Ask Uli Lorimer to describe himself and he’ll tell you he’s a “through and through plant nerd”. The director of horticulture at the US-based Native Plant Trust is a tireless advocate of New England plants in public gardens, the designed landscape and those found in the wild. “While my work is focused on New England plants, I am a lover of plants anywhere,” he says.
It’s the start of a new day when I dial in to speak with him Stateside and he is busy overseeing operations at the internationally recognised botanic garden, Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts. His remit also includes Nasami Farm, a nursery focused on propagation of, and research about, New England native plants, as well as wider initiatives.
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“Native Plant Trust is the USA’s first plant conservation organisation and its mission is to conserve and promote New England’s native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes. It’s celebrating its 125th anniversary, which is pretty old by American standards.” Its 31 staff and more than 700 volunteers monitor and protect endangered and rare plants, collect and preserve seeds to ensure biological diversity, conduct research and offer educational insight. “Our message is that native plants are not only beautiful, but ecologically important to the wider landscape.”
We’re trying to display – as aesthetically as possible – what the land tells us
The son of a German mother and a Scottish father, Uli spent his early years ‘slug hunting’ with his grandmother and hiking in the Black Forest. “I was the kid that wanted to know what was under a log.” When the family moved to Northern Delaware in 1981, he would visit Longwood Gardens, Winterthur and the Mt. Cuba Center. “They were always magical places to be, so I like to think that those early experiences and the influence of my mother and her mother, who were both keen gardeners, pointed me in this direction.”
He studied botany and landscape horticulture at the University of Delaware, subsequently working as Woodland Gardener at Wave Hill in New York City before becoming curator of native flora at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for 14 years, and then making the “hop, skip and jump” to Garden in the Woods in 2019. “I wanted to merge my passion for field botany – going out and identifying wild plants and plant communities – with public horticultural displays. It’s a holistic conservation ethic that is central to my work now.”
If you’re one of the 50,000 yearly visitors to Garden in the Woods, you’ll soon discover it is different to other US botanic gardens, and intentionally so. “We’re trying to display – as aesthetically as possible – what the land tells us.” Its 45 acres are home to 1,000 species of plants in various habitats unique to the region, including a woodland of oak, maple and black gum, lily pond and bog, wild calla pool, wildflower meadow and coastal sandplain, plus the Idea Garden, which showcases ecological home gardening techniques, including lawn alternatives and green roofs. These support thriving populations of pollinators (they have 200 bee species), seed-eating birds and other wildlife.
Our message is that native plants are not only beautiful, but ecologically important to the wider landscape
"In this part of the northeast, we are surrounded by housing subdivisions that look more or less the same, with a turf lawn and foundation plantings. It’s a landscape that pollinators and songbirds struggle to exist in because the resources aren’t there to sustain them. It is a worrying trend in American landscapes.”
Uli’s aim is to encourage New Englanders to draw inspiration from the habitats he is responsible for, and to become backyard conservationists. “That’s ultimately the goal. If we don’t, then we will lose some of our most iconic plants, including Trillium.” He adds: “I’m not a purist. Studies here have shown that a threshold of two-thirds native is ideal for maintaining insect diversity and therefore songbird diversity.”
His current plant crush is the Plymouth rose-gentian (Sabatia kennedyana), a rare species endemic to eastern coasts. “It has a beautiful large pink flower, yellow in the centre. We have a wonderful display here. It has taken about four years to come to fruition from collecting wild seed. It feels incredibly satisfying to have brought this charismatic flower out of obscurity.”
Uli’s messages are hopeful and forward thinking, so he is sought after for presentations and podcasts, and he files a fortnightly column for The Boston Globe. A talented photographer and writer, his book, The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden, features meticulously observed close-ups shot with his trusty DSLR. A publication on Massachusetts’ wildflowers is in progress.
His guiding light are his two young sons – “I want to leave the world a better place for them” – and the interns he has mentored, including Kevin Philip Williams, co-author of Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands. “I get most satisfaction from mentoring the next generation. It fills my heart that I have a hand in shaping their passions and future trajectories.”
Useful information:
Find out more about Native Plant Trust and Garden in the Woods at nativeplanttrust.org
