Allen Bush - Garden Guru
In a time when more and more of us are focusing on outdoor spaces and when spring flowers and thoughts of summer gardens have never been more appreciated, it’s inspiring to note the career of Allen Bush, a garden veteran of international reputation.
Allen lives with his wife, Rose Cooper, in Crescent Hill and gardens at the farm the couple own near Salvisa in Mercer County, regaling friends in both locales with his garden wisdom and stories of his journey with perennials.
The Kentucky native drifted into gardening midway through college, where he never took a horticulture or botany course. After working in the VISTA program for two years, a brief stint at Hillenmeyer’s Nursery in Lexington led him and a friend to start a small landscape company in Louisville. Totally hooked on gardening by then, he secured a coveted one-year internship at Kew Gardens in London.
For the next 15 years, Allen built a perennial nursery and catalog business at his Holbrook Farm near Asheville, NC, a period where he became good friends with Klaus Jelitto, owner of the giant German seed company Jelitto Perennial Seeds. When Allen decided to move back to Kentucky in 1995, Jelitto—impressed by the knowledge of the young American—recruited him to direct the company’s North America operations.
Charming, unassuming and soft-spoken, Allen began to call on nurseries and garden centers across the country, sourcing plants internationally and developing a penchant for storytelling about his wide-ranging garden adventures.
These days, Allen is retired but his eye for plants never stops working. While not given to proselytizing, he weaves his well-honed knowledge of perennials, experience and access to plants that work best in soil from slopes to sun to shade into stories of the gardens and gardeners he has encountered over his 45-year career.
His anecdotes draw one into the long-view value of perennials and the perspective of how plants in a garden that comes to life again and again, year after year, magically stand the test of time.
Most of Allen’s favorites listed on the following page are widely available and adapt well with Kentucky’s climate and both clay and loamy soil.
If you want to learn more about Allen’s way of gardening check out his column at the Garden Rant blog. gardenrant.com/author/allen-bush
More can also be found in a past New York Times feature article: nytimes.com/2014/07/10/garden/ plants-with-roots-attached
ALLEN BUSH'S FAVORITE GARDENS
- Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew: Richmond, England
- Great Dixter: Northiam, England
- Planten un Blomen: Hamburg, Germany
- Chanticleer: Wayne, PA
- Denver Botanic Gardens: Denver, CO
- Yew Dell Botanical Gardens: Crestwood, KY (pictured above)
SOME OF ALLEN BUSH'S FAVORITE PLANTS FOR KENTUCKY
Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum) ‘October Skies’ | Photo: wikimedia commons
Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum) ‘October Skies’—The native, late-flowering aromatic aster grows in the most inhospitable and driest soils imaginable in full sun. Bushy, mounding habit and dark, sky blue blooms in autumn. No need to coddle. 3 feet by 3 feet.
False Indigo ‘Lemon Meringue’ | Photo: Bluestone Perennials
False Indigo, Baptisia cultivars— There are dozens of new selections of this native, sun-loving perennial. They’re all long-lived and tough as nails. ‘Lemon Meringue’ is my current favorite. 4 feet by 4 feet.
Crocus tommasinianus—The easiest, cheapest and most squirrel-resistant crocus. Don’t limit yourself to a dozen bulbs. Splurge on a hundred or more and enjoy carpets of March blooms. Plant in lawns in sun or partial shade. Fall planting 3 inches tall.
Joe Pye Weed ‘Gateway’ | Photo: White Flower Farm
Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium (a.k.a. Eurotrichum) purpureum ssp. maculatum) ‘Gateway’—A native butterfly magnet with dinner-plate-sized, smoky-pink summer blooms on 5-foot stems for full sun or partial shade in evenly moist soils. Not at all weedy. 5 feet by 3 feet.
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) ‘Northwind’—Low-maintenance, deer-resistant pillars of olive-green foliage and wispy September plumes. Excellent native screening plant for full sun. Winter interest, also. Plant in groups of three or more. 5 feet by 3 feet.
variegated Solomon’s Seal | Photo: White Flower Farm
Variegated Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. variegatum)—Indispensable shade-loving clumper with lovely, variegated foliage and tiny white-flowering spring bells. The decorative stems are good in flower arrangements, also. 18 by 18 inches.
Find locally where possible or from these suggested catalogs: Bluestone, Brent and Becky’s, Plant Delights Nursery, White Flower Farm WFF
