A beautiful spring day offered the perfect opportunity for residents of Marion and visitors to celebrate Arbor Day as proclaimed by Mayor David Helms.

The group gathered at Riverbend Park on the Marion Riverwalk to learn about trees and the “greening” of Marion followed by the planting of a native white oak, the national tree, along the park’s walking trail.

The program was led by Kevin Sigmon, arborist for Abingdon and forester for Appalachian Power Company. He was joined by Charles Conner and Cameron Wolfe with the Marion Tree Commission, Paul Revell, urban and community forestry coordinator with the Virginia Department of Forestry, Marion Mayor David Helms and William Huber, local architect.

Also participating were members of VFW Post 4667 as an honor guard, leading the Pledge of Allegiance, and Sharon Buchanan leading the group in “America the Beautiful.” Friends of Smyth-Bland Regional Library provided refreshments while Blue Ridge Job Corps students presented programs and a display from previous Arbor Day celebrations, especially honoring Evelyn Lawrence and “The Crying Tree.” Art was on display by members of Appalachian Spirit Gallery and Frank Detweiler offered “Reflections on Genesis” about God’s garden and dedicated it to the town.

In announcing that Marion was chosen again for the Tree USA award, Revell said he was “really thrilled to hear about all the good work you’ve done” in Marion. It was noted that Marion is only the second city in Virginia (along with Abingdon) west of Roanoke to receive this award.

Huber praised Marion for the many aspects of “greening” the town is undergoing such as planting trees downtown last year, working on the pedestrian area as part of the project, herb gardens on Strother Street, renovating the old school/library for the Wayne Henderson Music School, and planning green space behind the courthouse upon completion of renovation as well as all the residents planting gardens and landscaping, showing their pride in their community.

Marion is in the heart of the most biologically diverse area in North America, said Connor, with its hardwood forest fall foliage among the most unique in the world. He and Sigmon also offered ideas for trees to use in landscaping such as maples, crabapples, redbuds and dogwood.

Sigmon said property owners should always take power lines into consideration when planting trees and choose types that won’t grow tall enough to impact power lines. Trees are the number-one cause of power outages, he said, by falling on lines. He suggested pagoda dogwood, witch hazel, and fringe trees such as Old Man’s Beard as appropriate for landscaping under power lines. “Right Tree, Right Place” is the motto, he said.

A special award was presented by Marion Tree Commission member Cameron Wolfe to the daughters of Dallas Brown in honor of him being chosen posthumously for the Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan Award of Excellence. Accepting were Terri Brown of Knoxville, Tenn., Dr. Jennifer Quesinberry of Marion, and Diana Blackburn of Damascus.

Brown was a teacher, coach and mentor, serving the Smyth County school system for 36 years. He was past president of the Kiwanis Club of Marion, an active member of the Holston Hills Country Club, member of Francis Marion VFW Post 4667, and a founding member of the Grassroots Conservancy of Smyth County. In retirement, Brown worked with volunteers and BRJC students during development of the Marion Riverwalk.

“I just think it is fantastic for Dad,” said Quesinberry. “He would have been honored. He was dedicated to plant life and making the community greener and bringing people together.”

“It was a very kind thing they did for Dad,” said Blackburn. “He would have approved that kind of tree for sure (referring to the native white oak planted in the park).”

“It was a wonderful way to honor Daddy, especially with a big strong oak because he was a strong personality,” said Terri Brown.

The program concluded with the planting of the tree in which many of the participants had a hand by tossing in a shovelful of dirt. Sigmon described the aspects of the oak, saying it could reach 60-80 feet, was planted in the right spot away from power lines with enough room to spread upwards and outwards with the roots. He advised watering with 10 gallons of water per week in hot, dry weather and also explained the advantages of mulching the right way.

A little bit of effort produces long-term benefits when planting trees, Sigmon said. He suggested meeting for another Arbor Day celebration in 2033 under the canopy of leaves on this newly planted oak tree.

Linda Burchette may be reached at lburchette@wythenews.com or 783-5121.

