THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505010206
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 201 lines
THE LOCH NESS MONSTER clatters up the tracks. Then you hear the screams of people plunging downward.
Welcome to Busch Gardens The Old Country.
But there are other sounds as well. The wind whispering through the trees, birds singing, and parents saying, ``Go sit in front of those flowers so I can take your picture.''
Welcome to Busch Gardens.
For the third consecutive year, the Williamsburg theme park has been named ``The Most Beautiful Theme Park'' by the National Amusement Park Historical Association. It is a winner against such worldwide attractions as Disney World with its fanciful topiaries.
If you think of Busch Gardens as a giant back yard, you discover it has the same problems as the average homeowner. There are privacy fences and picnic tables, play areas and spaces to walk through and linger. It has the same pests and the same changeable weather.
With its award-winning experience at hand, we asked for ideas homeowners could use. PLAN BEFORE PLANTING
The park, which celebrates 20 years in operation this season, was designed to work with the natural landscape.
``We saved what we could during construction,'' says Eileen Weldon, Busch Gardens landscape manager. ``We left everything on the perimeter and filled in the middle.''
The result is a theme park interspersed with pockets of woodland shrubs and shade-giving trees.
But the ``Most Beautiful'' award takes in more than mere plantings.
``It's the complete package, the landscape and the buildings,'' says Deborah DeMarco, public relations manager at the park. ``Look around - there's no concrete, the sidewalks are aggregate pebble or brick or decking.''
But perhaps the most attractive feature of the park is the flowers. These gardens are always in bloom. Tulips and pansies in spring, marigolds and begonias in summer, chrysanthemums in the fall.
``Honestly, it's all trial and error,'' says Weldon, who started working at the park the fall before it opened. ``Something can bloom wonderfully for three years in a row, and then you can get hit with heavy rains in the spring and have it rot. You can't control all the variables.''
But there are things you can do to keep your yard looking beautiful. Like rotate.
``We have 250 hanging baskets in the park, but there are about 600 in all,'' says Weldon. As soon as a basket starts looking leggy or limp, it's replaced with a fresh one.
``Keep things growing in an area you don't use,'' says gardener Patricia Curnutte.
The same goes for container plantings. And you don't need dozens of those beautiful, expensive pots to pull it off.
``We use those black plastic liners to plant,'' says Curnutte. ``When we need to change the plants, we simply pull out the liner and put in a fresh one. Just be sure you use some plants that will hang over the edge to hide the liner.''
A layer of mulch between the liner and the pot and up over the edge also helped conceal the liners from view.
Such container plantings are abundant at Busch Gardens. They are used not just by doorways to brighten entrances, but everywhere you couldn't plant otherwise.
Pots of white petunias and salmon geraniums alternate with pots of asparagus fern around trees with roots too shallow to disturb.
Even a boring stockade fence is brightened by lisanthus and ivy in terra cotta pots. Simply anchor a planter box holder to the fence at eye level and drop the pots in.
``We have to have instant color,'' Curnutte says.
And they have to have it all the time. So the landscape staff plans for things to go in and out of season.
``In March when the park opens, it's too early for the tulips,'' Weldon says. ``So we put in pansies.''
The pansies give color until the tulips emerge. Then the tulips come up and contrast with the pansies. After the tulips are spent, the staff clips off the stems. The pansies keep blooming until May when the second planting is placed.
``We leave the tulip leaves in the bed so the bulbs are easier to locate. Tulips are notorious for harboring diseases so we throw them on the compost pile or beside the railroad tracks and use fresh bulbs every year,'' Weldon says.
The colors throughout the park are not chosen by accident either. Dwarf ``Firepower'' nandina and bright yellow pansies currently grace a 210-foot long serpentine bed near the new Escape from Pompeii ride.
``When we put that in, we were thinking volcanic,'' Weldon says, almost thinking out loud. ``Now I'm thinking that is a very hot section of the park, and people may not be comfortable there. Maybe we'll change that. Maybe cooler colors would do better.''
For play areas such as Land of the Dragons, the staff has to plan for the gardens to receive a substantial amount of abuse. But that doesn't have to mean a barren box of mulch.
``You have to use plants that are more forgiving and will bounce back,'' Weldon says.
