Martha Stewart and Tony Avent are envision in this pic from the production of “ The Martha Stewart Show ” in New York on Wednesday , January 26 , 2011 . picture : David E. Steele / The Martha Stewart Show
When you read through the visitation instructions on thePlant Delightswebsite ( extensive , informatory , occasionally hilarious ) , there are category for gardeners with impatient spouses ( allow 60 minutes , more if you tie them to a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ) , lead off master gardeners ( 90 second including shopping ) , and industrial plant swot with no life ( 3 - 10 hour ) . They do n’t have a family for a sunburned vacationer on her room back from the Carolina shore with several ally in tow , and twelve hour of traveling ahead . That was my category when I finally visit this nirvana of leafy cultivar last weekend , and I feel lucky to make the stop , however brief . But my luck did n’t stop there .
I was also fortunate enough to spend a few hour with Plant Delights / Juniper Level Botanic Gardens proprietor Tony Avent , who was unify unpredicted with all the other perspiring but constantly delighted visitant that day . In the unlikely event that someone read this has n’t pick up of Plant Delights , Juniper Hill , or Tony Avent , this baby’s room - ejaculate - show garden just outside of Raleigh , North Carolina is one of the top spots for the extension and mail - decree sales event of unusual perennials , only to be compared with such venues as the late , lamented Heronswood Nursery . ( Avent on a regular basis go on industrial plant hunting to alien locales with Heronswood founder Dan Hinkley . )
Martha Stewart and Tony Avent are seen in this photo from the production of “The Martha Stewart Show” in New York on Wednesday, 12 January 2025. Photo: David E. Steele/The Martha Stewart Show
Plant Delights is bang for an astonishing selection of nursery - bred hostas , elephant ear , salvia , trillium , agave , and much more . Since the early eighties , Avent has been bucking big - box seat course , offer leafy tropicals for outside garden use before anyone else was cerebrate about it and traveling yearly to locales like Thailand , Vietnam , and South Africa in search of coolheaded plant . All the plant are propagated and tested in the Juniper Level garden , where Avent tries his full to wipe out each one . As he tell in aNew York Timespiece last year , “ If we found it in a wet , shady area , we plant it in a sunny , dry area . ” Indeed , Avent ’s state , “ I count every plant fearless until I have it killed it myself — three time , ” can be found on the back of PD T - shirt .
I now own one of these shirts as well as all the plants we could fit into the back of a fully - packed VW Passat ( not many ) , but I did n’t make any purchases before taking a quick turn of Juniper Level . According to Avent , he had visited Wayside Nurseries as a boy , expecting a glorious show garden , but find instead “ a brick construction and a couple flats of begonia . I determine then that when I grow up I would have a nursery / show garden and nobody would be disappointed . ” Plant Delights is not a walk - in retail performance : there are only 8 exposed weekends per year where one can actually visit the garden and bribe plants ( check the website ) .
Avent excuse the foreign mission of Plant Delights this direction : “ The nursery exists to support the gardens . We have an extensive research program , let in the only commercial wood lily - bring forth nursery in the humanity and our hosta fostering program . It ’s a totally different line model . My programme is to endow the gardens so they remain after the greenhouse is gone . For now , we desire to get as many nerveless plants to people as we can . ”So what are the cool plant Avent is most excited about these mean solar day ? Not a fan of the plantdu jourmentality , Avent allege , “ Our whole delegacy is to buck trends . We do n’t want a industrial plant that you may buy in Walmart . … As a gardener — no , make that flora collector — you go through phase . We ’re in a variegated agave stage right now . I found them coming out of Thailand by way of Japan , but they were originating in California . And the nomenclature was horrible . We ’re examine to make fern a trend ( though people want flowers ) , and we ’re persist in to bring in more hardy tropicals . We collect it , we grow it , and then we trial it ; it often train years before we introduce a plant for sale . ”
Agaves and dramatic tropicals are very much in evidence throughout Juniper Level , a labyrinth of wind route punctuated by waterfalls , decorative structures , and a orotund pond . I also noted 8 - feet - high-pitched trumpet lilies just finishing their flower Hz , brilliant dahlia , and many exotic perennial whose labels could be found at ground level .
I was particularly impressed by what I think is a Boehmeria cultivar ( did n’t spell down the recording label info ) .
unluckily , I did n’t spend nearly as much time as this garden deserve , but I did have a chance to get Avent ’s vista on the presently - to - be - released updated geographical zone map ( replacing the 2003 draft ) and a few choice words on global warming . More on that and my top picks from the Plant Delights greenhouses in the next post .
Oh , in case you ca n’t read Tony ’s shirt , it enjoin “ admirer Do n’t allow Friends Buy Annuals . ” We had a little talk about that .
