Dunwoody Garden Club visits Wilkerson Mill Gardens

In mid-May, more than a dozen members of the Dunwoody Garden Club went on a field trip to Wilkerson Mill Gardens in Palmetto. 

Betty Dworschak and Karen Converse emailed me to say everyone had a great time taking advantage of end-of-the-season sales. Owners Elizabeth Dean and Gene Griffith gave them a great tour of the gardens on the 30-acre property that Elizabeth says boasts the last working grist mill in Fulton County.

The portion of the property dedicated to plants sales is peppered with small greenhouses where the husband-wife team propagates hydrangeas, native plants and trees.  As anyone who has ever visited Wilkerson Mill Gardens knows, hydrangeas are most definitely the specialty.

Elizabeth and Gene also have many unusual plants for sale, and many of them are planted on the grounds. As Karen pointed out, it helps to see how a plant is sited and grown before you purchase that variety for your own garden.

Betty says the Dunwoody Garden Club members had a terrific time shopping and bought a large number of plants, including:

• Snowflake oakleaf hydrangeas
• Incrediball hydrangeas
• Invincible spirit hydrangeas
• Kawakamii lacecap hydrangeas
• Limelight hydrangeas
• Chinese climbing hydrangeas
• Climbing roses
• And an assortment of native plants

After their tour and shopping was finished, club members went to Green Manor, a restaurant in nearby Union City, for lunch. While there, they enjoyed several historic tours.

In addition to Betty and Karen, club members who made the 50-minute or so drive from Dunwoody to Wilkerson Mill Gardens included Maria Richmond, Vicki Profit, Donna Burt, Barbara Sutter,  Janet Caldwell, Theresa Callahan, Renee Szabo, Joan Dworschak, June Julier, Lana Proffitt, Sharon Elliott and June Smith.

Betty and Karen’s report about the club’s trip was a wake-up call for me. I needed to go to Wilkerson Mill Gardens before Elizabeth and Gene close the gates for regular sales until the fall. I made it down there the last Saturday of the spring season. I’m glad I did.

Not only were non-hydrangeas discounted 35 percent, but Elizabeth, Gene and I had an interesting conversation about two hydrangeas I bought from them. One is Hydrangea ‘Brunette.” The other is Hydrangea Hayes Starburst.” Neither is easy to grow.

Here is how Wilkerson Mill described Hydrangea Brunette in their online catalog:

“The fabled Hydrangea macrophylla ’Brunette’ is perhaps the darkest red mophead known with very deep green leaves that have red suffused through them in fall - truly splendid autumn color on the foliage. However, we’ve found that ’Brunette’ is picky about aspect (sun or shade) but in our experience worth the effort. In acid soil the red will become a deep purple. The longer we grow this cultivar the less we understand. Yes to all of the above, but it acts like a plant that is decidedly "determinate" -- a term you can look up online or in any good gardening reference. The point being that we see one spring flush on ’Brunette’ and then little else. Pruned, it doesn’t reflush and grow abundantly as we would expect. So it is a hydrangea that requires more attention than almost all others we grow. Grown well it is certainly worth the effort. Deciduous, zones 6-9, reaching about 4 feet.”

I could never grow mine well. I moved it several times trying to find a place it liked, each time moving it to a location with brighter light than the previous spot. I never found a place where it was happy, and the plant finally died.

Until I talked with Elizabeth and Gene, I thought I killed it by moving it several times. Elizabeth, however, said it’s just a very hard plant to grow. She said I did the right thing by trying to give it more light. I’d like to try it again.

The story of Hydrangea Hayes Starburst has a happier ending.

Gene told me at the time I bought this plant several years ago that it was very difficult to keep alive, much less grow well. He said he and Elizabeth had great difficulty in keeping their stock alive in the nursery. Gene said he suspected that was because the plant needed better drainage than they could give it in a pot. He advised me to plant it on a slope to ensure drainage, but cautioned even that might not work.

Turned out, it worked just fine. The slope where it is sited has been measured at 80 degrees. Think alpine championship skiing angles!

I know. I once fell down that slope planting a tree. The next day I went to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital because the pain in my chest was so bad. Turned out I had bruised four ribs!

Hayes Starburst came up in the conversation about Brunette, and Elizabeth started quizzing me about its size. When I told her it was a mature plant and thriving, she exclaimed in her characteristic manner … “No Way!”

I assured her it was doing quite well, and she asked if she could take cuttings. She said she’d like to try growing it again.

I told her she was welcome to. Just don’t fall down that slope!

Wilkerson Mill Gardens is closed for the summer now except by special appointment. Elizabeth and Gene need to spend their time watering to get their stock through the summer heat.

I’m looking forward to a return trip when they re-open in the fall. One of my favorite visits there was when Gene had a fire going out in the sales area on a frosty morning. Lunch at Green Manor sounds like a nice way to cap off a return trip!