Scott Birney is a former Trustee and current Overseer of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He is also one of Mass Hort's most visible volunteers.

Scott Birney with Patrick Costello.

How did Mass Hort become a part of your life?

My wife, Jane, and I went to the Christmas greens show held at Horticultural Hall in Boston and we were regular attendees at the New England Spring Flower Show when it moved to the Bayside Expo Center. I paid close attention to the plants exhibited by amateurs and realized that some of my plants looked just as good as the ones entered in the show.

Did you enter, and did you win any ribbons?

I picked up a few ribbons for honorable mentions, and a few red ribbons for second places. My big break came with a kalanchoe that I was growing from a cutting. It was in full bloom and looked great. That's how I won my first and only blue ribbon. I have big plans for this year with some forced bulbs.

How did you become a volunteer?

I saw a note in the newsletter one January that volunteers were needed for the 'Nomenclature Committee'. It was tedious work but essential to the running of the flower show and we were always making new labels right into the middle of the night before the show opened. Somewhere along the way I decided that there must be a better way to make plant labels, so I wrote a computer program to format the genus, species, cultivar and common name as the data were entered on the keyboard. As far as I know, the program is still in use.

You're also involved with the Honorary Medals committee.

That has been one of my favorite activities - helping to carry on a nearly century-long tradition of honoring excellence in horticulture. But I also work the membership booth at Elm Bank events and anyplace else I can be useful.

What is your home garden like?

Jane and I bought our house in Wellesley in 1980 and I confess I was secretly checking out the possibilities of each house for a garden. After 30 years, I have developed what I think is a very nice garden: lots of spring bulbs and some lovely and unusual azaleas. I had a nice little clump of double bloodroots, the most beautiful flower in all of horticulture, but it seemed last year to have been crowded out by a vigorous patch of uvularia. One yellow lady's-slipper orchid has spread from a single plant to my present clump of 27. Every May I make the rounds of nurseries and I come home with so many plants that I am still planting well into June. My garden has something in bloom all through the summer and into the fall. As all gardeners know, it is always a pleasure to walk the lawns and paths each morning to see what has happened overnight.

Scott makes his home in Wellesley Hills. He is well-remembered at Wellesley College where he taught Astronomy from 1968 to his retirement in 1991. He remembers those 23 years of teaching as wonderful ones with great students, good people to work with, and terrific support from the administration.

This month, we feature Betty Sanders, whom Leaflet readers know for her monthly 'Horticultural Hints' column in this newsletter.

Betty, how did you come to start volunteering at Mass Hort?

I took the Master Gardener course in 2005. Becoming a Certified Master Gardener required 60 hours of volunteer work, which was done mostly at Mass Hort. I became a fan of the gardens and of the mission of Mass Hort and never stopped.

You were the driving force behind the new vegetable garden?

Three Master Gardeners - including Gretel Anspach and Sonja Johanson - designed the unique style of the garden. Gretel researched seemingly every vegetable seed offered and produced a 20-page spreadsheet. Sonja provided many hard to find heritage seeds. I laid out the individual beds and chose which vegetables would be grown where. As the 'Garden Keeper', I ensure the garden is well cared for. It was particularly satisfying that the garden drew many compliments from visitors and served well as the teaching tool that we had envisioned. I had many volunteers this past year, and could use a lot more this coming year. Because we harvest the garden for area food pantries, a lot of the hard work needs to be done very early in the morning both to avoid the heat of the day and ensure that food pantries are getting just-harvested produce. As a long time volunteer for my town's food cupboard, I understand how important fresh produce is for the clients.

Is the vegetable garden completed now?

What's growing in the beds next year will change as we use what we learned this year to grow a better garden in 2012. Also, there's an old greenhouse adjacent to the garden that dates back to the Cheney-Baltzell era. A couple of thousand dollars would allow us to turn it into a working greenhouse where we could start seedlings and store tools so that we don't have to lug everything up from Putnam Greenhouse on the other side of the Mass Hort property.

You'll be on 'This Old House' later this month?

I'm told it will be on November 17. I take Roger Cook and homeowner Becky Titlow on a tour of the garden. Of course, it was filmed on the afternoon of the hottest day of the summer.