Alliums and astrantias

If we had to name two must-have Chelsea plants, it would be these. Few gardens are complete without a sprinkling of alliums, aka the onion family. Usually it’s the ornamental alliums such as Star of Persia (Allium christophii) and ‘Purple Sensation’ that star, rather than the edibles, but with the grow-your-own trend still building, expect to see some of the tastier alliums on display: Adam Frost’s Sowing The Seeds Of Change garden for Homebase includes garlic chives (A. tuberosum). A new astrantia variety called ‘White Giant’ will feature in Chris Beardshaw’s garden for Arthritis Research UK, while Ulf Nordfjell will use the much-loved cultivar ‘Shaggy’ in his Laurent-Perrier garden.

Big-name designers

Some recent winners are noticeably absent this year, with Cleve West, Tom Stuart-Smith and Andy Sturgeon all taking a break. And if you’re wondering what’s happened to Diarmuid Gavin, he of the brash pyramid-with-loopy-slide job you either loved or hated, he’s eschewed Chelsea in favour of Hampton Court this year. The Marmite moment may well be provided by The Sound Of Silence, designer Fernando Gonzalez’s take on Japanese zen gardens: it features a single bonsai tree, ripples of acrylic “stone” and very little else.

Controversy

From fears of overcrowding and overcommercialisation to rows between designers and disagreements over judging methods, controversy is never far away. One classic example involved Top Gear presenter James May’s plasticine garden in 2009, which was shockingly free of live plants. The disagreements haven’t always been so trifling, though: in 1986, Newham council withdrew a planned exhibit in protest at a South African government stand.

Death and destruction

Not, it’s true, something instantly conjured up by Chelsea, but perhaps the mounting threats to the world of horticulture – from ash dieback disease to the plight of the honeybee – have prompted some designers to take a more downbeat approach this year, albeit with a positive message at the core. Kate Gould’s The Wasteland garden will show how salvaged objects from corrugated steel panels to (brace yourself) crazy paving can be used to create havens for wildlife and people in unloved urban areas. Stop the Spread, Jo Thompson’s garden for the Food and Environment Research Agency and the National Trust, includes an avenue of dead trees, representing the threat to our landscape posed by newly rampant pests and diseases and invasive non-natives.

Environment

The Guardian’s John Vidal caused a stir last year when he called the show “nature for the 1%”, but he’s far from the first to berate Chelsea for its excess and the size of its carbon footprint: trees and hard landscaping materials shipped from all over the globe to create a six-day wonder. John Walker, author of How To Create An Eco Garden, says some exhibits do showcase greener ways to garden, but he wonders about their impact. “It’s good to have Chelsea gardens that show what could be, but how many people who come through those gates have done something in the garden to make a difference to the world – building a rain garden or a green roof, or started growing vegetables? I don’t think many do.”

Fresh

The 15 show gardens always draw the most attention, but don’t forget the smaller plots. The 11 gardens in the “fresh” category are where you’ll find the most far-out designs, while the eight artisan gardens are probably the most useful for the average punter, providing small-scale ideas you can put into practice in tiny spaces: expect wall-to-wall rustic shacks and cottage garden planting.

Gnomes

Gnomes were banned, but this year the RHS has embraced them. Photograph: Alamy

They’ve been a no-no up until now (the rules state no coloured sculptures, as well as no balloons, bunting or flags), but this year the RHS has relented and allowed gnomes to feature. In fact, it has embraced the gnome theme, auctioning off figures decorated by celebrities to raise cash for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. A gnome called Borage did creep into Jekka McVicar’s stand in 2009.”I have never understood the prejudice against gnomes,” McVicar said. “To me, they just represent our search for a bit of magic.” Gnome lovers shouldn’t get too excited, though – the ban will be back in 2014.

Hitches

At the time of writing, the stone for Ulf Nordfjell’s garden is stuck on a container ship docked for repairs in Malta, when it should have reached the UK three weeks ago. Mark Fane of garden builder Crocus blogged: “It’s going to be a stressful few weeks. Without the stone, we have no garden…” And yet somehow the gardens come together, even if it involves a last push conducted under the headlights of the vans.