Dallas fern and asparagus sprengeri are the choices peeking out from below the massive tree house complex. ``They're fluffy and lush but they can take the abuse,'' Weldon says.
Raised flower beds also discourage children from running through the garden, but Weldon suggests you plant at least 6 inches from the edge.
``People like to sit on the edges,'' she says.
Not to mention children who play on edges as if they were a balance beam. BEHIND THE SCENES
Weldon estimates the park uses 40,000 to 50,000 plants for each of three plantings a year.
Seven year-round staff members plus 16 seasonal workers zip through the park on golf carts before opening each morning, picking off withered blooms, changing pots and sometimes replacing gardens.
Hidden behind New France and Aquataine are five greenhouses filled with annuals, perennials container plantings and bugs.
Yes, bugs.
Busch Gardens is an organic operation.
Instead of pesticides, the staff uses beneficial insects such as ladybugs and green lacewings. Bacterial agents such as BT (bacillus thuringiensis) are used to combat caterpillars.
The secret to successful organic gardening is to make a total commitment, Weldon says.
``You have to adjust your thinking. A few bad bugs are OK; they provide balance and food for the beneficial insects,'' she says.
But you need to switch over time, say the gardeners at Busch. Use organic products when you introduce new plants and then convert the older plants before the growing season begins.
``It took us three or four years to get it right, but we're there,'' Weldon says. ``We've cut our chemical usage by 99 percent.''
Although they have large greenhouses, when Water Country USA was added to their responsibilities a few years ago, the Busch Gardens operation ran out of room and began buying plants from contracted suppliers.
And here too, they have advice.
``Never buy cell packs,'' Weldon says. ``Spend the extra money for 4-inch pots.''
``The problem with cell packs, is they don't have room to develop a good root system,'' says gardener Curnutte. ``Then when you plant, you're asking the plant to grow roots, develop leaves and flower all at the same time. They just can't do it all at the same time for you.''
If you've already purchased cell-packs for spring planting, Curnutte says, make sure they stay watered and give them a shot of water-soluble fertilizer about once a week.
``I don't think people will notice if your plants are a little small as long as the garden is neat, clean and colorful,'' Weldon says.
But the best advice these gardeners give is to prepare the soil before you plant.
As Curnutte says, ``Spend $1 on your plants and $100 on your soil.'' ILLUSTRATION: ROBIE RAY COLOR PHOTOS
ABOVE: Tulips provide a brilliant but brief show of spring color, so
Busch Gardens mixes them with contrasting pansies, which keep
blooming into May.
RIGHT: Pots of lisanthus and ivy placed in planter box holders
brighten a boring stockade fence in a hurry.
Eileen Weldon, Busch Gardens landscape manager, keeps the gardens in
bloom with three plantings during the theme park's season.
Busch Gardens' staff encourages beneficial insect larvae as part of
their commitment to organic garden.
ROBIE RAY/Photo
Gardener Patricia Curnutte demonstrates how you pull a
plastic-wrapped plant through a moss liner, from the inside out,
until the roots are secure against the inside of the pot.
Graphic
HOW TO MAKE A HANGING BASKET
Gardener Patricia Curnutte demonstrated how Busch Gardens'
landscape staff puts together the 600 hanging baskets used in the
park each year. Here's how she does it:
Buy or make a moss-lined wire basket and set it on top of a large
pot. Using your fingers, make a hole in the side of the moss.
Select two or three kinds of plants. Use some vines that can
trail over the edges, a couple of plants with feathery foliage and
an upright plant for the center.
Remove a feathery plant from its original container and
``tickle'' the roots with your fingers to break up the root ball.
Wrap the leaves and flowers of this plant in an old piece of
plastic, twisting the top.
From the inside of the basket, stick the twisted plastic through
the hole in the moss and pull it out until the roots are against the
inside edge.
Remove the plastic and fluff the plant with your fingers. Repeat
with the other feathery plants, drawing them through holes in the
moss around the basket.
Add potting soil to the center of the basket and place the
upright plant in the center and the vines around the edges. Finish
with potting soil to fill and water thoroughly.
Curnutte says it will take a couple of days for the plants to
bounce back from the stress of transplanting and look bright. And be
sure to water daily when using moss baskets.
by CNB