When It Comes to Women’s History Month, The Herb Society of America Could Write Volumes

By Bonnie Porterfield

Of course, there are The Herb Society of America (HSA) founders, but let’s fast forward to those women instrumental in doing the arduous work of jumping through civic, political, and legal hoops to get the National Herb Garden in Washington, DC, started. We have a number of members to thank for doing this work. From the idea first being presented by Edna Cashmore in her 1966 President’s Report for a national garden, to the work on potential sites, garden designs, legal aspects, and fundraising, this was a monumental project.

When Genevieve Jyurovat assumed the HSA Presidency in 1974, legal oversight of a major endeavor was already part of her skill set. In 1966, as Chairman of the Western Reserve Unit (WRU) of The Herb Society of America, Genevieve worked with attorneys, personnel at the Garden Center of Cleveland (now Cleveland Botanical Garden), and City of Cleveland officials to negotiate a long-term agreement for a property to be developed as an herb garden on city property. She successfully navigated the legal maze to establish permanency for an herb garden funded with private donations but located on public land.  

Then, as HSA President, she made almost weekly trips from Hudson, Ohio, to Washington, DC, to consult with attorneys and federal officials on behalf of The Society. According to a tribute to Genevieve written by Past President Madalene Hill,

“These many trips resulted in an agreement between The Society and the Arboretum which in turn culminated in a bill being sent to Congress which would permit the United States Department of Agriculture to accept gifts on behalf of the U.S. National Arboretum. This bill passed the Senate on July 25 and the House on November 4, 1975. The agreement was signed between the Agricultural Research Service and The Herb Society of America in February 1976. Genevieve Jyurovat, with her quiet, soft voiced, low key manner and the iron fist enclosed in a silken glove, had achieved a landmark decision.

Genevieve was the one with the foresight and the will to see that before a penny was raised for the garden, there must be legal underpinnings established to protect such an endeavor. Genevieve was the one with the bulldog tenacity to persevere until her goal was reached. Without her quiet, but persistent efforts to successfully negotiate with the Federal Government, we were in danger perhaps, at some future date of having the National Herb Garden destroyed to provide space for public parking or a building named for the political figure of the day. How could The Society have been so fortunate to have had Genevieve in the right place at the right time?” (The Herb Society of America Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 9, Fall 2000).

Can you imagine in today’s world how this could be accomplished?

Once Genevieve secured this agreement, she called upon her old friend, Kathrine Patch, for fundraising help. Katherine had assisted Elsetta Barnes, ASLA (one of the first women landscape architects and designer of the current WRHS herb garden), in raising funds for the WRHS herb garden. As the story goes, Elsetta asked Katherine to be the treasurer of this project. “But,” exclaimed Katherine, “I’ve never been treasurer of anything in my life.” “Don’t you pay your bills?” responded Elsetta. “I guess I do,” replied Katherine. And suddenly, Katherine had a new job!  Katherine used this experience to raise the initial funds for the National Herb Garden.

With initial funding secured, together with a matching government contribution of $200,000, it was up to HSA President Betty Rea to lobby Congress to have these matching funds restored when budget cuts threatened the project. (That’s the short version of this part of the story.)

On June 12, 1980, the National Herb Garden was dedicated with Mrs. Albert C. Burrage, one of the founding members of The Herb Society of America, presenting the garden and Joan Mondale, the Vice President of the United State’s wife, accepting on the behalf of the American people.  

From a single idea of a national herb garden to its dedication, the women of The Herb Society of America got the job done. Cheers to these women as we celebrate Women’s History Month.

Photo Credits: 1) National Herb Garden circa 1980 (US National Arboretum archives); 2) Genevieve Jyurovat (The Herb Society of America archives); Katharine Patch (HSA archives); 3) Dr. John Creech (National Arboretum Director), Betty Rea (HSA), Hon. Robert Bergland (USDA Secretary), Eleanor Gambee (HSA), Rubert Cutler (US National Arboretum archives); 4) Mrs. Joan Mondale, Eleanor Gambee, and Anne Burrage at National Herb Garden dedication, June 12, 1980 (US National Arboretum archives).