Irises

This spring’s cold start means there’s a question mark over whether all the plants will be blooming in time, including that Chelsea icon, the bearded iris. “It’s all about the timing and holding your nerve – an awful lot happens in the last week before the show,” says Robin Wallis of Hortus Loci, which is supplying 70,000-80,000 plants for some of the top designers, including Chris Beardshaw, Jinny Blom and Nigel Dunnett. Nurseries use all kinds of tricks to bring on or hold back plants from flowering, Wallis says. Iris buds are held closed using cotton wool and string, and boiled egg tops put over the top of peony buds will stop them opening. But most techniques are more obvious: moving plants between different areas of the nursery, some warm, some cooler. “You can hold things back by about a week and you can push things forward by two to three weeks if you have plenty of warmth, but if you push plants too hard, when they come to the show, they’ll flop.” Rusty red irises are a favourite, something Gardens Illustrated magazine dates back to Christopher Bradley-Hole’s modernist garden of 1997. This year will be no different: Beardshaw will be using a maroon and golden iris called ‘Supreme Sultan’.

Japan

Probably the most keenly awaited of the 15 show gardens is that of Bradley-Hole, back after an absence of eight years. RHS historian Brent Elliott called his 1997 garden “a turning point in modern British garden design, showcasing a minimalist style and sparse planting”. This year he will be offering “a Japanese-inspired abstraction of the English landscape”. Let’s hope he can produce another mould-breaking design.

Kaiser

Dozens of plants make their debut at Chelsea, and among them is always a clutch of clematis – one of the most enduringly popular of garden plants. The trend seems to be compact plants, suitable for containers and among low-growing shrubs; one of the best-looking is ‘Kaiser’ from Thorncroft Clematis, with dark pink double flowers that sport a lighter pink, spiky centre. Breeder Raymond Evison is debuting a compact, single-flowered form in creamy white called (predictably) ‘Chelsea’.

Lingholm

This variety of the Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis) is set to become one of Chelsea’s most desirable plants. Its sky-blue blooms will nod effortlessly in the wetlands of Nigel Dunnett’s RBC Blue Water roof garden, but beware: to replicate the look at home, you’ll need dozens of plants, and a moist, humus-rich spot to put them in.

Marquee

The plant nuts make a beeline for the marquee. This huge space, heavy with pollen and petals, is where nurseries put on their show. Before 1951, nurseries exhibited in a hodgepodge of tents, but then along came the Great Marquee, all 3.5 acres of it, named in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest tent. A new millennium meant a new tent: the Great Marquee was replaced in 2000 by a more modern modular structure, and the fabric of the old shelter was used to make 7,000 bags, aprons and jackets. (If you missed out on those, Liberty sells satin inspired by the marquee.) Three nurseries that exhibited at the first Chelsea in 1913 are still showing: McBean’s Orchids, peony and iris growers Kelways and begonia and delphinium growers Blackmore Langdon’s.

Natives

It’s a trend that’s been building for a few years, but 2013 may be the peak of Chelsea’s obsession with native plants. From pongy wild garlic in Jamie Dunstan’s garden to the rare, green-winged orchid (Anacamptis morio) in Robert Myers’s, they’ll be everywhere.

One hundred years

It’s the show’s centenary, so expect nostalgia all round, but don’t expect many replicas of the rock gardens that dominated the first few decades. However, rhododendrons, much favoured in Chelsea’s early years, are undergoing a revival: R. yakushimanum is one of the contenders for the RHS’s plant of the centenary award, and R. macabeanum will be on show in the East Village garden designed by Michael Balston and Marie-Louise Agius.

Pleaching

Last year’s Laurent-Perrier garden made the most of topiary and pleaching. Photograph: Alamy

You may not know your pleaching from your cloud pruning, but spend any time at Chelsea and you’ll see the range of ways to train a tree, from balls of box to espaliered apples. The trend seems to encompass the current enthusiasm for native plants: Myers is pleaching (training trees to produce a narrow screen or hedge) the humble field maple (Acer campestre), Paul Hervey Brookes has hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) “cubes” in his BrandAlley garden, and Bradley-Hole promises hazel (Corylus avellana) in a new “designed” form, whatever that means.

