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February may be the shortest month, but it is a busy one. Soon after the groundhog predicts the appearance of spring, Valentine’s Day and its heart-shaped candies and long-stem roses provide a welcome break from snow and sleet. President’s Day is the time to honor George Washington and his successors, while the entire month provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and recognize the role of black Americans in the nation’s history. Susan B. Anthony, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth celebrated their birthdays during the 28-day span. For millions of winter-weary gardeners, however, February is the month when they delightfully discover their annual Burpee catalog in the mailbox.
Louise Clarke is one of many who waits patiently for its arrival.
A garden writer, lecturer and self-proclaimed plant geek, Clarke has been digging in the dirt since childhood. As a degreed horticulturist at Morris Arboretum, she has developed expertise in woody plants, perennials and green roofs.
“I learned to garden at my mother’s side,” said Clarke, of Media. “I’ve never met a monocot I didn’t like.”
A late bloomer to professional horticulture, Clarke earned an associate degree in business management from Delaware County Community College in 1976, then worked for 12 years as an assistant department manager with Macy’s. Her switch from fashion to science began in 1988 with a Bachelor’s Degree in cytotechnology from Thomas Jefferson University, followed by stints as a cytology supervisor and anatomic pathology manager at Mercy Health Laboratory, Darby, and Jeanes Hospital, Philadelphia.
“What I trained to do I liked, but it often only represented 15-20 percent of my day,” said Clarke. “Making life and death decisions was a stressful position and when I was at a microscope, I was always thinking about being in a garden.”
Clarke always kept a metaphorical hand in the soil, taking horticultural courses for her own edification at Temple University, Ambler campus. She applied to the Longwood graduate program in public horticulture, a prestigious program sponsored by Longwood Gardens and the University of Delaware which accepts only five students annually. Clarke learned those who were admitted had an internship on his or her resume and in an effort to fill the void in her experience, was accepted in 2008 as an intern at Morris Arboretum. When an opening became available nine months later, she was hired as the section leader for Bloomfield Farm, the “behind the scenes” portion of the arboretum. She also earned a B. S. in Environmental Design Horticulture from Temple.
Recognized as the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Morris Arboretum began as Compton, the summer home of brother and sister John and Lydia Morris. The iron-manufacturing firm founded by their father was a source of family wealth and they surrounded the home with a landscape and plant collection devoted to beauty and knowledge. The siblings traveled widely in America, Asia and Europe, returning with ideas, artwork, crafts and plants and establishing a tradition of placing sculpture in the garden that continues today.
The Morrises laid plans for a school and laboratory devoted to horticulture and botany and through their stewardship and vision, Compton became the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. The grounds are a historic public garden and educational institution, promoting an understanding of the relationship among plants, people and places through programs that integrate science, art and the humanities.
The 65 acres of Bloomfield Farm house the Horticulture Center, nursery beds with more than 1,200 species, composting areas and several large, old farm fields. As curator of the operational area, Clarke is responsible for many of the tasks she performs in her own garden, but on a grandiose scale, such as planning, planting and transplanting, staking, weeding, fertilizing, mulching, watering, deadheading, pruning and removing invasives. She is responsible for the rain gardens, turf areas, meadow, pest and flood plain management and gardens at the executive director’s house and historic grist mill. Continued…
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