Yew Dell: Holly Cooper’s Family Tree

 

Sept 2020 – Holly Cooper in Yew Dell’s holly allée. (Robin Cooper photo.)

Holly Cooper comes by her name naturally. Theodore Klein, a nurseryman and plant collector, was Holly’s grandfather. Mr. Klein had a fondness for hollies. He and his wife, Martha Lee, built their home, raised a family and created Yew Dell, their 60-acre workplace and private arboretum in Crestwood, Kentucky.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Holly became a talented gardener. She also has a photographic gift nurtured by her mother, the well-known photographer Marian Klein Koehler. Holly, my sister-in-law, has an extraordinary eye for nuance and grace.  

Few know Yew Dell Botanical Gardens as well as Holly does. She, of course, in modest fashion, would want to include Uncle Karl Klein, Aunt Joyce Gregory and sister Julie Koehler, who also possess a deep sense of place.

Yew Dell Botanical Garden opened to the public in 2006 with a mission, stated in a nutshell, by Executive Director Paul Cappiello, to: “Raise the bar of horticulture.”

Since then, with love and care from a small, talented and passionate staff, a committed board, and hundreds of devoted volunteers, plus generous public support, a life’s work was preserved, and the gardens and arboretum have been dramatically expanded.

I asked Holly a few months ago to photograph her impressions of Yew Dell. “Fall flavors and activities” were her inspiration.

Sept 2012 – Yew Dell’s memorial gift, a bench honoring my mother, Marian Klein Koehler

Sept 1983 – My grandfather focused on seed and nut sorting. A Fall ritual.

1960 – My grandmother, Martha Lee Klein, by huge black locust. Home, now the kitchen garden. (Theodore Klein photo.)

Sept 1983 – Old Oak, cattle and castle. Viewed from quarry outcropping, a favorite bonfire pit. Cows DO enjoy S’Mores! (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Sept 2020 – Pasture renewed as a pollinator habitat.

Oct 2012 – Pond trail. Overgrown pasture. Only mowing needed is the footpath.

Oct 2012 – Persimmons weighing down branches against blue sky. Chill winds begin.

Oct 2020 – Persimmons best eaten dead-ripe!

Oct 2020 – Persimmon seed ‘scat’-tered as nature intended.

Sept 2009 – Papa’s pawpaws. Exotic near tropical flavor..

Sept 2020 – Corn crib. For cow feed. Cardinals eat their share. Horizontal corn attached to wire coat-hangers, suspended off maple boughs.

Sept 2020 – Cornfield, field-dried cob. “Angel’s Share” goes to mice, doves and deer.

Sept 2020 – Corn crib latch is the same since, forever. Withstood lots of interior banging, “Let-me-OUT!”

Sept 2009 – Pet cemetery. My grandfather chiseled the stone and inscribed the cement.

Dec 1980 – “Mildred” the cat, content on any lap. (Theodore Klein photo.)

Sept 1960 – 3 generations to press apples into liquid gold.  (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Sept 1960 – Little me, sample sippin’. (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Nov 1973 – Frost coming. Find the green tomatoes among the Fall cucurbits. (Theodore Klein photo.)

Sept 2020 – Aging grape vines & trellis. Improved varieties are available, but our old, German ancestral friends won’t disappoint.

Sept 2020 – Uncle Karl maintains his father’s (Papa’s) aluminum labels. Classics, all three of them. I hold Papa and Uncles Jules and Karl in the highest esteem.

Oct 1961- Asian Chestnuts. Old farm entrance. Collecting with cousins. (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Oct 1961- 2-yr old me, not happy.  (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Oct 1961 – Reward for persistence, sweet nutmeats. (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Sept 2009 – Castle vestibule. Papa carved this sundial, paraphrasing Henry Van Dyke’s quote. TIME IS…

Jan 1978 – House under snow. Remember big winter snowfalls? (Marian Klein Koehler photo.)

Robin Cooper photo

 

 

 

Yew Dell: Holly Cooper’s Family Tree originally appeared on GardenRant on December 9, 2020.

The post Yew Dell: Holly Cooper’s Family Tree appeared first on GardenRant.

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