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Bonnie Porterfield is a forty year Life Member of The Herb Society of America and a member of the Western Reserve Unit.  She has served in many roles during that time including two terms as Great Lakes District Delegate, Unit Chair, Co-Chair of the Western Reserve Unit’s first symposium and member of the GreenBridges™ and Library Advisory Committees.  She is an avid herb gardener, reader, learner and supporter of local efforts in reestablishing natural areas that promote native plantings.

National Herb Garden Announces Internship Opening for 2022-2023!

Are you interested in learning more about the herbal uses of plants from around the world? Are you ready to challenge your horticultural skills in a public garden setting? Are you enthusiastic about sharing that knowledge with people? Then, consider joining our team!

The National Herb Garden, located on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC, is looking to hire an intern to assist with all gardening tasks, including plant propagation, record keeping, and educational programming. This internship runs from April/May 2022 through spring of 2023. It is full-time, but part-time may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Schedule includes one weekend day August through October; the rest of the year, it is Monday through Friday. The position is open to U.S. citizens and is paid by stipend through The Herb Society of America. Housing is not provided. If you, or someone you know, is interested in applying, please send a cover letter indicating availability, resume, references, and transcripts (unofficial are acceptable) via email to USNA.Internships@usda.gov.

For more details about the position or if you have questions, contact the internship office at (202) 245-4563 or USNA.Internships@usda.gov.

We Look Forward to Hearing from You!

“Hazards” of the Job: Dealing with Plant Defenses in the National Herb Garden

By Chrissy Moore

I’ve never been much of a daredevil. Overactive amygdala, perhaps, or maybe I’m just a ninny. (Usually, the latter.) And yet, I’ve always admired those individuals who brave dangerous situations for the good of others: firefighters running toward the flames; avalanche search and rescue teams; Alaska’s Coast Guard members that jump into frigid waters during gale force winds…you get the idea.

Today, I had an epiphany while watering our myriad plants in the greenhouses. Most people think that herb gardening is a quaint, bucolic endeavor, which, admittedly, has a ring of truth to it. But, those people have never worked in the National Herb Garden (NHG), where we, too, face dangerous situations on a regular basis, just of the botanical sort.

For example, every year, twice a year, the NHG staff and coworkers haul many large containerized plants into and out of the greenhouses, where they spend the winter months. Many of these plants are loathsome creatures, not just because of their size (try hauling and lifting hundreds of pounds of “dead weight” for hours at a time…hope you didn’t water them the day before!), but because of the physical hazards they present. It is not unusual for plants to employ natural defenses to protect themselves from malevolent insects or browsing animals, etc. That’s understandable. Yet, when we—the benevolent humans assigned to be their nurturing handlers—are subjected to that very same botanical weaponry, it seems just a wee bit like unnecessary punishment. But, no one ever said life was fair.

Let’s look at our beloved Citrus plants. These shrubs have beautiful flowers with a glorious scent and delectable fruit. What’s not to love? Most people only get the occasional painful squirt of acidic juice in their eye when peeling the fruit. Yeah, not us. We are repeatedly stabbed by the plants’ two- to three-inch long thorns all over our bodies and, heaven forbid, in or around our eyes. To paint the picture for you better, our method for moving all of the plants in and out of the greenhouses is by a hand truck. So, the whole upper half of our bodies is engulfed by the plant’s canopy. For the Citrus, one puncture wound is bad enough; multiple punctures is just plain mean.

A few years ago, I was visiting friends in Málaga, Spain. It was interesting to see large, in-ground specimens of plants that we can only grow in containers in the NHG. One of them, Phoenix dactylifera (date palm), is one of our more hated plants to move in the garden. (If only we could grow ours in the ground!) Like many palms, the fronds have sharp points at the end of every leaflet.

