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2006 ARS / ASA Joint Convention Miller Garden
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Description:
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The Miller Garden, surrounding the home of Janet and Bill Miller, is a half-acre property located just outside of the Washington Beltway in an area that has become known as West Bethesda. The gardens reflect varieties of plant material that were popular in the early 1960s. Beginning with the canopy, chief features include eastern white pine, a sweet-gum, a majestic dawn redwood, a blue Atlas cedar, a classic American beech, a stately southern magnolia, and several magnificent spruce. The subcanopy consists of native and Kousa dogwoods and numerous Japanese maples. Beneath the subcanopy are hollies, camellia, Japanese andromeda, redbuds, crape-myrtle, Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, blueberries, heavenly bamboo, butterfly bush, Japanese aucuba, winter daphne, a small ginkgo, mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and hundreds of mature evergreen and deciduous azaleas representing most of the major hybrid groups, both old and new. As spring arrives, the azalea 'Two-Season Red' (probably a selection of kaempferi) blooms. As the weather warms, the diminutive, yellow-flowering keiskei add their soft greenish yellow glow to the mix. For many years the sunniest spot in the yard was the south east corner of the property, and this became the chief site for deciduous azaleas and tomato plants. A favorite deciduous azaleas is a towering 'Escatawpa', a nice and perfectly hardy austrinum selection. Nearby is a beautiful flammeum X canescens intergrade, that was snatched from in front of the bulldozers by James Harris in Georgia. To one side of 'Escatawpa' is a huge specimen of schlippenbachii, appropriately called the 'Royal Azalea.' Other deciduous azaleas (hybids and species) are scattered throughout the property. Recent additions are eastmanii and 'Melon Balls.' Evergreen azalea favorites include representatives of many hybrid groups: Harris, Kurume, Glenn Dale, Gable, Beltsville, Southern Indian, Back Acres, Robin Hill, Linwood Hardy, and Satsuki. To capture the interest of the hybridizer, there is a population of 'Kobold' open-pollinated (OP) seedlings which ultimately led to the development of 'Landon Pride', an F2 derivative. Similarly, there is a group with large flowers derived from 'Kobold' OP x 'Georgia Giant'. For the collector, there are groups of kaempferi, degronianum ssp. heptamerum, and makinoi. Plants with "character," include 'Shiraito-no-tsuki', a white Satsuki "monster" with few petals but lots of stamen; 'Saotome' which rarely blooms; tashiroi an early blooming evergreen Japanese azalea that loses most of its leaves; 'Shiro-manyo', the peculiar double form of 'Mucronatum'; 'Chojuho', the curious Satsuki with persistant lobes that turn from red to brown or green; and an unnamed evergreen seedling whose spring leaves initially develop without the benefit of chlorophyll. Various wildflowers, ground covers, spring bulbs, several exotic pests, and a few favorite perennials accent the planting. |
Additional Images
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