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The Courtship Of Ladies and Plants
by Mary Jasch
Horticultural legend Ralph Snodsmith took retirement early in Illinois. At nine years old, he mowed the expansive lawns of a 32–acre estate from Monday mornings to Saturday nights. He felt lucky to have a job and was content in a landscape of green, and he saved his money then at today's same interest rate. "I thought I had the world by the tail," he says.
Young Snodsmith's appointment to West Point didn't last long. He flunked out on a technicality — calculus. "I and mathematics had a disagreement."
"Plants rent space. If they don't do what they're supposed to, they go right to the compost pile."
Embarrassed, he rode the night train home to Illinois where his father met him at the station. "My dad picked me up, dusted my pants off and out I went again." For him it was a positive lesson in the arts of growing and parental respect.
Undaunted, he eventually found his way from law to horticulture and graduated from the University of Illinois with a masters in Turf Management.
He and his wife, Mary, moved to New York 37 years ago. He worked as county agriculture agent with Cornell's Extension Service, and later took a job as executive director of the Queens Botanical Garden for ten years.
At Queens he loved the creativity, but says the only thing he didn't like was that he had to court money. There is treachery among the greenery, where business precedes peace.
Every morning at 9:01 and evening at 4:59, the chairman of the board called Snodsmith. That harassment and what followed eventually prodded his resignation, which the president refused.
"Had that little weasel come into my office with his yellow pad, I would have explained where I was. I was out bringing in money like you wouldn't believe. At the next board meeting I brought in $40,000 worth in pink deposit slips in one month."
By the time he resigned, Snodsmith increased the yearly kitty from $20,000 in donations to $980,000. "I was out courting money from little old ladies in sneakers."
Signs were everywhere at the gardens — signs that said "Don't touch. Don't walk on the grass." The first thing he did was pull them out and encourage people to touch and smell the plants.
Soon, he had the opportunity to bring in a band — the George Seuffert Orchestra — followed by other music makers. He asked the crowds not to litter. "The most we ever picked up after any concert was two tissues. They never damaged the plants because we allowed people to smell the flowers. Let people in and give them guidance, and they'll be happy to be on your team."
His staff was like that. "I was the last dog to leave at night and I had the most fantastic staff. They gave me their all."
One of his tenets in practice at the gardens is "If a plant does not grow, it never gets a second chance." He does it in his own garden and believes in putting the right plant in the right place.
"Plants rent space. If they don't do what they're supposed to, they go right to the compost pile."
Snodsmith is an institution. On Rockland County radio for 37 years and WOR for 27, he has earned a litany of accomplishments and recognitions.
They include the New York Botanical Garden Distinguished Service Award and Distinguished Educator in Plant Studies Award. He was gardening editor for Good Morning America. He received the Willard H. Allen Agricultural Communications Award, the American Horticultural Society Communications Award, and the Ram's Horn Award from the State University of New York. He has written the gardening section for Americana Encyclopedia Yearbook and published two books including his latest, "The Tri-State Gardener's Guide."
"At WOR, they told me I wouldn't last for three weeks." During his stint on the night show, all eight incoming lines flashed constantly. Not once were they all not lit, and his five minute spot at 7:25 AM brought in 16,000 pieces of mail in a week. They hired two part time secretaries to handle it.
Broadcasting is just a portion of his weekly cycle. He reads to keep up–to–date, he lectures at garden events, runs a website, publishes the Garden Hotline® Newsletter, is writing a third book and teaches at the New York Botanical Garden. He's the longest–running instructor there.
Snodsmith is a horticulturist with a bent toward the environmentalist. He accommodates the landscape in design. "If someone tells me they want a cactus garden like they see in Sunset Magazine I tell them, 'Sell out and move west if that's what you want, because you can't have that here.'"
He tries to use plants that are native to the region. He makes the best of a land's assets as he designs, making only minor changes, like the pockets he carved from the woods for his personal collection of 4,200 rhododendron plants. Some get full sun, some partial and others get shade.
The large beds contain eight to ten plants of each variety, flanked by groupings of other varieties. He has 92 varieties in all. "Color in a garden is like a symphony. As the cellos finish, the oboes take over. The garden will always be in play."
He keeps the shrubs compact and full by deadheading each plant "This way, each stem grows four new shoots instead of one. Put your hand into that flower truss and snap it out."
Snodsmith has spoken to all kinds of audiences and says that people who deal with gardens are different from others. "They are my best friends. They have a reverence for what they're doing, a reverence for life. They're down to earth people. That's why I enjoy doing what I'm doing since I was nine years old."
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published June 01, 2003
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