Very Limited Edition

It might be an overstatement to call “The Book of Attributes of the Living Horticultural Collections of the Old City Cemetery Museums and Arboretum” Jane White’s life’s work. Given her track record, who knows what else she might accomplish during her time here on earth?
Still, if the recently retired director of Lynchburg’s Old City Cemetery decides to rest her laurels on this one final effort, it wouldn’t be a bad way to be remembered.
The National Park Service, for one, was impressed.
“We are in the process of producing an accurate base plan and horticultural list for the White House,” wrote Paul D. Dolinsky, chief of the American Landscapes Survey. “Many of the presentation ideas in your book will be very helpful to us as we organize our project.”
You’ve heard of limited edition prints. This is a limited edition book, with only 25 copies in circulation. You can’t buy it, although you can purchase (for $20) a copy of the corresponding CD.
You’ve heard of books that are hard to put down. This one takes some effort to pick up. (“It weighs about 10 pounds,” White said). Even the title is big.
Basically, what White has done is to list, identify and place in overall perspective what she calls “every living thing in the cemetery.” (The non-living residents have already been carefully catalogued in an exhaustive map of grave markers). That works out to 274 roses, 357 shrubs, 35 vines and 643 trees.
White knew about most of them even before she started her in-depth research three years ago. “But I was thinking about retiring,” she said, “and didn’t want all this to be just in my head.”
When she started the book, White already had identified most of the shrubs, trees and flowers. For those she had not, she knew in most cases whom to ask.
She credits city employee Allison Johnson with sharing and explaining the city’s cemetery maps, and Nancy Marion of the Design Group with converting “lots of spiral notebooks” into readable tables within the book.
Johnson also inspired the title, White said, “because in our conversations, she kept referring to the trees and shrubs as ‘attributes’ — which, of course, they are.”
Yes, a roster of trees and shrubs sounds kind of dry, to put it mildly, but when White took me for a quick spin through the cemetery’s copy of “The Book of Attributes,” it was surprisingly intriguing. There is an aerial map of the cemetery taken in 1993, and another digital shot from above taken last year.
If you look at the map through a magnifying glass, you’ll see green dots, each one of which represents a plant. And you’ll see that every green dot has an attached number.
Then, you’ll find the scientific name, common name, approximate date planted, condition and expected lifespan of each one. The book has some striking photographs to break up the type, and a fascinating selection of stories about some of the resident plants.
Like the bald chestnut rose, popularly known as “Badly,” that was discovered growing in a home garden off Old Forest Road by local rose expert Carl Cato. Or the bulbs that were transplanted from the backyard of local educator Virginia Cabell Randolph and replanted at her gravesite. Or “Ed’s Rose,” named for a double amputee who lived on Taylor Street and used to patrol the cemetery in his wheelchair. Or the centuries-old sugar maples in the Confederate section.
The horticulture history of the City Cemetery has a dividing line as well-defined as AD and BC. Call it “Before the Storm” and “After the Storm.” The legendary “wind event” that took place in the spring of 1993 rearranged the cemetery’s foliage considerably, toppling a significant percentage of the trees. That was also the point at which White, as a founding member of the Southern Memorial Association, began her rescue and reclamation project of the cemetery itself. The book is just another step in that direction.
“There’s a plan for all of this, and we’ve always tried to keep what’s been planted true to its period and its place in the cemetery. We also wanted the place to have a warm, comforting feel to it,” White said.
“Do you realize what a wonderful thing you have done?” historic landscaper Rudy Favretti, whom White honors as her primary mentor, asked in a letter to his protege.
The Connecticut-based Favretti has a copy of “The Book of Attributes,” putting him in good company. Other recipients include the National Park Service, the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, Calif., the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust in San Francisco, the Virginia Historical Society and Monticello. Locally, it has been bestowed upon the City of Lynchburg, the Lynchburg Museum System, the Lynchburg Public Library, the Jones Memorial Library and the Hill City Master Gardeners Association.