PlantIntel Vol. 6, Issue 1

Wrap, stuff, poke, plant

Mastering mosaiculture’s magic carpet means years of practice

It’s a little mind blowing to realize it’s been 11 years since the Atlanta Botanical Garden made history when it introduced the city – and country – to a unique type of sculpture that combines the beauty of art with the intricacies of science.

Who knew that the Garden’s 2013 exhibition, Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger Than Life, would blossom in the years that followed into a series of encores of one kind or another featuring the centuries-old art form?

“The scale of this work, the imagination and the excitement knowing we will be the first-ever U.S. botanical garden to host one of the exhibitions stands to place this event on par with our blockbuster showing in 2004 of Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures,” Mary Pat Matheson, the Garden’s President and CEO, said in a 2013 news release.

Since then, the Garden has hosted four other mosaiculture exhibitions and this spring will roll out a fifth with Alice’s Wonderland Returns.

With experience comes knowledge, and no one knows that better than Jim Smith, the Garden’s Senior Outdoor Horticulture Manager, who has worked on the topiary-like living plant sculptures for every show. He knows the ups, the downs – in some cases even the sideways – of successfully designing, planting and maintaining the sculptures, from the Garden’s iconic, massive Earth Goddess to the mischievously grinning Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Who better than Jim to take us behind the scenes in this sixth annual issue of PlantIntel to explain the arduous process for creating and caring for mosaiculture? Learn the challenges of choosing the best soil, the most climate-suitable plants and the most efficient watering and shearing techniques that he and his team have discovered over the years during a beehive of work that most guests never see.

Speaking of bees, most are probably aware of the growing threat of extinction for many of the more than 4,000 native species that help pollinate our food crops. Native flowers have long been a staple for feeding these hungry little guys, so staff conservationists recently set out to see how well the Garden attracts them. Read how their yearlong survey found it’s quite the popular dining destination for a variety of wild bees – including an endangered native bumblebee species!

There’s also great news in this issue on another couple of fronts. First, from colleagues in our International Plant Exploration Program we learn that after years of hard work and persistence, the Garden has been able to reach an official agreement with India allowing us to work together on field expeditions expected to lead to staff exchange programs and the continued documentation of rare and endangered plants of northeastern India. This official collaboration, much like the Garden has with Vietnam, marks the first that India has ever entered with a nongovernmental organization.

And closer to home – actually the Garden’s own back yard – there’s news as our planned expansion by nearly 8 acres continues to take shape. Acquisition of the new acreage will place the Garden contiguous with the Atlanta Beltline – popular with green-minded pedestrians and cyclists – and plans are in the works for an inviting entry to new gardens planned there. Amanda Bennett, our Vice President, Horticulture & Collections, gives us a bird’s- eye view of what these exciting garden rooms could look like.

Turn the page to explore what the Garden is up to!

DANNY FLANDERS PlantIntel Editor

On the cover: Jacinthe Plante, left, and Sebastien Francoeur plant a mosaiculture frog sculpture in the greenhouse.

GROWING PAINS

With so many Magnolias growing at the Garden, including many rare species, it only makes sense to hybridize them to see what new plants can be created. So far, the process has been slow yet fruitful.

PlantIntel

BUDDING SCIENTISTS

Shadowing the Garden’s staff every year are a few “green” gardeners who are part of the Summer High School Internship, a program aimed at cultivating teen interest in plant careers.

POST-HURRICANE HOPE

The Garden’s effort to save one of North America’s rarest conifers suffered its biggest blow from a hurricane, but a recovery project is paying dividends of healthy new trees.

RAMPED-UP TRAINING

Because training the next generation of plant scientists is part of the Garden’s mission, it’s creating a mentoring network for broadening the experience of college graduates.

Danny

M. 'Rose Marie' x 'Cotton Candy'

Small bee species are pinned to identify under microscope.

The buzz

Garden’s flowers attract rich bee diversity, including endangered bumblebee

By LOY XINGWEN and MAX KOTELNICKI

Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Garden each year, but its biggest fans may be some of its tiniest – bees.

Bees and the flowers they love have been intertwined since the dinosaur age. In the United States, more than 4,000 different native bee species help to pollinate food crops and wild plants, but many are threatened with extinction. In urban environments, landscapes such as the Gar den that are full of native flowers can provide vital food for hungry bees.

A recent study shows the Garden is a popular dining destination for a variety of wild bees, including an endangered native bumblebee species. Garden staff conducted a yearlong survey of bees in the Conservation Display Garden, which features a diversity of Southeastern native plants that are at the heart of the conservation program. For an hour each month, staff recorded all the bees that they saw and identified the flowers that each of the insects visited. Some of the smaller bee species could only be accurately identified under a microscope, so staff scientists collected and pinned a few bees for identification in their research facilities.

Rose-mallow bee

Sweat bee

The study revealed fascinating insights into the diversity of bees at the Garden. Over the course of a year, staff recorded more than 30 different bee species in a study area only a little larger than a basketball court.

WHY IT MATTERS

Researching the symbiotic relationships between endangered plants and animals is key to the Garden’s conservation mission.

