Hawksridge Happenings

We hope that everyone is doing well and had a good fall.
Ours was decent and it looks like the year will be too.
Hopefully all of us will begin an upswing
sometime in 2010.

Sorry to take so long to do this update but time just seems
to get away from me. I am going to finish the notes from
my trip to Belgium now and will start with my trip to
Japan back in November on the next newsletter.

I left off with us visiting Eddy Spaargaren. After leaving
Pieter Zwijenburg's, Eddy took us to Bert VerHoef's
nursery that specializes in Weigela. Bert's nursery
grew many cultivars that we didn't know existed.
They were the originators of several patented varieties,
My Monet(TM) being one of their's. We were able
to purchase through Eddy a dark leaved cultivar named
Minor Black that we found to be outstanding. It held up
well in our summer heat and we think looks better than
any of the patented ones on the market. We also
purchased a dark leaved Diervilla called 'Troja Black'
from Eddy that we are now offering.

Our next stop was at Henny Kolster's, a great plant
collector with a beautiful garden around his home. We
saw the purple leaved Styrax some of you have probably
heard about. It is a beautiful plant in Holland, but we're
not so sure how it will look here. Next we visited
Dick van der Maat's Maple Nursery. It is one, if not
the best collection, of japanese maples in Europe. They
grow over 1000 cultivars with a focus on new varieties.

Our final stop and one of my favorite places in Holland
was the Trompenburg Arboretum. Some of our friends in Boskoop phoned ahead for us and we were able to spend
some time with the arboretum curator, Gert Fortgens
and Mr. J.R.P. van Hoey Smith, one of the premier
conifer experts in the world. A beautiful garden with
old conifer specimens blended with evergreens
and deciduous trees. It is one of our favorite
gardens in Holland.