Early B&W Pictures:  The Stone House   Interior   Construction  The Builder   Early Family  Garden Pictures

Early Slides: Background  Spring in the Garden  Other Seasons  Propagation  Specimens The Stone House

Introduction

Plant Propagation in the First Anderson Garden

Before Bob propagated rhododendrons from cuttings, he collected them from the wild in Appalachia, and shipped them up to Springfield by the boxcarload. Betty is shown here with one of the first specimens, a r. catawbiense.

Bob learned an effective method of rooting rhododendrons from Guy Nearing in Pennsylvania. The Nearing Frames (white triangles at left) are 3 by 12 foot shaded boxes with glass covers. Bob also used Nearing Frames in Enumclaw, but added bottom heat. Most of the plants in the Enumclaw garden came from these frames.

After a year in the Nearing Frame, the rooted cuttings were placed in 5 by 12 foot boxes covered by snow fencing. (Since snow fencing was not available in Enumclaw, he covered the boxes with spaced lath.) A year or two after that, Bob planted them in a field behind the house, where he raised them until they were sold.