The most exciting observation was of an endangered southern plains bumblebee, Bombus fraternus. This rare bee has been recorded at the Garden only once before – in 2021 by Kennesaw State University researchers. Staff also observed healthy numbers of the American bumblebee, Bombus pensylvanicus, another threatened species. The most common native bees were eastern bumblebees and carpenter bees. The familiar, albeit non-native honey bee, originally from Europe and northern Africa, also was seen.

Staff used a graph to visualize the foraging preferences of different bees. Blazing star (Liatris), summersweet (Clethra), and Carolina redroot (Lachnanthes) were the plants most frequently visited by bees. But coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Stokes aster (Stokesia laevis) attracted the largest variety of bees. Based on its high frequency and diversity of bee patrons, the latter was crowned the Garden’s “Bee Plant of 2023” – based on popular vote by the bees themselves!

LOY XINGWEN, PhD, is a Garden Research Scientist, Ecology.

MAX KOTELNICKI is a Conservation Display Garden Horticulturist.

The Conservation Display Garden spills with a diversity of Southeastern native plants.

Staffers Max Kotelnicki, left, and Loy Xingwen compare notes on bee observations.

Trial & Error

Garden horticulturists master both art and science of mosaiculture

By JIM SMITH

Is it art?

Or is it science?

Actually, it’s the perfect marriage of both worlds.

At its heart, mosaiculture is a form of topiary. But unlike traditional topiary in which the foliage of shrubs and trees is sheared into a form, mosaiculture is the science of creating complex metal frames that are covered in a special fabric and stuffed with soil to create a foundation for planting thousands of tiny plants that ultimately create a living mosaic-like carpet.

These sculptures can range in size and complexity from a small 6-foot Shaggy Dog to a massive 30-foot White Rabbit – which promises not to be late for that very important date, May 11, when it returns to the Garden for a revival of previous mosaiculture exhibitions, Alice’s Wonderland Returns

Creating an exhibition of mosaiculture is both a challenging and rewarding process that requires collaboration among various Garden teams along with their partners at Mosaiculture International of Montreal in Canada. In fact, by the time Alice begins to spin down that famed rabbit hole in Howell Fountain, she and her storybook friends will have been under construction off site for nearly a full year.

FROM DRAWING TO PLANTING

Exhibitions always start with a concept. Artist renderings help to create a storyline and suggest locations for sculptures within the Garden. Renderings go through several iterations before landing on just the right fit. After finalizing concepts for sculptures, technical drawings are produced, and the metal frames are fabricated in Canada before being shipped to a greenhouse in Buford, GA, where they are covered, stuffed with soil and planted. Guests might be surprised to learn that the steel armatures are hand bent and twisted to create the skeleton of each sculpture using only a drawing for reference with the intended

Previous page: Chris Haon, left, and Christina Newton of the horticulture team plant Alice’s skirt in the Garden’s greenhouse in Buford, GA. Top: Sculpture designs begin with artist renderings. Above: Metal frames for sculptures are fabricated in Canada and shipped to Atlanta for assembling.

size and structural parameters for stability. Each sculpture represents hundreds of hours of human engineering and sweat equity to create the works of art.

The sculptures for Alice’s Wonderland Returns represent the horticulture team’s biggest achievement. White Rabbit is the tallest sculpture, topping out at 30 feet – 5 feet taller than the Garden’s iconic Earth Goddess. The Chess Set contains the most pieces – 19 individual parts that will host nearly 10,000 more individual plants than Earth God-

Clockwise: Sculptural forms are covered with a mesh fabric, then stuffed with soil. Staff use a pointed tool called a dibble to poke holes into the covering for planting thousands of annual plugs. After weeks of watering and shearing, the result is a carpeted sculpture such as the White Rabbit.

dess, totaling a whopping 25,000. Alice is the most technologically intricate piece, with her complex rotating element that creates the illusion of falling down the rabbit hole amongst a whirlwind of oversized objects.

NOT EASY BEING GREEN

Spanning almost 11 years of creating mosaiculture, the expertise of Garden staff – with guidance from creators of the original 2013 exhibition, Mosaiculture International, the world leader in presenting exhibitions and competitions of the art form – has grown by leaps and bounds, not only with tackling large sculptures but also with developing and maintaining the structures.

Watering the 3-D sculptures was the first challenge. Downward would be too simple; sculpture plants require watering upside down, sideways and backward.

Various fabrics and soils also were tested for years before the first sculpture was displayed in Atlanta. For fabric, tests and experiments were conducted to determine which type stretched over the frame the best while providing enough structure to hold the soil but also enough holes to allow in adequate water. Different soil mixes were evaluated, adding

WHY IT MATTERS

Exhibitions of beautiful art complemented by the tranquility of nature provide a major incentive for attracting guests to the Garden, where the overriding mission is to connect people with plants.

and subtracting various amendments such as pearlite for extra drainage and coconut coir for extra water retention. Average precipitation records were analyzed for predicting how much water retention power would be needed for soil during Atlanta’s summers.

