By Andrew Bunting, PHS Vice President of Horticulture
I probably met Andy 25 years ago when he first started working at Sam Browns Wholesale Nursery in Malvern, PA. At the time, I was curator at the Scott Arboretum and Gardens at Swarthmore College, and we would purchase dozens of trees and shrubs from Sam Browns each year. I would often reach out to Andy to see if he could find a source for the rarest of plants, and every time he succeeded. Today, Andy is the owner of Sam Browns Nursery, which is a re-wholesale operation that specializes in rare and unusual trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Over this same period of time, Andy has been developing and cultivating his home garden adjacent to the nursery on Sugartown Rd. Andy received his degree in horticulture from the University of Delaware and has been a passionate plantsman ever since. The famed plantsman Tony Avent, owner of Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden near Raleigh, NC, once said, “I plant in drifts of one.” I think it would be a fair assessment that Andy has taken a similar design approach. On less than an acre, Andy has filled his garden with the rarest of the rare plants. He has a tiny lean-to greenhouse where he propagates plants from seeds and cuttings, as well as other plants he purchases, trades for, or is gifted. While the backbone of the garden is an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, he has planted the ground layer with unusual perennials, including many Arisaema, Corydalis, Epimedium, and his burgeoning snowdrop (Galanthus) collection. Every year he attends the world-renowned Galanthus Gala in Downingtown, PA.
I asked him what his favorite group of plants is, and he replied Hamamelidaceae, which is the witch-hazel family. He has a nice collection of the winterhazel, Corylopsis. He showed me a relatively mature specimen of Parrotia subaequalis and Sycoparrotia semidecidua, and he mentioned that he covets the very rare Parrotiopsis jacquemontiana.
He keeps his eyes peeled for interesting seedlings that germinate in the garden. He found a seedling of the golden-foliage Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Ogon’ a few years back and named it ‘Soul Fire.’ While ‘Ogon’ ultimately loses its yellow color over the course of the summer, ‘Soul Fire’ maintains its bright golden foliage all the way until frost, when it turns an autumnal bronze.
Every day after his work at the nursery, he returns to his house, his retreat, his oasis, his botanic garden.
