THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411220777
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 187 lines
She moves along the soggy earth, clipping long stems from tall weeds and grasses like a florist let loose in an English garden.
To less observant eyes, it's just a marshy bank of the Elizabeth River a few yards from Portsmouth City Park's tennis courts.
To city horticulturist Lauren Gehman, it's a source of unlimited treasure - goldenrod, saltbush, dock and fall asters.
Forgotten or overlooked by most people, her finds are just a few of nature's fall offerings - vivid colors and unusual textures just waiting for a creative mind and a candlelit place on the table.
Leaving the river bank behind, Gehman leads the way to the park's garden area for other elements of the picture taking shape in her mind.
The perennial beds are pretty much finished now. But Gehman sees beyond summer's fading.
She snips away at nandina and other berried shrubs, their leaves now fired by autumn reds. She gathers stems of sedum, changed from summer pink to deep cinnamon.
On this day, she is gathering from her own haunt - a public park that for five years now she has cultivated from mostly azaleas to more unusual varieties of plants.
But the horticulturist is just as likely to hit the brakes driving down the highway, pulling off at some vacant lot or wooded area along a rural route to Suffolk or Smithfield.
She once ruined a pair of new suede shoes trying to jump a ditch to reach some sumac seed pods she spotted on the roadway. She landed in half a foot of water. But she got the prized supplement to the fall arrangement clicking away in her head.
She looks for wild plumed grasses, reeds and rushes.
Cotton is harder to find, but something she likes so much she has collected seeds and plans to grow her own. Once the cotton is pulled from the boll, it leaves star-shaped pods that can be used naturally or painted gold or silver.
Gehman already grows her own okra so that she can use the pods for arrangements.
And she shares her knowledge, leading park tours and teaching classes on what she calls ``roadside arrangements'' for those who have yet to learn that there's more to nature than what grows in spring and summer.
Like Gehman, Lee Snyder, director of the Fred Heutte Center in Ghent Square, doesn't spurn what's left behind when summer ends.
``I always feel like your arrangement says more if you cut more from the yard or along the side of the road,'' Snyder said.
And Snyder doesn't limit herself to her own small Ghent yard. She looks beyond her own fence to vacant lots and fields and the backyards of good friends.
One friend calls her every year about this time.
``She will say, `I'm getting ready to tidy up my yard and I know you want to come over. I know how you like all this dead stuff.' ''
Snyder doesn't see it that way.
Both she and Gehman agree that fall ushers in a wonderful time to experiment with everything from seed pods and ornamental grasses to autumn leaves.
``People think of it as dead or dying, and I think of it as just a different season of the flower,'' Gehman said. ``I think it offers a wonderful variety of colors and textures to choose from in making arrangements for your house, bringing nature inside.''
Snyder sees fall as a unique time for using nature for art.
``Summer has basically a green background, but in the fall when leaves change it's just a wonderful kaleidoscope of colors,'' said Snyder.
Snyder has been a member of the Harbor Front Garden Club for about 20 years and also belongs to the Flower Guild of the Chrysler Museum.
But it all started with a flower vase she received as a wedding gift.
``It was a wonderful crystal vase, and I couldn't put anything in it,'' she said.
So she took a class. Everything evolved from that.
``When I first started out my husband thought it was wonderful that we had fresh flowers on the table every week - until he started looking at the checkbook,'' she said.
``He said `I like this, but we've got to be realistic too.' Then I tried to stretch things. I began to look around to see what was free that I could cut.''
Twenty years later, she teaches others the secrets of flower arranging and also arranges flowers for weddings and other occasions.
``I don't like going to buy flowers and all I see are mums and carnations,'' she said. ``I want the thing that's really different - and different shapes. That's what makes it interesting for me.''
Back at her Parks and Recreation headquarters, Gehman grabs an oasis and a rustic-looking basket and offers a 10-minute demonstration on how her bundle of plants come together in an autumn table arrangement.
``I'm doing something any homeowner can do,'' she stressed. ``This is nature's arrangement.''