For years, staff have faced and conquered countless challenges from insect damage to diseases – even suitable plant selection. When sculptures for the first exhibition arrived in 2013, sections had already been planted in Canada and merely assembled onsite in the Garden. Staff quickly learned that some

plants that perform well in Montreal grow into untamable beasts in Atlanta’s warm climate. Conversely, the Southeastern climate is just too warm to grow certain plants that are the bread and butter up north. This caused the Garden to pivot and turn to plant species known to perform well here.

Finally, the sculptures demand that horticulturists don their artist caps for constantly shaping and contouring the pieces throughout the summer. Plants are sheared every two weeks during the growing season as the

Alice once again will headline the 2024 exhibition from Howell Fountain.

challenge is keeping the sculptures looking exactly the same throughout the show no matter what day a guest visits the Garden.

CREATING THE MAGIC

While the metal framework provides the bones of a sculpture, and the fabric and soil are the skin and muscle behind keeping the piece alive, it’s the tens of thousands of plants of different textures, colors and species that truly bring the sculptures to life.

Over the years, Garden horticulturists have tested countless different species and cultivars

in numerous applications on various sculptures. Everything from disease and insect resistance to shade and sun tolerance to drought and boggy soil endurance have been evaluated. Every year, trial plants are tested on the back of Earth Goddess’ head (hidden from guests’ view) to continuously expand the breadth of her plant palette. When comparing photos from 2013 with a mane of predominantly Ipomoea (sweet potato vine) in various colors to today’s modern tapestry of brightly colored annuals such as Sunpatiens, Vinca, Lantana and Begonias, guests

by the numbers

23

current horticulture staff

5 current mosaiculture creation/maintenance staff

120,078 plants in 2019’s original Alice’s Wonderland exhibit

3,228 hours spent filling its sculptures with soil

1,177 hours spent planting

JIM SMITH is the Garden’s Senior Outdoor Horticulture Manager.

appreciate just how far plant selection has come over the years.

For the Garden, it has taken more than a decade of learning how each plant complements and contrasts with each other to truly create the magic of living mosaics – lessons in both art and in science.

Horticulturist Chris Haon shears an eyelid on Earth Goddess.

budding scientists

High school internships help cultivate plant careers

By LORIN BOREN

Summer weekdays in the Garden are buzzing with activity.

Pollinators hum among blossoms, sprinklers shower a cooling mist, and the horticulture staff is hard at work ensuring the Garden is at its prime in peak season.

Among that bustle, visitors may also find a few “green” gardeners digging in the dirt alongside experienced staff. These beginner botanists are a part of the Garden’s Summer High School Internship.

Now entering its sixth year, the program seeks to cultivate an interest among teens in plant careers and environmental stewardship through hands-on experience, professional mentorships and access to renowned plant collections.

WHY IT MATTERS

Educating people about plants is a key part of the Garden’s mission and fosters interest among future generations in horticulture and conservation careers.

First launched in 2018, the internship was designed to facilitate a connection between youth from underserved communities and the Garden. Each summer, 10 students from metro Atlanta area Title I schools are selected to participate after a competitive application and interview process. The individuals chosen for this paid program commit to a three day-per-week schedule over seven weeks. Interns help care for various parts of the Garden as well as participate in field trips, and college and career sessions like financial planning and resume building. In addition to a biweekly paycheck, they receive lunch, transportation assistance and any supplies needed to be successful at the Garden. Most of the interns also end up taking home quite a few plants!

As part of the experience, interns are paired with a staff member who works on either the conservation, indoor horticulture or outdoor horticulture team. Their tasks range from the seemingly menial weeding and learning plant family names to the downright memorable, donning waders to muck the pond or feeding the animals in the red-striped newt project.

Students perform a variety of tasks and activities during their internships, including ridding ponds of muck.

“The best part about working in my placement was my mentors,” said A’Lasia Brown, who worked with the outdoor horticulture team and attends DeKalb County’s Arabia Mountain High School. “They taught me everything and made me feel comfortable even though I did not have a lot of experience.”

Even if the interns come to the Garden with minimal training, the expertise they take with them is vast.

“It’s been a valuable experience to gain all this knowledge about not only plants but also the different possible careers in horticulture,” said Tucker High School student Barima Baah.

If past participants are any indicator of the program’s impact, the Garden has reason to beam with pride. Many former interns are already becoming the next generation of plant scientists and policymakers, majoring in fields from agriculture to environmental science and interning in plant conservation labs and the U.S. Senate, proving long-lasting relationships with nature can be cultivated right alongside the plants themselves.

LORIN BOREN is the Garden’s School Programs Manager.

hope Post-hurricane

Garden reaches milestones in efforts to save rare conifer

By LOY XINGWEN and LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL

The Garden has been engaged in efforts to save the endangered Florida torreya for 35 years, but 2018’s Category 5 hurricane marked a critical juncture in this conifer’s long story of survival.

Florida torreya, or Torreya taxifolia, is one of the rarest trees in North America. In the last century, populations of this critically endangered conifer have plummeted from 700,000 to less than a thousand. This is largely because of a canker disease caused by a non-native fungal pathogen. Six years ago, to make matters worse, Hurricane Michael tore through the Florida Panhandle and the entire population of torreya, instantly killing many of the trees. The species’ fragile forest habitat also was severely impacted, leaving survivors in a vulnerable state.

