Dear Maple Enthusiast, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the seventh annual spring maple viewing being held at my home at the New Jersey shore on Saturday May 16, 2009. I have been growing Japanese Maples and conifers in my gardens for the last 19 years and have approximately 300 maple cultivars with over 500 trees planted in my gardens along with about 350 conifers and other companion plants on just over two acres. For the past six years a small group of maple enthusiast gets together each spring to talk about our experiences with maples, new trees we have acquired, companion plants and our successes and failures. This event is an informal gathering on the local level to provide an opportunity to talk maples in addition and to introduce people to the Maple Society. This year we will be hold a garden rendezvous for American Conifer Society (ACS) North East Region on the same day. I joined the ACS a little over a year ago and discovered a wonderful group of dedicated gardeners that not only collected conifers but also maples and other plants. I found it interesting that many of the ACS members collected maples and did not know about the Maple Society. I thought that the spring gathering would be a great opportunity to introduce the ACS members to the Maple Society and the Maple Society members to the ACS. I was fortunate enough to have known Dick Wolff and have some well established examples of his lesser known cultivars in my gardens as well as his more popular trees. New additions to the garden this year are an outdoor kitchen and bar area on the patio and over 50 new cultivars of maples and other companion plants in new island beds. Below is a preliminary agenda for this event. 9:30 to 10:00: Continental Breakfast and Check In. (you are welcome to come earlier and lend a hand) 10:15: Welcome and Overview of the garden. Ed Shinn 10:30: Presentation, Little known cultivars from Dick Wolff. Joe Shinn 11:00: Garden Tour 12:15: Lunch Menu in Planning 1:45: Questions and Answers 2:00: Afternoon Garden Tour (anything you missed), Refreshments, Networking and Silent Plant Auction*. 3:00: Silent Plant Auction ends. * This year we will hold two silent plant auctions. One will be to benefit the Maple Society NAB and the other will benefit the American Conifer Society. Attendees are welcome to bid on any plants they are interested in. Remember to bring your check book. We ask that you bring a maple, conifer or other plant to donate to the silent auction and that you provide the species, cultivar name, a brief description and size of these items for the silent auction in advance so that we may prepare the auction bid sheets. If you are a member of the ACS and the Maple Society please indicate which auction the plant is intended to support. Attendance is limited to 60 people on a first come basis. Please respond via email to edward@eshinn.com. My garden and home is located in central coastal New Jersey, about one hour from NYC, Philadelphia and Atlantic City and easily accessible from major highways. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for directions.
Thanks for the compliments on the garden Alex. These get together started years back with about five to six maple collectors and have grown. Last year we had about 25 people come and had I think 36 items mostly maples in the plant auction and we raised almost $1,000 for the Maple Society. This year we will also have American Conifer Society members join us and I am expecting some great plants for the two silent auctions. It a bit of a long trip for you to make. Last year we had a Maple Society member drive from Atlanta for the viewing and this year will be the third year for a SC member to come up. It’s a nice relaxing day to enjoy plants and the company of plant enthusiasts. Ed
Ahhhooooghhaaa!!! WOW! Now THAT's a garden! Time for me to burn some Frequent Flyer miles. Please put me on the list! :-)
K4, The pictures dont even begin to show how incredible Eds trees are! I left there last year in a daze! It almost made me want to move out of the south so i could have the weather Ed has, LOL. Mike
How magnificent, Ed! I would love to come but sadly no longer fly and cannot be away from my garden in May long enough to drive from California. We have become friends thru this forum, & I cannot tell you how much I (and ALL our mutual friends) respect you and honor your kindness. You are a class act and so I am sure your gardens are as spectacular as you. How kind of you to open your gardens and your heart to all of us. I would like to discuss with you how I might be there in spirit like a donation or email silent auction bid. I would love to have met Dick Wolff not just to thank him for his innovative maple work but to express my gratitude for his real heroism in the air in WWII. He was there making this world a better place for me to arrive several years later. Great gardens grow in the soil of kindness and yours has flourished, my friend. Mike Joly/'katsura'
Mike, Katsura and others, Thanks for the compliments. I am but a gardener that plants many maples and appreciates the beauty they add to the garden. Be patient and they will reward you also in your gardens. I never envisioned that I would have a maple collection or the number of plants that I now have back 20 years ago but it has developed out of the kindness of others that I have met. I guess this viewing is a small way to pay it forward to the maple community. I like to share my scion wood, seeds and the few grafts that survive my attempts to show some gratitude to the others that have helped me over the years. I read with envy the research and knowledge that many forum members have gained and the amount of time they dedicate to their hobby and wish I had more time for maples and not my work. I consider this my health club both mental and physical and try to enjoy the time away from the stress of everyday life. Whis4ey, I have seen your garden photographs and they are spectacular. I hope to visit the land of my ancestors some day and to be able to take in the beauty of your garden on a visit. Please remember that if you can not make the spring viewing and are in the north east NJ area and would like to visit that I am always happy to have visitors. My wife says that this is the only time I stop working in the garden so please feel free to contact me if you are in the area. Thanks, Ed
I just wanted to provide an update to the agenda for the gathering on May 16. Fred Hooks from All Things Acer Nursery will be coming up from TN to talk about the new cultivars that they introduced to the US market this year like A.P. ‘Bihou’ and A.P. ‘Hana matoi’ as well as some future planned introductions for the next few years. He will be bringing samples of the plants and there may even be one or two showing up in the silent auction. Brian Upchurch from the Maple Society and Highland Creek Nursery will also be attending. Brian was instrumental in arranging the meeting this past fall in Japan and will be able to answer questions on the Japan trip and about the Maple Society. I will also have a limited number of The World Checklist Of Maple Cultivars available as well as copies of The Maple Society Symposium 2008 in Japan Proceedings that can be purchased. Ed
Very exciting, thanks for the update and additional info. We're looking forward to visiting with you soon.
Ed, I wanted to publicly thank you for sponsoring this event. It was a wonderful day in an absolutely fantastic garden - truly awesome! Thank you for your enthusiasm, tirelessness, and generosity on behalf of the Maple and Conifer societies, and to us maple/conifer nuts in general. It was wonderful to meet other enthusiasts and share knowledge and experiences in such an inspiring setting. Also a special thanks goes to your wife and other Shinn family members for their supporting roles - especially as chefs! They did a great job! I hope I can come again next year...
Ed, I am sorry I missed again this year. One of these years I am going to make it. I had to much on my plate again this year. Krautz
Ed, thanks for letting me bid from afar, even though I didn't win. I wish I could have been there. It sounds like a WONDERFUL event.
I want to thank everyone for attending the spring gathering and especially the people that traveled from so far to attend. This year we had about 55 people attend from the Maple Society, American Conifer Society, and other garden enthusiast. We had guest from CA, TN, GA, NC, SC, VA, MD, PA, NY, NJ, CT and MA. The silent auctions for the two groups had over 125 items and were very successful and had some unusual new plants. Thanks again, Ed
Ed's event was really tremendous. His plants looked exceptionally vibrant, the auction had superb stuff, everyone was friendly and the hospitality was incredibly gracious. One scary thing was that there was not a fallen leaf to be found anywhere??? My girlfriend is in the photo of the B&B 'Katsura' and also with the amazing Ab 'Angyo's Weeping' she practicing poses for the Japanese Maple calendar we have in the works!