She starts with red-tipped nandina leaves, letting the branches cascade longer over the ends of the basket, shorter on the front and back to form the line design of the arrangement.
She adds a touch of goldenrod, followed by saltbush to soften it up.
Hands flying over the basket, she strips lower leaves off stems. It is easier to insert in the oasis and keeps the arrangement from being crowded with foliage, she explains.
She accents with sedum and a fountain grass, which looks like a crystal sparkler.
``I like to leave the little curly stems on them,'' she said. ``That gives a nice effect.''
She adds pyracantha and then her personal favorite, bittersweet, an old-fashioned plant that contributes two more colors to the arrangement - golden seed pods popping open in places to reveal bright orange berries.
Gehman has discovered a wonderful supply on the other side of a ditch near a cemetery in the heart of Portsmouth.
Later, across the river Snyder gives her demonstration of materials she has gathered from various places.
She works quickly and expertly, forming the arrangement's line using tree stems of a greenish-yellow leaf with a touch of red. She liked it because of its oval and fringed shape and the interesting veins in the leaf.
She strips the leaves from two magnolia branches and places the large burgundy-brushed green pods in the arrangement.
``What I go after is the color and how it looks,'' she said, looking at the vase, obviously satisfied with the effect.
She adds the now-bronzed leaves of houttuinia, a ground cover from her own yard that smells like oranges when crushed. She adds a few stems of sedum and liberal amounts of one of her favorites - ligustrum berries that drape over the vase like tiny blue-green grape clusters.
``People don't realize how wonderful they are,'' she said later. ``Everybody sees the pryacantha berry as wonderful. But they don't hold up. They get soft and mushy and tend to fall off after a day or two.
``The ligustrum berries probably hold a week to 10 days.''
Snyder also suggests the photinia as a good material to use this time of year.
``It gives you wonderful color,'' she said. ``The new growth is red and it has berries in varying shades from peach all the way to burgundy.'' MEMO: Gehman is available to teach classes to garden clubs and civic
organizations. Call 393-8481.
Snyder will teach two classes Tuesday that allow participants to make
Thanksgiving arrangements in pumpkins. She will offer one-day classes in
December where participants will make four Christmas arrangements,
including a front door wreath. For information, call 627-3185.
ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff color photos
Red-tipped mandina leaves create the lines of Lauren Gehman's
arrangement.
Lee Snyder lets blue-green ligustrum berries cascade from her fall
arrangements.
City horticulturist Lauren Gehman gathers colorful natural materials
from Portsmouth City Park.
Graphics
SOME MATERIALS GEHMAN USES:
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
TIPS FOR USING NATURAL MATERIALS
Look for unusual shapes in branches. Twisting, curling branches
can be used naturally or painted gold, silver or even with glitter
for arrangements.
Use an aerosol vegetable spray such as Pam to give a light
coating to fresh fruits in arrangements. Grapes can add an unusual
touch hanging over the side of an arrangement.
Spray a little hair spray (``the cheaper, the better,'' Snyder
says) on things like goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace and other wispy
plant materials. It helps to seal them and spares the sinuses.
To open bittersweet's golden-yellow seed pods to expose more of
the the orange berry, zap it in the microwave a few seconds at a
time until you get the desired effect.
Don't be afraid to use the underside of a leaf, one of Snyder's
trademarks in arrangements. Some, such as the Russian Olive leaf,
give a more unusual effect, like a silvery touch.
Both Snyder and Gehman favor different colored candles to go with
their arrangements. For Gehman's arrangement she would have used
green, salmon, rust or burgundy. Snyder said she would use several
colors together - a cinnamon, a peachy shade a bit lighter than the
cinnamon and possibly yellow if it was the right ``soft dusty
look.''
Snyder always uses the tallest candles she can find and then uses
varying heights of candlesticks to get the ``ups and downs'' she
wants.
And, lastly, it's not OK to clip from the flower beds and
shrubbery of Portsmouth City Park. But Gehman said nature-lovers
and flower arrangers can clip along the river marsh and perimeters
of the park.
Source: Lauren Gehman and Lee Snyder
by CNB