WHY IT MATTERS Botanical gardens around the world play a key role in preserving and maintaining the genetic diversity of endangered plants.

In response, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service awarded the Garden funding to lead an urgent five-year recovery project. Thanks to this project, recent years have seen tremendous leaps in Florida torreya conservation and research. Search parties have successfully located and documented the health of 848 living trees throughout their native range. This was possible only with the help and dedication of the Florida Native Plant Society and the support of numerous private landowners.

Staff traverse treacherous storm debris to monitor torreya seedlings.

The Garden’s ecology researchers found that hurricane damage to the species’ dense forest habitat may have improved its growth by increasing the availability of light, but the resulting higher temperatures may pose a threat.

The Garden’s genetics researchers analyzed DNA samples from 400 individual torreya trees. Despite severe population declines, the species retains relatively high genetic diversity. This bodes well for any future breeding program to increase resistance to the fungal diseases plaguing the species.

To buy time and safeguard genetic material, stem cuttings have been collected from hundreds of wild torreya. Many of the cuttings are being grown in a new grant-funded Conservation Hoop House at the Gainesville Garden’s Conservation Safeguarding Nursery. Today, nearly half of all wild Florida torreya have duplicates living in the Garden’s conservation collections.

Moving forward, the Garden aims to develop a treatment plan for the fungal disease afflicting Florida torreya. Experiments with fungicides already are under way. In the near future, staff hope to be able to treat cultivated trees of fungal diseases so they can be outplanted in the wild to bolster wild populations.

LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL, PhD, is a Research

LOY XINGWEN, PhD, is the Garden’s Conservation Ecology Coordinator

Scientist, Genetics.

Top: A hoop house was constructed in Gainesville for growing cuttings of healthy trees (above).

Search parties have documented 848 living trees in the Panhandle.

HORIZONS NEW

Expansion gardens will surprise guests with beauty around every twist and turn

By AMANDA BENNETT atlantabg.org

Renderings: Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects

Shuttle Service Route

Glade Garden

An unparalleled experience is targeted for the Garden’s planned expansion, starting at its front door – regardless of which way one chooses to enter the new space.

From water plants, perennials and annuals to expanded plant collections, each new garden is being carefully designed to delight visitors entering the spaces from either the Garden’s Storza Woods or via new access from the Atlanta Beltline. Winding pathways will lead guests on a dynamic tour of gardens and water features meant to complement but not replicate current gardens.

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects - Atlanta Botanical Garden New Garden

The Garden announced in 2022 that it planned to expand by nearly 8 acres to its north by purchasing neighboring commercial parcels that will place it contiguous with the Beltline. Upon completion in 2027, the addition, designed by Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, also will make the Garden the first cultural attraction accessible from the popular 22-mile loop.

Perennial borders in the Orangerie Terrace and Fountain Garden will bring seasonal shifts in color, shape and form, matching the exuberance of the fountain experience. Peaceful and contemplative, the Enchanted Forest, Mirror Glade and Overlook Garden will feature evergreens, winter interest, canopy trees, small flowering trees and shrubs, and groundcovers. These gardens will provide opportunities to expand the conifer, hydrangea, native rhododendron, maple and palm collections.

The Sunken Garden will delight with colorful seasonal displays in organically-shaped raised beds, enveloped in planted walls and the water runnel. Adding massive amounts of tulips, and summer and winter annuals into the heart

Orangerie Terrace

Gate

Gate

Fence

Fountain Garden

Storza Passage (Path to Storza Woods)

Walled Garden

Mirror Glade

Piedmont Gardens Piedmont Rockery

of these new gardens will deliver the level of horticulture display the Garden is known for in new and unexpected ways.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated new gardens will be the Wonderland Garden, where Alice In Wonderland-themed mosaiculture sculptures will be featured for multiple years. The Chess Board, White Rabbit, Red Queen and Cheshire Cat will accompany guests and Alice as they fall down the rabbit hole of this whimsical space of curved clipped hedges, traditional topiary, annuals and trees.

Another highly anticipated garden, the Piedmont Rockery, will lend a Mediterranean feel featuring sweeps of Southeast-suitable plants with geometrically stacked and placed

stone. Not meant to imitate nature, this designed space will take advantage of a steep slope and incorporate full-sun rain gardens. Nearby, the Water Terraces will showcase water lilies, lotus and permanent trees and groundcovers in raised planters in the water.

A modern Beltline plaza with Coastal Plaininspired native plants like salvias, asters, trees and shrubs will greet pedestrian guests at the new entrance. Alternatively, evergreens, clumping bamboo, magnolias and camellias will delight visitors making their way from Storza Woods.

Either way guests discover this new addition, it will be worth exploring each of its twists and turns.

WHY IT MATTERS Developing and maintaining collections and displays for enjoyment plays a key role in the Garden’s goal in connecting people with plants.