Queen

The show is forever wooing its patrons, the royals: the RHS sent the then Princess Elizabeth, aged 10, tickets to Chelsea after hearing that she had started to plant a little garden of her own. The tradition continues: the Sentebale charity founded by Prince Harry has a Lesotho-inspired garden designed by Jinny Blom, so we can expect a visit from the red-haired one.

Rain

The show can stand or fall on the weather – quite literally. In 1932, a summerhouse on display fell to pieces in heavy rain. One year, a particularly wet and disgruntled nurseryman called Clarence Elliott declared that the show should be renamed the Chelsea Shower Flower; 1971 and 1995 were particularly wet, while 2010 was blazing hot. If rain does arrive, it’ll be good news for the Trailfinders Australian garden, which is packed full of water-saving features, including a tank for collecting rainwater and a billabong that doubles as swimming pool.

Sponsors

There would be no Chelsea without sponsors willing to splash the cash (roughly £150,000 to £300,000, depending on plot size) to build a show garden. They vary from the glamorous (Laurent-Perrier) to the mundane (pipeline manufacturer Stockton Drilling). Some sponsors give designers a free rein; others have a specific brief and want them to include plants that can be sold to the public.

Titchmarsh

It’s hard to imagine Chelsea without Alan Titchmarsh on TV – he started co-presenting the show way back in 1983 and hasn’t missed a year since. At least you can say he knows how it feels: he’s made two show gardens, and won a gold in 1985 for a country kitchen garden.

Umbellifers

Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ – that’s posh purple cow-parsley to most of us – is a Chelsea staple. The show has been awash with umbellifers the past few years, from Tom Stuart-Smith’s favourite Cenolophium denudatum to two-time best-in-show winner Cleve West’s parsnip flowers. Why? Because they’re semi-transparent, a handy quality in a garden that visitors can see into only from the side, and because they chime with the zeitgeisty mood for “wild” flowers.

Volunteers

Nicking a successful formula from the London Olympics, the RHS has recruited 130 volunteers as “show makers”, to greet visitors and “create a buzz”.

Women designers

Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West, Margery Fish – there’s no shortage of influential women in horticulture. Women also outnumber men more than two to one in the Society of Garden Designers. Yet when it comes to designing a garden at Chelsea, it’s a bit of a boys’ club, with a few notable exceptions such as Kate Gould, Jinny Blom and Jo Thompson.

X Factor

Alan Titchmarsh warned earlier this month that Chelsea is in danger of dying out because young people brought up on a diet of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent are unlikely to pick horticulture as a career. He may have a point: scan the crowds at Chelsea, and you’ll find a lot of grey hair in evidence. The Chelsea Fringe festival, now in its second year, may help by offering younger gardeners a hip alternative.

Yew

Topiary was everywhere in 2012, but will 2013 be another bumper year? Such a staple is unlikely to disappear completely, but this year it’s all about fruit trees: from the crab apple ‘Evereste’ in Roger Platts’ MG garden to the apples and pears in Adam Frost’s family garden.

Zoology

Lions, goblins, prancing children… If you’re looking for a piece of sculpture for your garden, you’re spoiled for choice at Chelsea’s array of trade stands. There will not, however, be live animals on display. Chelsea’s “no livestock” rule is waived only on exceptional occasions: 25 koi carp were permitted in 2002 for the World of Koi garden, and last year a corgi called Cawdie modelled a dog kennel in Thompson’s romantic garden for the Caravan Club. RHS historian Brent Elliott reports a legend that the models in swimsuits posing in one of Winkfield Manor Nurseries’ show gardens in the 1950s were removed on the orders of the RHS’s assistant secretary, who invoked the no livestock rule. How times change: these days, no Chelsea press day is complete without several women clad in little more than a thick layer of body paint.

• For more information on the Chelsea flower show, visit rhs.org.uk, and for full coverage go to guardian.co.uk/gardens

Click photo to enlarge

Marin

• California Orchids’ spring sale is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 515 Aspen Road in Bolinas. Call 868-0203 or go to www.californiaorchids.com.

