Reasons to Celebrate Yew Dell’s Holly

 

I have favorite gardens for reasons that include history, design, variety, enchantment, sense of place, purpose and sentiment. Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, in Crestwood, Kentucky, checks all the boxes, but sentiment plays a special part for me. Holly Cooper, my sister-in-law, was the granddaughter of Theodore and Martha Lee Klein, who bought 34 acres in the rural hinterlands and followed a dream to start a nursery. Holly comes by her name naturally. Theordore Klein planted an extensive, private collection of trees and shrubs in his home arboretum, including many cultivars of American hollies.

Yew Dell Botanic Gardens celebrates their 25^th anniversary this year, and Holly has had a front row seat, enchanted by Yew Dell, long before the gardens were opened to the public in 2006.

Karl Klein, the youngest of four siblings, and Holly’s uncle, told me his parents eloped in 1929. On their wedding day, Theodore lost his wallet but found it later in a cow’s footprint. A promising sign. “It was the only money they had.”

Crestwood, Kentucky, was a small country town in 1941. The Kleins made a living growing field-grown trees and shrubs, including long rows of yews. Theodore, instead of laying off his workers at season’s end, kept a skeleton crew year-round. In the winters, they built the Klein’s house, a pool house tricked out like a castle, a greenhouse, a red tobacco barn, the mail-order Quonset kit barn, a decorative corn crib and other outbuildings.

Childhood days at Yew Dell

Holly Cooper has fond memories:

We grands referred to them as, “Nana & Papa,” usually as one. They did most everything together…Papa was towering, quietly authoritative. My grandmother was warm, demonstrative, a hugger! Rarely sat…She claimed her kitchen table chair “had a spring in it”! My first early childhood memories… cousins splashing in the pool. Eating sweetest Seckel pears off the ground. Dodging hungrier wasps.

Nana was always busy. Cooking; harvesting, peeling, shucking, and stirring! If she ever claimed, “caught up,” there was sewing, crocheting or knitting for the annual church bazaar.

Papa was a blur as well. Overseeing AND working WITH his men outdoors. 

The care and feeding of his—literally—growing nursery took expert attention. He’d learned at his father’s knee a farmer’s day is never done.

Yew Dell’s transition

Marian Klein Koehler, Holly’s mother, reached out to Paul Cappiello in 2000. Paul was then Horticulturist at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Clermont, Kentucky. Theodore and Martha Lee had died within a few years of one another in the late 1990s. Marian Klein Koehler desperately wanted to save the property from development. Yew Dell Nursery was regionally renowned. The home arboretum planted by Theodore, his two sons Jules and Karl, and their nursery crew, included dogwoods, redbuds, beeches, viburnums, magnolias, yews, hollies, and old garden roses. “None of the collections,” Paul said, “approached comprehensive but they all had Theodore’s touch on them—the unique, the different, and the pragmatic. The original inventory and map had just over 2000 plants on it—all woody.”

Karl Klein said, “The arboretum plantings were constantly evolving. Many of the plants were one of a kind, either found by my father or gifted from fellow nurserymen who knew he would appreciate and nurture them. He officially retired in 1974 and let his men go except for one who kept helping around the place.”

Paul encouraged Marian Klein Koehler, but there were hurdles and little direction in 2000. It would take a lot of money and work to turn the former Yew Dell Nursery into a public garden. The Glenview Garden Club came for a visit when the property was up for grabs. Mary Rounsavall and Sue Brown saw potential. They stepped up with other supporters and donors. A non-profit was formed, and the property was purchased in 2002. 

 

Yew Dell Botanical Gardens launches from the ground up

The castle was covered in English ivy. The historic Gheens Quonset barn was off the foundation. Out buildings needed repair, and the grounds had to be cleaned up.

Paul Cappiello began working on an 18-month, part-time contract in 2002. “We had a small board,” he told me, “…one half-time office worker and a man who mowed the property in return for rent.”

Mary Anne Thornton, Louisville’s premier organizer, booster and contributor for all things horticultural, described her friend as a “bright and energetic educator, speaker and visionary who can relate to anyone from garden professional to nervous beginner.”

