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Yew Dell, one of the state’s botanical treasures, came within hours of going away.
In the winter of 2002, bulldozers were sitting across Ky. 146 in Crestwood waiting for the go-ahead to move onto Yew Dell, the property of the late plantsman Theodore Klein, with the intention of planting yet another subdivision in Oldham County. After Klein’s death, the house, affectionately called the “Castle,” and the outbuildings on Klein’s 34 acres had fallen into disrepair and were to be razed to make room for a housing development. Fortunately, at the last minute a group of plant lovers, gardeners and preservationists calling themselves Friends of Yew Dell came up with the funds to buy the property and save it from development.
What the Friends of Yew Dell rescued was not only the Klein family history but what has become one of the state’s botanical jewels, internationally recognized for its rare plant collections, educational efforts, sustainable gardening programs and research into plants adapted to Kentucky gardening conditions. Yew Dell hosted about 25,000 visitors last year, has about 1,300 members, and has garnered a cadre of almost 300 volunteers who do everything from maintaining trails to weeding to painting fences. The 34-acre property has grown to 58 acres with the addition of land in 2005 and 2008. Yew Dell also sports a full calendar of gardening events for every age group (see sidebar on opposite page) and has become a destination for weddings, corporate retreats and other events.
“Yew Dell is a place with multiple layers and is attractive to a wide range of people,” says Paul Cappiello, Yew Dell executive director. “It gives you a place to always come back to. There are so many bits to Yew Dell.”
In the Beginning
Yew Dell started out as a working farm in the Klein family for several generations. Theodore Klein was a plant breeder and collector who used some of the land to maintain his international collection of plants, most notably yews and hollies. Klein bred and introduced a total of 60 new plant varieties into the nursery trade, most notably ‘Silver Cloud’ redbud and ‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura.
Klein died in 1998 at the age of 93. In 1999, his memory was honored with the introduction of the Theodore Klein Plant Award, which promotes superior woody and herbaceous plants for Kentucky landscapes. Professionals at Yew Dell team up with the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association, the University of Kentucky’s nursery and landscape program, and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud program to name Theodore Klein award-winning plants.
In the fall of 2002, Friends of Yew Dell, having rescued Klein’s property, lured Cappiello to serve as executive director. He previously was executive director of Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County. It wasn’t an easy decision to move, Cappiello admits.
“I would be moving from a 15,000-acre preserve with a large endowment and full-time staff to what was at first a part-time position in a place with a half-time secretary and a mortgage,” Cappiello says. He jokes that, as the family was discussing the move, his son said the decision was obvious.“ ‘Duh, it has a castle,’ he told us.”
So Cappiello, with limited staff at the time, “Friends” and volunteers, started transforming Yew Dell. The property was cleaned up, repairs begun on the castle, outbuildings and gardens tended, and new gardens started. Today, Yew Dell displays its plants in one of several gardens: the Arboretum, Big Pine garden, Dry Stream garden, Overlook garden, Secret garden, Serpentine garden, Walled garden, Vegetable garden, Sunken garden and nurseries. The castle is fully restored to serve primarily as an office for the staff.
Besides showing off its collection of plants in the various garden settings, Yew Dell is committed to identifying plants that thrive in Kentucky landscapes. The staff will identify “goal plants” and buy up as many cultivars as available to test their mettle in Kentucky growing conditions. Yew Dell currently is evaluating hellebores (also called Lenten rose), which bloom in late winter or very early spring. “In Kentucky, they have a phenomenal season, from Christmas until April,” says Cappiello.
And Yew Dell has evaluated witch hazels, another underused shrub that offers flower and fragrance in winter.
“Sustainable gardening is a focus,” says Cappiello. “We look for plants that offer pest resistance or maybe just a lot of bang for the buck.”
Cappiello has been recognized for his work at Yew Dell. He received the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award in 2013 from the American Horticulture Society and was made an honorary member of the Garden Club of America in May of this year.
Green Greenhouse
Commitment to sustainability was the motive for the addition of Yew Dell’s state-of-the-art, greener-than-green greenhouse in April. The 1,800-square-foot structure boasts geothermal heating, cooling with high-pressure fog, and solar panels that run lights and fans. Even the roof is “green,” as it is covered with succulent plants that will cool the interior while reducing water runoff. Inside, the greenhouse can be used to start cuttings for the garden, store tender plants, or be set up for specialty shows, such as orchids or bonsai, says Jackie Gulbe, communication coordinator. “It also offers an opportunity to train interns and students in greenhouse management,” she says.
The new greenhouse is a piece of a full horticulture center, part of which is housed in one of the original, recently refurbished outbuildings. That building houses the nerve center that controls the heating and cooling of the greenhouse and has ample space for potting classes and plant storage. A nearby high tunnel greenhouse will serve as a winter vegetable production and research facility.
Some of the research at Yew Dell is now conducted by one of three interns the botanical gardens hires each summer. Cappiello says Yew Dell gets applications for internships from all over the country. “One of our interns had a professor who told him that Yew Dell is one of the best opportunities he’ll ever find,” he says. “We definitely intend to keep growing that program.”
Garden Parties
Yew Dell increasingly is becoming a venue for non-gardening events, notably weddings. Those public gatherings help pay for the garden education that happens at Yew Dell.
“We’re supported entirely by what goes on here,” Cappiello says.
In 2005, Yew Dell remodeled an old dairy barn that was slipping off its foundation to serve as a multipurpose space for weddings, corporate events, lectures and parties. Now called the Gheens Barn, it has large windows that overlook the gardens. A connecting bridge and pavilion were added to the barn. The remodeling and construction won top honors from the Kentucky chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2007, and the garden gift shop got the same award in 2010.
Yew Dell hosts about 25 weddings a year—a number that is well below demand—and the gardens could rake in big bucks just having several wedding parties each weekend. But that’s not where Yew Dell wants to go, Cappiello says. “We’ll never plant a garden with all-white flowers, for example, just for weddings. And we don’t want to have three or four weddings a weekend, one over here, one over there. The grounds need to recover.”
Though fundraising efforts are never-ending, Cappiello says Yew Dell will stay true to its mission of focusing on gardening and horticulture education and showcasing rare and Kentucky-adapted plants.
“I think we do as good a job as any of balancing the need for activities with our mission of garden and horticulture education,” says Cappiello. “We always want this to be an intimate landscape. We want people to go home feeling like they’ve been someplace special.”