Green Thumb
Weeping Memphis Belle holly trees have been planted in Overton Park to honor the late Margaret Polk.
Three new Memphis Belles are now installed in Overton Park near a statue of the late Margaret Polk, the woman for whom the famous World War II B-17 bomber was named.
The newest belles — weeping hollies that will display their red berries on leafless limbs every winter — are as flamboyant as Polk must have been.
“She was a pistol,” said Barbara Taylor, a landscape contractor who named the variety after Polk, for whom she did landscaping work. “I did it to honor Margaret and to honor my father, who was in the Air Force during World War II.”
In case you don’t know the story of the Memphis Belle B-17, here is a nutshell version:
Robert Morgan, a pilot during the war, named the B-17 bomber he flew “Memphis Belle,” after his fiancée, Margaret Polk.
Their relationship became nationally known when the plane, one of the first heavy bombers to complete 25 combat missions with its crew intact, was used to promote the sale of war bonds.
Although the relationship ended before the promotion began, Polk and Morgan kept up the charade to promote the bonds.
Polk, who died in 1990 of lung cancer, was forever known as the Memphis Belle and forever linked with the airplane, which is now undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.
Taylor, owner of Taylored Lawns and Landscapes, has been a champion of hollies for more than 30 years.
“Hollies really are the backbone of so many Mid-South landscapes, but they’re taken for granted,” she said. “Landscapers use them a lot, but they really don’t use a lot of different varieties.”
Because she appreciates and knows so many kinds of hollies, she was immediately taken by three trees she spotted on the grounds of the building next door to the U.S. Post Office on Prescott between Poplar and Walnut Grove Road.
The trees were smallish, symmetrical and had branches that arched or “weeped.” When new leaves emerge in the spring, the first 6 to 8 inches on the tip of a branch are burgundy.
She got permission to cut a few branches to propagate them. The three in Overton Park grew from those original cuttings.
Today, Nearly Native Nursery in Fayetteville, Ga., is the only commercial source of the trees.
She donated a Memphis Belle tree to the Harold L. Elmore Holly Collection at University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge and another to the UT display gardens.
Taylor dug up the hundreds of hollies in her own collection after selling the property where they were installed. She gave the bulk of her extensive collection, including one Memphis Belle, to the Memphis Botanic Garden, which is in the process of gaining certification as an official Holly Society of America collection.
Her dream of planting the last seven hollies near the Memphis Belle B-17 was foiled when a local support group failed to raise enough funds to have the plane fully restored and housed in Memphis.
Since 2005, it has been undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force. Taylor isn’t sure a southern holly like Memphis Belle would survive in a northern climate.
But she thinks having three of them near the statue of Polk in a slightly wet area is a perfect home because the native trees thrive in swampy lowlands.
“They are in a good place, right behind the statue of the original Memphis Belle,” Taylor said.
PLAN TO SAVE MONEY
Saving money in the garden involves more than f i nding bargain plants.
“To save money and work, create a plan,” said Paul Bruns, a landscape architect and owner of Good Winds Landscape and Garden Center in Germantown. He spoke at program on “Gardening on a Shoestring” last Saturday at the Memphis Botanic Garden. “Think holistically not in parts.”
Here are some of his tips and plant recommendations:
Think about the size of the plants at maturity. Planting Little Gem magnolias against the walls of a small courtyard means constant pruning to keep their size in check.
“There’s nothing little about Little Gem,” Bruns said. While it is among the smallest southern magnolias, it will reach 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide or more at maturity.
Bear in mind that information tags and seed packets usually underestimate plant size in the Mid- South, where the growing season is long.
He likes to plant trees about 10 to 15 feet from the house and shrubs and perennials at least two to three feet from exterior walls. “That way you have a path to do plant maintenance and house painting.”
Plants installed near windows should be under 30 inches tall at maturity.
When working with an existing landscape, the first step is to eliminate plants that need a lot of maintenance, are not thriving or that have interest in only one season.
Bruns suggests using mostly plants that are readily available in most nurseries and big- box stores and that you see being widely used because they are well adapted to our region. But also add specimen plants, those that are unusual or impressive enough to serve as focal points in various parts of the garden. Among his favorites are coral bark maple, deciduous (non-evergreen) hollies, Asian magnolia, fatsia, redbud, vitex (chaste tree) and flowering cherry trees.
ARBOR DAY IS HERE
Friday is Arbor Day, so let’s all hug a tree. Or better still, attend a tree planting ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Memphis Botanic Garden, the first designated Center of Excellence for Urban Forestry in Tennessee.
An Arizona cypress tree will be planted near the Rick Pudwell Horticulture Center on the south end of the parking lot. Free tulip poplar seedlings will be given away throughout the day and yoshino cherry tree seedlings will be sold for $5 each. Yoshino cherry trees will bloom on both sides of Cherry Road in Audubon Park later in March.
Admission to the garden is free all day. The event is co-sponsored by Memphis City Beautiful.