• Glenn Smith of Marin Master Gardeners speaks about “Basic Irrigation for Home and Container Gardens” from 9 to 10:30 a.m. May 11 at the Falkirk Cultural Center at 1408 Mission Ave. in San Rafael. $5. Call 473-4204 or go to www.marinmg.org.

• A Marin Master Gardeners “Beekeeping Introduction” seminar with Serge Labesque is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11 at the Indian Valley Organic Farm at 1800 Ignacio Blvd. in Novato. $50. Call 473-4204 or go to www.marinmg.org.

• The 17th annual Ross Garden Tour, “Beyond the Garden Gate,” is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 11 starting at Ross School at Lagunitas and Allen avenues in Ross. A free shuttle departs from College of Marin parking lot 15 on Kent Avenue in Kentfield. $40 to $50. Call 457-2705 or go to www.ross gardentour.org.

• The Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society’s plant sale is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11 at Green Point Nursery at 275 Olive Ave. in Novato. Call 892-9148 or email torgovitsky@comcast.net.

• The Sonoma Marin Saving Water Partnership’s third annual

free self-guided eco-friendly garden tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11. Go to www.savingwaterpartnership.org/programs/eco-friendly- garden-tour to register. Call 707-547-1933 for details.

• In Spirit’s annual plant sale, benefiting local quadriplegics, is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 8 at 2 Grant Ave. in Woodacre. Call 488-0477 or go to www.inspirit-marin.org.

• A free Marin Bee Company workshop, “The Basics of Beekeeping,” is at 11 a.m. May 11 at Whole Foods Market at 790 De Long Ave. in Novato. Call 878-0455 or go to www.marinbeecompany.com/work shops.html.

• The Marin Rose Society’s annual spring rose show is from 12:30 to 4 p.m. May 11 at the north end of Northgate Mall in San Rafael. Enter your own roses in the show from 7 to 10 a.m. Call 457-6045 or go to www.marinrose.org.

• West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.westmarin commons.org.

• The Marin County Outdoor Antique Market, with antiques, collectibles, books, jewelry, art, rugs and vintage furniture, is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 12 in the parking lot of the Marin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium at 10 Avenue of the Flags in San Rafael. Free. Call 383-2552 or go to www.golden gateshows.com.

• Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/volunteer.

• Master rosarian Barbara Gordon speaks at Marin Rose Society program at 7 p.m. May 14 in the Livermore Room at the Marin Art Garden Center at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Ross. $5. Call 457-6045 or go to www.marinrose.org.

• A Novato Community Garden kick-off event is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. May 16 at All Saints Lutheran Church at 2 San Marin Drive in Novato. Call 897-2302 or go to www.novato communitygarden.org.

• The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 114, or email jonathan@tirn.net to register and for directions.

• The AIA Marin Living: Home Tours event is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 18 at homes in Mill Valley, Ross, San Rafael and Tiburon. $60 to $85. Call 362-7397 or go to www.aiasf.org/hometours.

• The Marin Municipal Water District’s free self-guided Marin-Friendly Garden Tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 18. Call 945-1521 or go to www.marinwater.org to register.

• Elizabeth Ruiz teaches “Spring Pruning of Japanese Maples” at 10:30 a.m. May 18 at Sloat Garden Center at 401 Miller Ave. in Mill Valley. $5. Call 388-0365.

• Marin Open Garden Project (MOGP) volunteers are available to help Marin residents glean excess fruit from their trees for donations to local organizations serving people in need and to build raised beds to start vegetable gardens through the MicroGardens program. MGOP also offers a garden tool lending library. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengarden project.org.

• Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential Bay-Friendly Garden Walks to MMWD customers. The year-round service helps homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 473-4204 to request a visit to your garden.

San Francisco

• The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant species as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www.conservatoryofflowers.org.

• The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sf botanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.

Around the Bay

• Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.corner stonegardens.com.

• Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.

• The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.

• McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123 or go to www.mcevoy ranch.com.

• Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.

• Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen offers third Saturday docent-led tours at 10 a.m. March through October. The garden covers 61 acres. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.

The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.