From the Plant Explorer’s journal:

Mayodia Hills

Garden reaches long-sought with India to collaborate

By SCOTT

long-sought agreement collaborate on plant research

McMAHAN

I first visited northeast India in 2015, and having read nearly every book by famed British botanist and explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward, who worked in the area from mid-1930s until his last expedition in 1956 as a spy and plant hunter, I was completely enamored by his description of the place. It also was in this remote, mountainous area of India known as Assam that my grandparents first met while in the U.S. Army during World War II.

India was calling me.

Fast-forward eight years to last October. It was my third trip to India in 16 months, and my colleague Tim Marchlik and I were back on a plane bound for Dibrugarh, Assam, the most remote commercial airstrip in northeast India. We had returned for two reasons: To continue to explore and document the very rich flora in the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya, and hopefully to sign an official agreement with the Botanical Survey of India in Kolkata allowing us to work together in the field for years to come – much like the Garden does with colleagues in Vietnam.

We arrived in Dibrugarh at 10 a.m. after an overnight from Bangkok and were picked up by colleagues who run a river camp a few hours northwest in the most remote state in India, Arunachal Pradesh. Exhausted from the trip but elated to be there, we began crafting our intended route for the next two weeks.

Tim Marchlik

Exactly one year earlier, I had been in this same spot and while in the field had come across a Begonia that I had never seen before. At the time, we had no official permission to collect plants, so I just documented the Begonia with photographs and GPS coordinates. This time, however, we planned to meet with government officials working with the Botanical Survey of India – the plant conservation and research arm of the government’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change – who could research the plant and determine whether it was new to science.

We planned to head back to the Mayodia Hills to collect living material of that Begonia for the Botanical Survey, which would take most of the week, all the while hoping to hear from the government that the final draft of our Memorandum of Understanding would be accepted.

Days went by. We made our way up and over the Mayodia Pass (at 8,711 feet) to a town called Hunli, where we were able to check off the first item on our list – the Begonia. We scouted for several days in an area known as “The Hump” during World War II, where more than 600 U.S. supply planes went down (with only 22 being located to this day). It is an area so remote, so wild that few people ever visit.

A year’s worth of rice

Begonia silhetensis

But we had an amazing visit and were able to see countless Begonia species, Hedychiums dripping with ripe, red fruit, wonderfully textured ferns – and best of all – not a leech in site as fall is the dry season. The weather couldn’t have been better, and while we were thrilled to have found the Begonia again, if we didn’t hear something positive from the government soon we knew it would probably be our last trip to India.

After a week on the road, we stopped at another hill camp to have a hot meal, shower and rest. That night, I hardly slept, worried that while we had worked so hard to come to an agreement with the Indian government, we would fall short.

But the next morning while scrolling through emails, I saw a message from the survey director with the subject line declaring “Good News”. Indeed! We had been summoned to government headquarters in Kolkata the following week to sign an agreement with the government -- the first such that India has ever entered with a non-governmental organization. All our hard work and persistence had paid off.

Starting this year, the Garden and India will begin collaborative field work expeditions that will lead to future staff exchange programs and continue the much-needed documentation of the rich, rare and endangered flora of northeastern India.

Collaboration with plant researchers in other parts of the world is one key to the conservation of plants everywhere.

Kolkata

Impatiens arguta

signs of progress

Efforts to reverse decline of rare orchid show promise

By JOHN EVANS, GRANT MORTON and IAN SABO

Platanthera integrilabia

Only a lucky few have seen the delicate spires of white fringeless orchid blooms in the wild.

Also known as Platanthera integrilabia, the terrestrial orchid grows in acidic seepage wetlands near the heads of streams in isolated pockets across the Southeast.

Unfortunately, this species is increasingly rare because of habitat loss and is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 1992, the species disappeared entirely from the state of North Carolina.

But for several years, the Garden’s Southeastern Center for Conservation has taken up the cause of reversing the decline of this showy wildflower, and exciting advances in that effort are beginning to show promise.

Orchids germinated and grown with highly specialized root fungi called mycorrhizae are ready for reintroduction to the wild more quickly and show far better survival rates than orchids grown without this method. Identifying and isolating the correct beneficial fungi is not easy; to date, Garden researchers have isolated more than 25 fungal species from the root tips of wild white fringeless orchids, but none are the correct beneficial fungi.

Research continues. The Garden recently conducted an experimental outplanting with plants that were germinated in artificial media but grown to maturity in soil. Detailed data recorded during outplanting and future monitoring data will help Garden scientists to better understand the factors that influence outplanting success.

WHY IT MATTERS Collaboration through public and private partnerships helps advance the conservation of endangered plant species.

Partnerships are essential to the Garden’s goal of saving the white fringeless orchid, including the Southeastern Plant Conservation Alliance, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. Conservation staff also recently teamed up with Alabama Power to collect seeds from populations along utility corridors to deposit in the Garden’s Conservation Seed Bank. Monitoring populations in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee has helped inform management needs for struggling populations, including collaborations with the Davis Arboretum at Auburn University on habitat management projects in Alabama’s Talladega National Forest, with dramatically beneficial results. Finally, later this year the Garden will partner with the U.S. Forest Service to expand monitoring efforts to the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky.

