Joe's Garden Tour Article

Most of you are aware that my brother Joe, in addition to being an English/Journalism teacher and musician, is a freelance writer. He often writes for the Daytona Beach News-Journal. I've attached the article he wrote for the News-Journal about the Garden Tour we went to last weekend:

Stetson, DeLand club team up to spotlight native garden
Tour features president's home, guest lectures

JOE MALLEY - CORRESPONDENT
April 13, 2008; Page 01W

DELAND - Native plants inspired Ponce de Leon to name Florida in 1513 from the Spanish phrase Pascua Florida, which means "feast of flowers," so it's appropriate that Florida's native plants be the focus of the Garden Club of DeLand's Home and Garden Tour this weekend..

The centerpiece of the show, which takes place Saturday and Sunday, will be the new Vera Lea Rinker Native Plant Garden adjacent to the Stetson president's home. While there is a charge for the tour, a series of free lectures on environmentally friendly gardening will be offered right across the street.

The 2.6-acre garden features more than 80 trees and thousands of native Florida shrubs, perennials, grasses, ferns and other plants. In addition to a guided tour of the garden and a walk-through of the lower level of the President's House, the tour will feature a Southern tea party as well as water conservation exhibits designed to promote low-water landscaping using native plants. Floral arrangements created by local florists and members of the garden club will be displayed in the landmark historic house and on the grounds.

In addition, Master Gardeners will answer gardening questions, local artists will conduct hands-on projects and display their works, Stetson students will perform musical selections and garden club members dressed in period costumes will stroll the grounds with Bill Dreggors portraying city and university founder Henry A. DeLand and Gary Meadows as university namesake John B. Stetson.

Plants will be sold by the Lyonia Chapter of the Native Plant Society, the Garden Club of DeLand and the Volusia Rose Society. Free guest lectures will take place at the Lynn Business Center on both days. David Rigsby, responsible for the university's streets and grounds, is one of the scheduled speakers offering information about gardening. He'll discuss Florida native plants and the challenge of creating a garden using native plants.

"This is our biggest fundraiser of the year," said garden club member Karen Marusin, vice chairwoman of the tour.

The event's theme is "Go Native - Beyond the Garden Gate," said garden club member Karen Hall, chairwoman of the tour, which offers visitors the opportunity to view Florida native plants in an aesthetically balanced environment. She said the tour theme also fits the National Garden Club's theme "Nurture the Earth - Plant Native" and the Florida Federation of Garden Club's theme "Focus on Florida."

"We as gardeners feel it's important to promote water conservation practices," Hall said.

The university is committed to use only Florida native plants and trees in campus landscaping, said Rigsby, and the initiative is reflected in the Rinker Garden. The university uses reclaimed water to irrigate the garden as necessary.

"The challenge we faced here was arranging the plants in an aesthetic way," Rigsby said. "The garden is landscaped as a mosaic, and we think it's the largest garden of its kind in the state."

The garden was designed by Glenn Herbert of Bellomo-Herbert, a landscape architectural company based in Orlando. Rigsby and his team started the landscaping last May and completed the project in September, but it took more than a year from design to completion.

"It is because of Dave's (Rigsby) passion that this is a reality," said Margaret Lee, a garden club member and wife of the university president.

Tree species in the garden include magnolia, maple, birch, redbud dogwood, cypress, Chickasaw plum, fringe and palm. Plants include firebush, oakleaf hydrangea, Florida anise, St. John's wort, palmetto, Fakahatchee, grass, coontie, blue flag iris, blanket- flower and dune sunflower - all native to Florida.

The Garden Club of DeLand was organized in 1925 and includes 216 members with Anne Tison serving as president, according to Marusin. The club consists of eight circles whose volunteer members provide youth programs, floral design courses, educational opportunities, gardening shows and special events, such as the home and garden tour.

Cutline: Margaret Lee, wife of Stetson University President Dr. H. Douglas Lee, left, and Karen Marusin, vice chairwoman of the Garden Club of DeLand's 2008 Home and Garden Tour, pause during a stroll of the Vera Lea Rinker Native Plant Garden adjacent to the President's House. The 2.6-acre garden is the focus of the tour, which takes place Saturday and Sunday.