Lawrence Lee

By Mary Alice Garrett

This story originally appeared in 1985 in the News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

Lawrence E. Lee has never met a plant he didn't like. "even the weeds are nice. They're remarkable for their tenacity," said the personable 26-year-old, who completed the Longwood Graduate Program in Ornamental Horticulture last summer.

Larry Lee started growing flowers in his native California when he was 8.

A relative predicted he would soon outgrow the hobby. "But I never did," he said.

Today, he aspires "to be the best horticulturist I can" and someday to direct a public garden using the skills he acquired during his two years at Longwood Gardens.

In 1980, Lee graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a double major in botany and genetics. His mother hoped he would go on to pharmacy school, but Lee told her he "didn't want to count pills all day."

Instead, he opted for a master's program in horticulture at the University of California at Davis.

"And then it happened," he said. "I became a little disappointed in research."

After self-analysis, he decided that growing plants, not plant research, was what he enjoyed most.

He read about the Longwood program leading to a master's degree in horticulture with an emphasis on managing and administering public gardens and termed it "an answer to my prayers."

Lee thought his chances of acceptance were slim, but he applied nonetheless.

"I was honored just to be interviewd," he said. He recalled that he was "just awestruck with Longwood" after flying from the San Francisco Bay area for an interview.

During two days of intensive screening, Lee was asked if he had any supervisory experience. He replied he had supervised his father and four sisters on landscaping jobs.

"It was a motley crew," he added, laughing, "but we got the job done."

Lee said his candor broke the ice and probably helped him become accepted.

As part of his course work, Lee documented the gardens at Rockwood Museaum and restored its Victorian conservatory.

He became fascinated with the maps, documets and photographs hidden away in the 1850s Gothic mansion on Shipley Road.

Even early receipts from "famous nurseries" were preserved by the original owner, Joseph Shipley, and his descendents. All have helped Lee restore the conservatory and gardens with authentic Victorian flora.

"It was like a treasure hunt," he said of two years of delving into Rockwood's horticultural records. Also involved were meetings with former gardeners, architects and county officials. Even the federal government was tapped for funds.

Lee said Rockwood is now "probably one of the best examples of a Victorian country estate in the United States."

Future plans call for the restoration of the outdoor gardens and the veranda and terrace at the back of the museum.

Meanwhile, Lee is completing his master's thesis while working at a perennial nursery in Chadds Ford, Pa., and overseeing an estate in Centreville where he lives. "It's as though I'm living like a millionaire, but I'm really a pauper," he said of the estate near Granogue.

Lee has applied for positions at several public gardens on the East Coast. He aims "to help people through plants."

He believes not only in the "aesthetic experience of being in a garden" but the psychological one as well.

"We're becoming a high-tech society," he said. "We're also becoming a high-touch society."

Lee was in charge of internship for his class of five students who spent a month helping start a public garden in Flagstaff, Ariz.

The young horticulturists helped draft policy and assisted with the plant collections at The Transition Zone Horticultural Institute, working directly with the founder, director and staff.

"The great thing about it was we applied just about everything we had learned at Longwood Gardens," Lee said. "The best thing was, we did help a new institution avoid some of the pitfalls."

Next fall, Lee will coordinate a Victorian garden conference tentatively set for Winterthur Museum.