JOHN EVANS is the Garden’s Conservation Horticulture Manager.

GRANT MORTON, PhD, is Conservation Seed Bank Curator.

IAN SABO is Conservation Field Botany Program Manager. atlantabg.org

Left & top: The White Fringeless Orchid produces delicate but showy blooms. Above: Seeds are collected from populations to deposit in the Garden’s Conservation Seed Bank.

growing pains

Hybridizing Magnolias a slow but fruitful process

By ETHAN GUTHRIE

Magnolia ‘Blackbird’

Believe it or not, the history of breeding Magnolias dates all the way back to 1820 when the first Matgnolia hybrid was created in the garden of French plantsman Etienne Soulange-Bodin.

WHY IT MATTERS

Plant

research

such as hybridization experiments contributes to the conservation of endangered species worldwide.

He crossed two Japanese natives, Magnolia denudata and M. liliiflora, and in 1826 saw the first flowers. The hybrid was named Magnolia x soulangeana in honor of its creator and is what is now known as the Saucer Magnolia. As the plant was introduced around the world, many more hybrids were made using the same species, resulting in more than 100 cultivars.

Magnolias represent one of the Garden’s major plant collections, numbering more than 200 different species and cultivars between the Atlanta and Gainesville locations. They also are part of a multi-institutional national collection that helps represent the many Magnolias that are well adapted for this region. In addition, because in the wild many Magnolia species worldwide are considered threatened, the Garden is leading an international effort to ensure no wild species becomes extinct.

M. foveolata x ‘Fairy Magnolia Blush’

With so many Magnolias growing onsite, including many rare species, it only made sense to start hybridizing them to see what new plants could be created. Some of the earliest efforts were simply to learn the process of pollinating Magnolia flowers. This begins with how to collect the pollen, then determining the best times of day and stages of bloom to make the hand pollination successful. Collaboration with other Magnolia enthusiasts helps, but for the most part it is a slow process of careful observation over many years.

The Garden's Magnolia collection is nationally accredited. Others include Sarracenia (pitcher plant), Acer (maple), and Stanhopea and Gongora (neotropical orchids)

At this stage of breeding, many crosses have been made using different species and hybrids to try to create some wonderful new Magnolias. Some of these have to be made inside greenhouses to avoid late spring freeze damage to the flowers, while others may only be able to be pollinated at 9 o’clock at night!

To date, very few have bloomed as it can take five to 10 years to see flower from seed. Many of the hybrids have been planted in Gainesville in an evaluation and trial field.

So far, one Magnolia from the breeding efforts has earned a name and is starting to be put into propagation. It is a hybrid of two rare Asian evergreen species, M. insignis and M. sapaensis, and has been affectionately named Magnolia ‘Atlantis’ to honor the Garden. This seedling was named by Tony Avent of Juniper Level Botanic Garden in Raleigh, N.C., in consultation with the Garden.

Many of the hybrid seedlings created at the Garden are distributed to other horticulturists to grow and evaluate because space onsite for growing seedlings to flowering is always a limiting factor. ‘Atlantis’ – a small evergreen tree displaying 3-inch pink flowers in May and blooming sporadically through the summer – was one of those distributions.

ETHAN GUTHRIE is Horticulture Manager at the Garden’s Gainesville location.

Magnolia ‘Atlantis’

Ramped-up training

Gardens network to educate future rare-plant scientists

By LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL and EMILY COFFEY

RaMP mentees Barbara Garfinkle, left, and Max Meader work in the Micropropagation Lab.

Training the next

generation of plant scientists is a major part of the Garden’s mission.

With support from the National Science Foundation, the Garden and three others – California Botanic Garden, San Diego Botanic Garden and The Morton Arboretum – have joined together to create a rare plant research and mentoring network. The Rare Plant RaMP (Research and Mentoring for Post Baccalaureates) Network allows the

gardens to collaboratively educate future conservation-minded scientists.

Specifically, RaMP seeks to both research the unprecedented global decline of plant biodiversity and to broaden the experience and training of those with baccalaureate degrees who were not able to access research opportunities as undergraduates.

By training eight post-baccalaureate mentees per year for three years in innovative, relevant botanical research, the program will supply mentees with the necessary tools to either enter the workforce or pursue a graduate degree. In addition, the network specifically involves gardens with strengths in botanical

conservation. This will allow the gardens to formalize mentoring and training programs within the workforce and prepare new leaders for modern conservation challenges.

Barbara Garfinkle and Max Meader are the current RaMP mentees working with Atlanta’s Conservation & Research staff.

Garfinkle is investigating the fungal pathogen of the Florida torreya, Fusarium torreyae; her experiments will further an understanding of how to best manage this pathogen in laboratory settings, information that can then be implemented in field and nursery settings. Ultimately, her work will greatly inform recovery of

Staffers Brittany Carson, left, and Lauren Eserman-Campbell, right, discuss a research project with the two RaMP participants in the Conservation Greenhouse.