And like the Citrus plants, our date palm gets hauled around on the hand truck, with all the fronds right at face level. Death by a thousand stabs. To get the plants into their final positions, we need to navigate the narrow greenhouse walkways, which takes a lot of coordinated effort between the one hauling the plant and the person doing the guiding; more often than not, the person doing the hauling can’t see past the plant and must navigate by auditory cues rather than visual ones. As you might imagine, this only adds to the danger!

Moving the date palm

My personal “favorites” each have minor variations on the armament theme just to keep you from getting complacent: pineapple (Ananas sp.) has upward-facing prickles along its leaves; Agave sp. has outward-facing prickles; and cascalote (Tara cacalaco) has downward-facing prickles. These are what I consider the plant versions of the Chinese finger torture: the more you dive in or pull back, the more caught you become. And, by default, the more stabbing you experience. Agave plants, in particular, are awkward to maneuver on a good day, but ours range in size from three to four feet across and two to three feet tall. Given their sprawling nature, there’s not even the remote chance of using a hand truck to move them.

Ananas sp. (pineapple)

Agave sp. (agave)

You must fully embrace the pain by lifting them from the ground just under their “waists,” like a child that’s really just too big to be picked up anymore. “Bend with your knees!” has little bearing on this activity. If we’re being honest, we’re just trying to fling that thing to its final resting place as fast as we can and from whatever “reasonable” posture we can attain, wrecked clothing and hairdo be damned. How do those folks at the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona do this day in and day out? No thanks…trying to quit. My assistant, Erin, is the smart one; before handling an agave, she nips the spines off with her pruners. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?

Cascalote, while sporting dainty, pinnately compound leaves, is actually a botanical death trap. Like the agave, pineapple, and Citrus combined, its prickles are not only curved for maximum entrapment, but they also cover the entirety of the plant, nearly from head to toe. The only thing in its favor (at least for our specimen) is that it has a generally upright growth habit rather than being wild and ungainly like the pineapple and agave. Thank goodness for small blessings, short-lived though they may be. Getting caught in the cascalote is like getting sucked into quicksand—the more you move, the worse your situation becomes. I did say Chinese finger torture, didn’t I? (Side note from Erin on moving our cascalote: “Man, after moving that Tara this go around, I got home that night and had a thorn still stuck in my leg. It had worked its way through jeans and a thermal layer to hitchhike and irritate me all day. I still have a little scar!” See! We’re really telling the truth.)

The last, but certainly not least, plant on my list is sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)—and, frankly, most species in the grass family (Poaceae). If you’ve never worked with a grass of sugarcane’s magnitude, then you haven’t met the devil incarnate…yet. It hides its weaponry really well, so you’re more likely to forget rather than be vigilant. Sugarcane is replete, not only with irritating hairs (called trichomes) at the joints along the stem that wiggle under your clothing and irritate your skin to no end, but the leaves themselves sport razor sharp edges in a pattern similar to a sawmill blade. The leaf edges slice human skin with the accuracy of a piece of notebook paper. Yep, paper cuts are my fa-a-a-vorite! “What? You don’t enjoy paper cuts? Hmmh, go figure!” Handling sugarcane takes a bit of forethought and a deft hand. The trick is to pick up the plant so that the leaves are directed away from your own body and hopefully not toward your coworkers who are naïvely standing nearby. Invariably, though, someone will get a little too spirited in their moving, and suddenly, we’re all running for cover like kids at a piñata party.

While not all of our plants create perilous situations (parsley and oregano are pretty benign…or are they?), we certainly hear a lot of grousing and grumbling from our coworkers and volunteers when moving day arrives…sometimes under muffled breath and sometimes hollering from the top of their lungs. That’s when you shrug your shoulders and say, “Just another day in the life of the National Herb Garden! Someone get the First Aid Kit.”

Author’s Note: I regret to inform our readers that the Phoenix dactylifera has moved on to greener pastures (pun intended). We finally decided that it was getting too big for safe handling and preferred to start anew with a smaller specimen. Our bodies are grateful for that decision.

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Chrissy Moore is the curator of the National Herb Garden at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Potomac Unit of The Herb Society of America and is an International Society of Arboriculture certified arborist.