THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504040168
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Around Town
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Two characters come to mind every time I talk to Grace Keen.
First, ``Lady Bird'' Johnson, the former first lady who was, is and forever shall be, bent on beautifying America. She's been back in the news recently promoting the wildflower center she's helped establish in Texas.
Second, Johnny Appleseed, the carefree character who whistled his way across America in the early days of our great country planting apple trees.
Lady Bird and Johnny. They are two of a kind. Keen is three of the same kind.
I can't help but think of her this time of year as I drive through the Benn's Church intersection. And I've been tempted more than once to stop and pick a nice bouquet of the daffodils blooming there.
She was responsible for getting that project out of the ground several years ago. She wanted others who pass through that intersection near Historic St. Luke's Church to know it is a special place.
``Lady Bird said she felt the highways of America should not only be safe, they should be beautiful,'' Keen says. ``I agree with her.''
In 1989, Keen received a national merit award for her outstanding contributions to Virginia's natural and cultural resources. And she has kept right on caring and cultivating.
In the tradition of Lady Bird, she continues to do whatever she can to make Isle of Wight a more pleasant place to live.
In the tradition of Johnny Appleseed, Keen has spread her own kind of trees.
She likes boxwoods best.
Thanks to Lud Creef and his public works staff, about 40 of Keen's little boxwoods recently popped up at the Isle of Wight Library in Smithfield.
``There was nothing but weeds growing in front of the library,'' Keen says. ``We've donated boxwoods to be planted at the courthouse, on Hayden's Lane in Smithfield and at different churches. We like to see them in places where we can visit them.''
Her husband, Carroll - everybody calls him ``Pete'' - thinks of the little boxwoods the couple propagates as members of the family, she says. He supervises the work when they donate boxwoods, follows them to their new home to make certain they are planted properly and continues to check on their health and their progress.
But it was the boxwood lady who supervised when the public works staff went to the Keen's home on Route 10 early one morning last week to uproot the schrubs, Creef says.
``She was the sidewalk superintendent. She stood in the yard and pointed to the ones she wanted us to take.''
The new boxwoods at the library are mature schrubs, six or seven years old. But they have the same humble beginning that all of the other boxwoods spread through the county have.
Keen and her husband, who obviously enjoys beautifying the area as much as she does, take clippings in mid-summer, around July. New growth in the spring won't work, she says. The new growth must first ``harden.''
The clippings are planted in a shaded bed, and they are kept very moist until roots are formed. From there, they are transferred into kind of an intermediate bed, where they are allowed to grow larger. And from there, they are either transplanted into the Keens' yard or to places all over the county.
Keen says it's simple. She sees no reason why everybody shouldn't be able to do it, why everybody doesn't have about 1,500 American boxwoods.
``We tried using a growing compound one time,'' she says. ``But they did no better than they did when we just clipped them off and stuck them in the ground.''
All of Keen's boxwoods came from a basket of clippings a neighbor provided about 16 years ago. That first year, they had 140 well-rooted boxwoods the following spring. Those first shrubs are planted in a geometric garden, similar to what you'd see in Williamsburg, in Keen's side yard.
Creef says Keen simply has a green thumb. Keen praises Creef for his efforts to make the county a prettier place, even though he says he ``likes flowers best.''
Boxwoods ``look nice,'' he says, ``but I prefer things you plant in the fall that surprise you in the spring, like tulips and pansies.''
Or daffodils. Just look along Route 10 and you'll see that Keen likes those kinds of things, too.
She's been a member of the county's Beautification Committee since its inception. She still cares.
Actually, I guess anybody with 1,500 boxwoods might be forced to find somewhere to put them.
Next time you're at the Smithfield library, take a look at the new plantings. And think about Lady Bird and Johnny Appleseed and Grace Keen.
It's all certainly a reminder that spring is here. by CNB