WHY IT MATTERS

Hands-on research experience at leading botanical gardens equips the next generation of scientists to tackle pressing challenges in plant conservation.

the highly endangered Florida torreya. Meader is working on projects with a primary focus on conservation horticulture. Two of them involve backing up the Garden’s collections of Sarracenia pitcher plants in the Conservation Seed Bank as well as identifying the fungal associates of the White Fringeless Orchid, Platanthera integrilabia These projects will ensure that the Garden’s collections are appropriately safeguarded while advancing an understanding of culturing rare orchids.

Both mentees are contributing to ongoing botanical conservation efforts at the Garden and learning the skills they will need as future conservation scientists.

“Through the RaMP program I have learned and grown so much,” Meader said. “Beyond the practical lab and field skills, this program has given me better insight into how plant conservation is achieved, the challenges that that entails and the best practices that help protect the planet’s most precarious plant populations.”

LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL, PhD, is a Research Scientist, Genetics.

EMILY COFFEY, PhD, is Vice President, Conservation & Research

For Garfinkle, the program is proving invaluable. “Not only am I getting inside knowledge about all aspects of conservation as a career but also making ever-lasting connections with peers and potential employers,” she said. “This feels like a oncein-a lifetime opportunity, and I am incredibly grateful to be a part of it.”

managed chaos

Maintaining collections requires a strategy that mimics natural process

By PAUL BLACKMORE

Hardly a day passes when guests don’t ask Garden staff, “What are all those strings hanging from the Conservatory ceiling?”–referring to the cascading aerial roots streaming down 80 feet to the floor. Or: “What do you do when the trees and palms get too tall for the building?”

The answers seem straightforward: First, “Those are roots from the Cissus vine, a tropical grape from South America,” and secondly, “Yes, unfortunately we have to cut down those trees and palms.”

But those simple answers fail to explain the full situation. Although the Tropical Rotunda appears chaotic, it is actually a product of years of careful plant selection, planting and management. The plantings are composed of about five layers of vegetation. They begin with dense and varied ground covers, which give way to small trees and shrubs; then small palms, tree ferns, bananas, bamboo and epiphytes; and finally the large, emergent trees.

The canopy is purposefully planned and managed. Some of the plants spread freely within the structure, and left unchecked, the upper canopy would eventually dominate. To maintain a sustainable balance, staff intervene by pruning vines like the Cissus five or six times a year, removing the lower leaves from the palms and branches from trees to allow light and air to reach the lower plantings, and removing an entire tree if it’s reached the roof or begun to die. This is typically true of the taller palms or spectacular banana (Musa itinerans), which grows to full size in two years, fruits and then begins to die.

WHY IT MATTERS

Successfully maintaining plant collections for education and enjoyment requires careful planning and management.

Although this process occurs naturally in any forest, plans for dealing with these losses in the Rotunda begin years in advance. To avoid complete loss of a species, staff propagate the plant one or two years beforehand. To ensure an ongoing supply of plant material, several generations of plants are sourced or produced and held in the greenhouse. A sustainable plant collection is dependent on a planned, continuous supply plants from the greenhouse.

So, as with most questions involving plant collections, a seemingly simple question about Cissus roots or the fate of trees that reach the roof have an answer that involves years of planning, staff time, attention to detail and a love of displaying those plants for all to see for years to come.

PAUL BLACKMORE is the Garden’s Conservatory & Conservation Display Garden Manager.

Left: Careful plant selection and management includes about five layers of vegetation, from ground covers to large trees. Above: Roots of the Tropical Rotunda’s Cissus vine descend from ceiling to floor.

Safeguarding plants

By AMANDA CARMICHAEL and LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL

Extensive efforts under way to protect imperiled collections

WHY IT MATTERS

Safeguarding critical material from imperiled plants is crucial for conserving collections throughout the world.

The Garden holds some of the most significant collections of native southeastern imperiled plants in the world, and new funding is allowing the staff to safeguard them.

The plants, known as conservation collections, span three areas – horticultural collections, the Seed Bank and Micropropagation Laboratory – and the DNA Biorepository. Work involving each of these three collections together advances the mission of the Garden’s Southeastern Center for Conservation and maintains genetically diverse collections of the highest conservation value.

The center strives to increase knowledge and collections of southeastern plant diversity through exploration and inventory of targeted geographic areas. Recent funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services now supports efforts to safeguard these critical representative collections, known as derivatives.

Before this project, derivative collections did not exist for the majority of the Garden’s conservation collections. Staff have been busy collecting pollen, seed, leaf tissue and pressed voucher specimens from the entire collection in both Midtown and Gainesville, focusing primarily on Sarracenia, or Pitcher Plants, which make up the bulk of the collection.

As part of the project, protocols were developed for each type of derivative collection. Pollen has been collected not only for storage but also for strategically hand pollinating individuals to produce seed for the Conservation Seed Bank, a process that is lengthy and by no means easy. DNA has been isolated from hundreds of leaf samples in the Conservation Genetics Lab. The amount of work that it takes to collect this many samples cannot be overstated; thousands of samples collected over the past two summers have been added to the Conservation Seed Bank and DNA Biorepository.

The project continues to support more efficiently managed and curated conservation collections as well as to drive future research and conservation efforts.

