Chlorophyll in His Veins: Author interview with Bobby J. Ward

I was contacted by The University of North Carolina Press a few months ago about the re-release of a modern biography about one of the great US gardeners of our time, J.C. Raulston, and so I agreed to read through the book.

What I found inside its pages was a story that connected so many loose strands for me as a horticulturalist under 50 years old, telling me the story about how many of the modern cultivated shrubs and perennials that I love arrived in my own garden. As someone who missed hearing J.C. speak in person in the 1990’s, it is fascinating to read through his lectures which helped to form the US gardeners’ ideas of planting, and indeed bolstered the entire nursery industry in that period.

Chlorophyll in His Veins: J.C. Raulston Horticultural Ambassador by Bobby J. Ward chronicles J.C. Raulston’s life from his Oklahoma boyhood, through his horticultural education, army service in Vietnam, research and teaching. The book includes excerpts from Raulston’s lectures, lists his plant introductions, and includes some personal writings. It also covers the origin story of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, which is still full of life as a hub for the U.S. nursery industry and offers mentorship for the next generation of horticulturists.

Bobby grew up in northeastern North Carolina and has an undergraduate degree in biology from East Carolina University and graduate degrees in plant physiology from North Carolina State University. He is the author/editor of five gardening books and has written for numerous magazines. His book, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, earned the Quill & Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association of America (now GardenComm).

Bobby’s most recent book is a biography of the late J. C. Raulston, the founder of the North Carolina State University Arboretum.

Bobby: “When J. C. arrived at NC State University’s horticulture department in 1975, I was finishing a graduate degree in the botany department and did not get to take any courses under him. After the arboretum was dedicated in 1980, J. C. established the Friends of the Arboretum, which I joined. I did volunteer work in the garden and led tours, along with attending J. C.’s regular lectures and those by notable horticulturists he invited. Although I was aware of his warmth and generosity as a friend, it was only after his death that I began to understand the breadth and depth of his influence and following.

My research for the biography allowed me to examine an immense paper trail of his life, including 15 years of his personal arboretum newsletters, 30 years of annual Christmas letters, and various private correspondence. In addition, the nearly 200 interviews I conducted with family, friends, students and colleagues made me realize how much impact he had as a mentor. I found that J.C.’s greatest accomplishment was knowing how to connect people through plants, often planting the seeds of great future horticulturists.”

Bobby: “Yes, there were many things I did not know about him. For example, I never knew that he served in the U.S. Army, including a tour in Vietnam in which he tested herbicides—destroying the very things he loved most.

In his years growing up on a farm in Oklahoma, J. C. was continually admonished by his father to do everything to perfection, which led to J. C. being in therapy as an adult, still wrestling with pleasing his father.”

Bobby: “Most of the people you mentioned had come to Raleigh to deliver lectures or attend conferences that J. C, had organized. He always hosted parties in their honor, inviting students and friends to sit at the feet of such world-renowned horticulturists. Thus, I met most of them socially through J. C., unaware that later I would be interviewing these same people about J. C., his life, and his impact on American horticulture.

He was a prodigious letter and postcard writer, keeping in constant contact with numerous friends around the world. Many shared J. C.’s correspondence with me or told me first-hand stories about him, giving me additional insights into his joys and foibles.”

Bobby: “In the book, The Year in Trees, co-authored with Kim Tripp, J. C. wrote that, in any given region of the United States, only about 40 kinds of plants make up 90% of the landscape plantings. He knew from his various travels that there were far more plants, both native and non-native, that could be used in the landscape. Upon its founding in 1976—50 years ago this year—one of the arboretum’s main missions was to determine adaptability of regionally new and uncommon trees and shrubs.

I think the home gardener can best honor J. C. in their landscaping by choosing superior new plantings adaptable for their areas, instead of relying on monocultures of the same small group of plants.

I also encourage readers to honor J. C. by joining the Friends of the JC Raulston Arboretum to get free plants at its annual distributions and by attending its informative lecture series. (Note: Members who are not local can access a wealth of those lectures archived online as well as all the newsletters beginning with the ones J. C. himself wrote). The arboretum also relies in part on donations for its annual budget, so any contributions will help continue the important mission J. C. originated.”

Bobby: “I got the idea to write a biography of J. C. when I was interviewing eminent plant collectors around the world for a previous book, The Plant Hunter’s Garden. Once they found out I was from North Carolina, they would immediately ask if I knew J. C. Raulston. That led to their telling me impassioned stories of interactions with J. C. in person or through correspondence and the rare plants he would send them. That made me realize J. C. was not just a regional plantsman of only local interest (as one editor told me when I was pitching the first edition of the biography), but that he had a national and international reputation. The nursery industry, and therefore the public as well, are still benefiting from the plant distribution system J. C. established at the arboretum, allowing nursery professionals to take free supervised cuttings for propagation and sales.

A take-away message for readers can best be summed up in two quotes: one from his obituary in the New York Times where he was called ‘a generous-spirited giant among horticulturists,’ and the other from his memorial service, where one speaker called him ‘the linchpin of the American horticultural community.’ "

You can pick up a copy of Chlorophyll in His Veins: J.C. Raulston Horticultural Ambassador by Bobby J. Ward here or direct from The University of North Carolina Press

“Raulston’s allspice is a deciduous flowering shrub in the sweetshrub family (Calycanthaceae). The plant was bred by Richard Hartlage, an undergraduate at NC State University. It is a cross between the Chinese sweetshrub (Calycanthus chinensis) and Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus). The hybrid epithet honors J.C. Raulston (1940–1996), then Director of the North Carolina State Univ. Arboretum (now the JC Raulston Arboretum).”1

One of the most interesting aspects of this biography, in addition to hearing directly from J.C. about how he experienced life, were the plant lists in the appendix! Raulston is most well-known for this help in growing the Calycanthus, but he has a dozen plants named in his honor. He was truly a beloved horticulturalist and still lives on in our gardens in Hellebores, Viburnum, Agaves, Mahonias, and more.

I hope you too pick up a copy of Chlorophyll in His Veins to learn about the gardener behind the plants that we love in our gardens!

…with an RHS Level 2 Certificate in Horticultural from the UK. Julie has worked with private clients for over 20 years to help them realize their own garden dreams. Her photos have been published in books by Timber Press, Kew Gardens, and Rodale, and she is a popular speaker. Havenwood opens for the Garden Conservancy, garden club tours, and PA master gardener classes, and has been awarded an Audubon Bird & Butterfly Sanctuary status.

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