Thayer and Tom Dodd, III, along with Al Showers, started the nursery in early 1992 with express goals:

• produce the kinds of plants we like
• produce quality products for the markets we foresee in the future
• continue in the tradition of Tom’s father to:
  • keep looking for new species
  • new forms of old species
  • new uses for the better plants
  • continue promoting little known plants of promise.
    

Here in LA (lower Alabama), we are blessed with an incredible diversity of plant and animal life. This is because we are at the former southern tip of the Appalachian mountain range, and many new species were pushed down by glaciers. We are also at the confluence of many rivers, and some species have drifted south. Our soils are sandy and our water is plentiful. Mobile and Baldwin, the two coastal counties of Alabama, have more plant species than all of Europe.

America's first native born naturalist, William Bartram traveled extensively through the South. It is well known that other countries appreciate North American plants. Ironically, nurserymen in other lands have done more to develop and use our native plant than we have. A Japanese landscape architect with whom Tom Dodd, Jr. has exchanged seed for years, related that in Japan he uses mostly Japanese native plants and a few exotic specimens (mostly dogwood and magnolia). When he visited the US, he saw the same thing - a predominance of Japanese plants and few plants native to North America! He hypothesized that this is because the US is a young country and we are not yet comfortable with our own plant material. There is also the Victorian mentality that something is good if it is from afar. We are finally learning this is not true with plants. The importance of provenance is beginning to be recognized by plantsmen and gardeners alike.

We feel plants chosen from our southernmost range will be more adaptable to the Southern garden and will perhaps move North more easily than northern range plants move South. For example, "Mountain Laurel" - Kalmia latifolia, grows in abundance here along the creeks and rivers of the South. Plants grown from seed acquired locally do well here. Similar specimens that we have tried to move South simply don't thrive well in our hot, humid climate. It is simply common sense. If a species or cultivar has developed in a particular climate, it will probably fair better in that climate than specimens that are genetically inclined to thrive in other regions.

There seems to be the silly notion out there that cultivars are "better" than straight species. A cultivar is simply a plant someone has chosen for one or more characteristics, such as bloom color, size, growth habit, pest or disease resistance, or just to establish a new name for personal or marketing purposes (the pink loropetalums for example). Many cultivars are obviously worthy of naming and saving, but in the rush to name every slight difference, the value of growing from seed is being lost. We must continue to grow from seed to maintain biodiversity, to strengthen the genetic pool, and to look for new forms.

Growers are affected by market demand. If designers and publications only favor cultivars, then the public will know nothing else, and the growers will have to satisfy that demand. Many excellent plants never "catch on" because they are without a catchy name or are not mentioned in those publications. More diversity and flexibility in plant choices will create a climate that will allow the growers to produce a wider variety of good plants. If economics alone is allowed to dictate the market, we will all end up using the same ten plants in every garden.

Wildflowers of Alabama - Created by Caroline Dean of Auburn University

Noble Plants - Created by Michael Dirr of the University of Georgia

Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants - Created by Dr. Richard Wunderlin & Dr. Bruce Hansen
of the Institute for Systematic Botany at the University of South Florida

Here is a hodge podge of books that we love or use a lot.

Dirr, Dr. Mike of UGA - several books and CD on plant material - all excellent, particularly the ones
that reference our plants! All are available on his "Noble Plants" site, linked above.

Nation, Fred. 2002 Where the Wild Illicium Grows, Lavender Publishing Co., AL
Odenwald, Neil

Porcher, Dr. Richard of the Citadel (Tom’s alma mater) has two excellent books on the plants of South Carolina. They are arranged by habitat.

Stein, Sara.1993 NOAH’S GARDEN : Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards. Houghton Miflin
Co NY

Wasowski, Sally & Andy several books on native gardening - excellent and humorous

More reference material for those of you who, like us, have grown beyond the status of "enthusiast".

Dirr, Dr. Mike of UGA - several books and CD on plant material - all excellent (particularly the ones

Bailey, Liberty Hyde 1976 Hortus Third, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. New York.

Brown, Clair A. 1972 Wildflowers of Louisiana and Adjoining States, LSU Press. Baton Rouge.

Dean, Blanche F., F. Mason and J. L. Thomas. 1973 Wildflowers of Alabama and Adjoing States, University of Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa.

Foote, Leonard E. and Samuel B. Jones, Jr. 1989 Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast, Timber Press. Portland.

Galle, Fred C. 1985 Azaleas, Timber Press. Portland.

Hill, Madalene and G. Barclay. 1987 South Herb Growing, Shearer Publishing. Fredericksburg, TX.

Fontenot, William R. 1992 Native Gardening in the South, A Prairie Basse Publication, Carencro, LA.

Jones, Samuel B. and L. E. Foote. 1990 Gardening with Native Wild Flowers. Timber Press. Portland.

Leopold, Aldo. 1986 A Sand County Almanac. Balantine Books. NY

Odum, Eugene P. 1971 Fundamentals of Ecology. W. B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia.

Phillips, Harry N. 1985 Growing and Propagating Wild Flowers. The University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill.

Radford, Albert E., H. E. Ables, C. R. Bell. 1968 Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. The University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill.

Timme, S. Lee. 1989 Wildflowers of Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. Jackson.

Welch, William C. 1989 Perennial Garden Color. Taylor Publishing Co. Dallas.