PhD,

AMANDA CARMICHAEL is the Garden’s Genetics Laboratory Manager.

LAUREN ESERMAN-CAMPBELL,

is a Research Scientist, Genetics.

Left & above: Staff and volunteers collect pollen, seed, leaf tissue and pressed voucher specimens from conservation collections.

Hail to Hoyas Garden’s collection of popular wax plants grows with travels

By DAVID RULAND

Hoyas – or wax plants as they’re commonly known – are a genus of mostly epiphytic, semi-succulent, tropical climbing plants. They are a highly coveted group of more than 500 species and even more hybrids and cultivars.

Easy to grow and a favorite among houseplants, Hoyas are rapidly increasing in popularity and deservedly so, as many boast sturdy attractive foliage and exquisite, sometimes wonderfully scented blooms. Their star-shaped flowers are brightly colored, sometimes almost glasslike in appearance, and the scent can range from a delicious lilac to an unpleasant yeast odor.

The Garden has a modest but growing Hoya collection, thanks to recent acquisitions from the travels of its International Plant Exploration Program staff. Hoyas occur throughout the mainland and islands of tropical Asia and Australia, and two trips to Thailand last year yielded about 20 new Hoyas.

Hoya imperialis

H. undulata

H. pachyclada

WHY IT MATTERS

The Garden recently obtained about 30 new accessions, or representative seed samples, to grow for the collection and eventually to display. Two years ago, a visit to Fort Worth Botanical Garden and nearby nurseries produced about 10 new species, and some Hoyas were donated from Steve’s Leaves nursery, including species like Hoya piestolepis and H. spartioides. A favorite so far has been H. sulawesiana, which bloomed recently in the greenhouse and sports a strikingly beautiful cherry red flower with recurved silky white petals.

Maintaining plant collections for display, education and enjoyment is a key component of the Garden’s overall mission.

The Garden’s trips to Thailand, which has a thriving and eclectic nursery trade, brought H. vaccinoides, a small, rambling terrestrial species with white fragrant blooms. And H. imperialis, a standout thanks to its flower size alone with fragrant waxy pink blooms nearly 4 inches across, should prove to be a fantastic display plant in the Conservatory.

DAVID RULAND is the Garden’s Greenhouse Manager.

Fuqua Orchid Center Manager Becky Brinkman, who was the original Greenhouse Manager, recalls that in the Garden’s early days Hoyas were one of the first large collections, donated in 1988 from the collection of grower/expert Christine Burton.

H. imperialis

H. ruthie x H. ciliata

PLANT CLOSEUP

Tropical Pitcher Plants

ORIGINS, CLASSIFICATION: Tropical Pitcher Plants, or Nepenthes, are members of the Nepenthaceae family. Nepenthes grow naturally throughout a major portion of tropical Asia, especially Borneo and Sumatra. Others occur in Madagascar, India, New Caledonia and Australia.

HABITAT: It can range from hot, humid, moist tropical swamps to cool, higher elevation montane regions.

MORPHOLOGY: Commonly known as pitcher plants, they feature curious modified foliage culminating in an enzymatic fluid-filled vessel that eventually opens into a goblet or vase-shaped pitcher. Rain and debris can collect in the pitchers, which trap unsuspecting creatures inside their slippery walls. Once decomposed, the plant’s ability to absorb vital sustenance in this fashion is key to its survival in otherwise nutrient-poor and challenging environments.

SIZE: Nepenthes in general are not very large plants but can make sizeable shrub-like clumps over time. They can climb to considerable heights while sending out upper pitchers along the way. The largest species is Nepenthes rajah (Borneo) with pitchers almost a foot in diameter and capable of holding nearly a gallon of liquid. Larger species are capable of trapping smaller mammals as well as insect prey. By contrast, the smallest known species include N. argentii and N. bellii

USES: Since the Victorian plant era, Nepenthes have been popular among novice plant collectors as well as seasoned carnivorous plant enthusiasts. Species are popular display subjects in conservatories and botanical gardens worldwide, and many are affordable for dedicated houseplant growers, including vigorous, ornamental hybrids.

CARE: Nepenthes thrive in bright light and moistureretentive yet free-draining substrate such as sphagnum moss or orchid bark. They prefer good quality water and infrequent low doses of fertilizer. As a rule, they are also happier with higher relative humidity. (Think orchid conditions).

NOTEWORTHY: With more than 170 known species and countless hybrids created, there is little disputing that Nepenthes are some of the most beautiful, eye-catching tropical plants. Pitchers are often streaked or blushed with intense reds, oranges, and purples to offset the bright green foliage. In some species, the peristome, or rim of the pitcher, is adorned with hooks or spines giving it an especially sinister appearance. N. bicalcarata (Borneo) is a popular species because of its pair of long fang-like teeth. N. hamata (Sulawesi) is completely circled with impressive recurved hooks that appear to enhance the trap’s efficiency, preventing escape.

By DAVID RULAND, Greenhouse Manager

The mission of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is to develop and maintain plant collections for display, education, research, conservation and enjoyment.

Tiger Orchid, Grammatophyllum, in the Fuqua Orchid Center