, a famous furniture designer who fostered the artistic leanings of his son while he studied architecture and painting.  Jacques first saw Morocco in 1917 as the guest of the colonial Resident General Hubert Lyautey, a family friend. His fascination with Arab culture and art deepened. At the same time he became aware of the native Berbers, often living in the snowy Atlas Mountains just east of Marrakech. After further travels including an extended time in Egypt, Jacques moved permanently to Marrakech, purchasing a shady palm grove outside of town. It was 1923, the artistic seeds of Majorelle Gardens were about to germinate.

Beyond his growing collection of paintings and commercial success, Majorelle was an armature botanist fascinated the living architecture of desert species in particular. He marveled at the adaptations to life in dry climates, so indelibly tough and bold yet graceful and sleek. His collection grew slowly as plans for a permanent house and studio took shape. The near monoculture of date palms on the property was evolving as an artist’s retreat and private garden soon to be infused by a palate of dazzling colors among of the dry-land plants. The origins of one of the world’s most unique pleasure gardens was set forth by a sometimes frail but determined artist with one hand in the soil and the other on the canvass. As the garden developed in the mid-twenties, so too did Marrakech. Over time the garden was surrounded by the relative urbanity we see today. With the costs of maintaining the garden Majorelle opened it to the public in 1947 for a modest entrance fee. The last owners were Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé who bought and refurbished the Garden in 1980. Saint Laurent has a memorial on the site. Today Majorelle Garden is a tourist hot spot on the map of Marrakech and for good reason…it’s an oasis from the cities intense hustle and an artistic wonder to behold.

Walking through the entrance door, city noises rapidly abates as moving water soothes the soul. Within a few steps the formal square entrance courtyard gives way to numerous tall Royal Palms, their strait grey trunks reaching determinedly skyward. In the light shade of smaller Fangipanis or Plumeria trees, South Africa Clivia’s bloom brightly in orange and yellow by the trails edge. This is a pure pleasure garden, lacking any systematic placement of the plants by family or geography. Thus, species from all over the world mix on a gravely reddish soil endlessly tended by gardeners in smart Majorelle Blue jumpsuits. Great care is taken to maintain a picture-perfect appearance. Trails are entirely raised concrete, painted a dull red to blend with the soils. Every trail is neatly hemmed in by bamboo fences made from plants on the property.

Perhaps the most alluring section of the garden sits in front of the brightly colored angular-modern house. The full North African sun imparts an embracing if relentless glow. Here trees native to the Madagascan Spiny forest mix freely with cactus from the US and Mexico. Numerous species of Euphorbias native to Africa are set among large Yuccas with their perfect rosettes of spiny-margined leaves.  A notable unintended botany lesson unfolds as Cactus and Euphorbias dwell together. While these plants are routinely assumed to be related they are from distinctly different families. The Cactus family is almost entirely North American while Euphorbias are most diverse in Africa. These two families are a grand example of parallel evolution. Having evolved separately in similar habitats; they can look similar but are wholly unrelated. At the front of this garden a lovely formal fountain feeds a linear canal leading to tile-roofed pavilion perfect for resting in the shade.

In addition to the gardens the house is now the Berber Museum and book store. The small museum pays homage to the Berbers and there artistic heritage before and after the various Arab conquest of Morocco. Jewelry, brightly colored traditional clothing are on display. In addition, several of Jacques Majorelle’s Berber inspired paintings are exhibited. Across form the museum is a beautifully appointed gift shop and adjacent café. The combination of the garden, museum and cafe makes for an easy half day outing. The Lonely Plant Guide suggests getting there early as it gets crowded. One is well advised to heed this suggestion as the garden is rather small.

Jacques Majorelle’s combined love of art, gardening, architecture and Moroccan culture bestowed an extraordinary gift on both tourists and residents in Marrakech. The history, artistic relevance and botanical displays are unique in the world. Majorelle died of injuries sustained in a car accident in 1962, but his legacy lives on in every visitor who strolls into his exquisite garden. The Jewel of Marrakech, a garden bathed in the deep tones of Majorelle Blue lives on, bringing joy to thousands of visitors annually.