Lucile Whitman is the proprietor of a rare, ornamental, tree nursery in Oregon. She is a dynamic speaker whose very title is engaging: ‘Trees to Make You Smile’. She writes about herself probably better than I could, albeit with undue modesty. As she tells it, she
. . . grew up on a farm in Georgia where she made every effort to keep her hands clean. She could pretty reliably tell a Pine Tree from a Magnolia grandiflora, but that was the extent of her botanical expertise. Forward 25 years to Salem, Oregon, 1980, where she found herself unable to find a job teaching Latin and Greek. (Who knew the powers that be had dropped those subjects from local college curricula?) Is starting an unusual plant nursery not the obvious next step? Well, perhaps not, but it is a complicated story. Suffice it to say, Lucile has a wonderful life which she loves, even if she can't tell a male flower from a female flower.
Perhaps we’ll learn more about those complications in that ‘complicated story’ when she speaks to the VRS the evening of October 16th. In any case, even if Rhododendron is the only plant genus in which you have an interest—and I hope this describes very few of you—you will want to hear Lucile Whitman speak about her special, and evidently amusing, trees.