You're also involved with the upcoming Festival of Trees, aren't you?

I'm part of Joyce Bakshi's committee planning the festival, I'll oversee decorating of the 'sponsored' trees, I'll contribute a tree - look for the pink one called 'princess' - and I'll be a floor supervisor during the run of the festival.

How about the flower show?

This will be my third year overseeing the Master Gardener help booth, and designing and building Mass Hort's garden. I'll spend much of the next few months looking for the trees, shrubs and plants for the garden, and finding greenhouses to force them for the show.

And you're also an officer of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts?

My husband had a sweatshirt made for me that says, 'Stop Me Before I Volunteer Again'. It didn't do any good. I was elected Second Vice President of the Federation in June.

Do you have time to garden at home?

We have two acres in Medfield with a dozen different gardens on it. I'm slowly converting some of those gardens from perennials to lower-maintenance shrubs. Those gardens are the inspiration for the hints I prepare for the Leaflet.

If you are interested in joining Betty in keeping the Gardens at Elm Bank beautiful, please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Beth Gray-Nix

This month, we start with Beth Gray-Nix. Beth served as the Italianate Garden 'Keeper' this summer. Keepers have primary responsibility for one garden though they can also be found elsewhere at Elm Bank. In larger gardens like the Italianate, Keepers may also oversee the work of other volunteers in their gardens.

Thursday mornings saw Beth steadily working to maintain Mass Hort's premier site for wedding photography. All that weeding apparently gave her plenty of time to think, because she has plenty of ideas for this lovely garden.

Beth, how did you start volunteering for Mass Hort?

I'd been attending flower shows ever since I was a little kid in Milton, but had never been to Elm Bank. I looked at information about the Master Gardener training program for several years, but was unable to take the course because I was working full-time. When I retired after 30 years as Director of Occupational Therapy for the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center, my staff bought me the Master Gardener training course as a retirement gift. They had seen me gardening over the years around the property at work and knew it was something I would really like. I took the course in 2009.

We're glad you did. How did you manage the maintenance of the Italianate Garden this summer?

A lot of planning work is done by the paid staff in the Italianate because so many brides want to have wedding pictures taken there. Gardens Curator David Fiske designed the planting and color scheme. With a lot of volunteer help we planted hundreds of annuals from Proven Winners and then mulched them. From there, it has been a matter of weeding, watering, and keeping the edges neat. I really appreciated the volunteers, especially Sandy McMillen, Donna Doucette, and the members of the current Master Gardener class.

Who spends time in the garden besides wedding parties?

Artists like to camp out in the shady end and face the house to do their sketching and painting. And the kids especially like the fountain and the tiny tree frogs that hop onto the water lily pads. Also, visitors can now get recorded information about the garden via their cellphones. That's a great addition.

What would you like to see done in the Italianate Garden in the future?

I would like to plant something like Nepeta in front of the roses and eventually have some sort of planting on the side of the Manor House that visitors see first when they come up from the lower field. Currently there's nothing there.

Have you ventured out of the Italianate Garden recently.

Yes, the American Hemerocallis Society daylily garden needed some help. Ten of us worked for four hours and created a pile of weeds three feet high and ten feet long! Barbara Provest, the daylily garden coordinator, generously sent us each home with a freshly dug daylily. I love working at Elm Bank because of the group effort to make things beautiful. I also appreciate being able to contribute to the community through educating visitors, not to mention all the vegetables going to local food pantries.

Do you have other ideas about Elm Bank generally?

I went to England this summer on the trip arranged by the Master Gardeners and Adrian Bloom, and every time I visited one of the great English gardens, I thought how nice it would be if Elm Bank had a place to eat. Also, more places for people (especially the elderly) to sit. A lovely bench has just been installed in the Bressingham Garden in memory of Master Gardener Margaret Polito; I hope that eventually we'll have more like it throughout the gardens.

Beth Gray-Nix lives in Sudbury with husband Ron and son Roger, who is a math major at Northeastern. She shares her garden, which is close to an acre, with creatures from the abutting conservation land, and has a special passion for daylilies.

If you are interested in joining Beth in keeping the Gardens at Elm Bank beautiful, please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it