Collections

The Hort Farm has had 13 collections in the past, among them: Cary Garden, conifers, ferns, junipers, lilacs, rhododendrons, crabapples, viburnums, shade tree, and deciduous shrubs. Over the years, the collections that have been cared for have dwindled down to our 4 most popular collections: lilacs, rhododendrons, the newer pollinator garden and the Cary Garden. In 2022, Paul Wieczoreck added the Conifer collection now making five collections to enjoy. Sadly, many of the original plants for the forgotten collections are still there, just no one to attend to them. (We are looking for volunteers.)

We are indeed fortunate to have curators for each of the popular collections.

Cary Garden: Jim Hayden took over as curator of the Cary Garden in 2020. He quickly started researching its history and working in the garden cleaning out invasives with several volunteers. In 2022, mulch was added to the beds around each plant. All plants now have signage.

Pollinator Garden: Curators Charlotte Albers and Debbie Page plant and maintain the garden. Having added signage in 2019, they host volunteer workdays and hold workshops throughout the year.

Rhododendrons and Conifers: As curator, Paul Wieczoreck has not only taken over the rhododendrons, but also the Conifer collection next to the rhododendrons. In 2022, he had the conifer collection cleaned out and moved around to create more space between the trees.

Lilacs: Curator Kitty Werner has been working to identify lilacs labeled as “unknown” or labeled incorrectly, create a book of all our lilacs, rescue the dying lilacs, and get rid of the invasives! To that effort, over many workdays, volunteers pulled out bittersweet and grapevines, cleaned up within the bushes, cut down trees popping up inside the lilacs — such as crabapple, black locust, and oak — spread compost and hope to make the collection thrive once again. Once the lilacs are all identified, signage will be added, but until then, a downloadable book of our lilacs has been created and a copy will eventually be located at the site to view.

In 2023, our aim is to continue the “clean-up and clean-out” of the lilacs, Cary Garden and rhododendron collections. Our invasives workdays are usually quite successful, but there is so much more to do.