A threadbare budget was drawn up.  “We came in close to twelve dollars in the black the first year. We needed to build capacity in the beginning… We kept the bulls outside the barn door when there were little more than a few months of operating dollars left in the bank.”

Yew Dell didn’t have all the answers. They humbly sought advice from experts on how to deal with historical aspects of the property, how to grow an organization, and how to get people involved. “We were building the plane and flying it at the same time—everything from staffing to fundraising to keeping the weeds down and bringing buildings up to minimum code so we could open to the public down the road,” Paul said. The upstart public garden was growing, and meanwhile, they were teaching classes and trying to let the regional/national/international horticultural communities know what was coming.

Volunteer support was Yew Dell’s lifeline 

Holly Cooper signed on early.

“Once the reclaimed garden areas were replanted, they desperately needed a crew. Enter gullibly GENEROUS board, nursery tradesmen and community volunteers. I have been there at Yew Dell, almost every week, for more than 26 years.”

Holly Cooper has pulled enough weeds to fill the old Yew Dell corn silo many times over.

There are now between 500-600 volunteers helping yearly. “We have nine or ten Adopt-a-Garden groups—small groups that self-assemble around a particular garden each week.  And then we have floaters who move around other sections.”

The return of a hometown boy

Yew Dell was ready for a new perspective. The iconic castle was the underutilized crown jewel with the best view on the property. The board approved a 5-million-dollar capital campaign in 2022.

“Richard Hartlage is a plantsman first and understands what makes people weak in the knees. And with his full stable of pros, he has all the hardscape capabilities as well.” Paul called Hartlage, now the principal of Seattle’s Land Morphology. Would he come and make a proposal? “His response was classic Richard, ‘Only if we can work around that castle because it needs it.’” The board overwhelmingly agreed that Richard’s talent, portfolio, and profile were what Yew Dell needed and the castle deserved.

“I met Theodore once,” Richard told me. “As a kid I heard about his unusual, variegated redbud (Cercis canadensis). I was curious and decided to visit.” (Richard had been surrounded by family who gardened and influenced him.) “I biked over one day, and Theodore was working. He took me to the redbud (‘Silver Cloud’), and we walked around the arboretum. Theodore was proud of his dwarf maples and beech tree collection. He was very kind and shared his passion for trees.”

A homecoming with a major commission on this scale for Richard, and Land Morphology, could not have been imagined years before as he rode up the drive at Yew Dell Nursery to meet Mr. Klein.

“Paul and his Board embraced new ideas for the Castle Gardens. The whole process and experience have been a delight. I am sad my parents are no longer alive to see the garden finished. The experience has been gratifying and cathartic beyond words.” 

Finishing touches

Perennials, annuals, and tropicals now take a bigger stage at Yew Dell. Paul reminded me of Mike Dirr’s reality: “You can attract ten people with a world class maple collection, but you can pack them in with $50 worth of petunias.” The annual and tropical displays give Yew Dell an easy way to change things quickly and give people reasons to come out again.  

I visited Yew Dell on April 22^nd.  Sayde Heckman was hurtling back and forth on a tractor between the Castle Gardens and the nursery—hauling soil and gathering plants. She waved as she went by. No time to talk. It was a race to keep up with a staff and volunteers in constant motion. There were 5,000 plants that needed planting before the month-long 25^thanniversary celebrations in June. All the plants were grown behind the scenes by Jeffrey Magreiter and his nursery crew. Jacob Stidham, Director of Horticulture & Facilities, kept many balls in the air, inspiring the talented Yew Dell workforce. Paul told Louisville’s Courier-Journal, “I can’t think of another botanical garden that has pulled off what we did with our small staff.”

“Through every stage we were blessed to find people, board, staff, and volunteers, with unique talents at just the right time. There was someone (Theodore . . . or maybe Martha Lee?) looking over us and sending in the right marines when we needed them. Their children—Marian, Jules, Joyce and Karl—have played essential roles that have helped bridge their family’s legacy to a beautiful, publicly supported botanic garden.  It’s quite amazing.”

“And Holly Cooper, regardless of circumstances, is an inspiration to everyone. Her dedication, garden know-how and constant sunny disposition are uplifting. Her passion is infectious. She is a dynamic link between the past and future.”