Woodside Gardener Creates A Blooming Kaleidoscope
By Lorie Bacchieri

Photo s Lorie Bacchieri After rooting the cuttings pruned from fall chrysanthemums, Thompson transplants them into her Woodside garden. The one-story high rose bushes in Thompson’s Woodside garden, extend up into the magenta blooms of the crepe myrtle.

Stroll a few blocks north of Woodside’s landmarked Jackson-Moore cemetery in Queens, glance northeast across 30th Avenue and behold Mother Nature’s kaleidoscope.

From winter’s last snowfall through the first autumnal frost, Betty Thompson’s petite yet magnificent garden, nestled among those of the adjoining one-family homes, produces a colorful array of perennial flowers and boasts rose bushes one story high. While it’s not the only well-manicured garden in the neighborhood, it is a star among its peers.

Frequently approached by gardening enthusiasts, Thompson, now that she’s retired, enjoys talking about her perennial garden—the type that continues to grow from year to year with the benefit of little maintenance and low cost. "I deal with perennials because the payoff is better; they return every year. Annuals you pay for every year, but once they die, they don’t come back," she said.

The neighborhood’s recent influx of younger families has also provided Thompson with an audience of new mothers. Imparting such wisdom as cutting back fall chrysanthemums when they reach a height of 18 to 20 inches for bushier plants, to propagating roses, Thompson is the area’s source of gardening know-how and a standard by which others judge their success.

So, what’s her secret? "Each spring, I spread a 200-pound mixture of peat moss, humus and some topsoil on the garden. I don’t even rake it in, because there are just too many plants. I layer it on top, and water it thoroughly," Thompson said.

The combination of humus and peat moss improves the soil’s ability to retain water, an added benefit when Thompson is traveling and relying on Mother Nature to water the garden. "The soil is extremely important," she emphasized. In addition to amending the soil, throughout the season she nips buds, prunes diligently, and deadheads the flowers—removes spent blooms from their stems.

She’s certainly doing something right, because the growth in her garden appears continual. There’s always something blooming. "I didn’t plan it; it just sort of happened, and I’m very satisfied with it," Thompson said. "In February, you see the little snow bells peeking out of the snow, and next you see the start of daffodils and then the tulips, and when they go down, the irises come up. The irises’ foliage remains, and then the roses begin to bloom—May is delightful with the roses."

And while the seasonal above-ground fireworks attract many oohs and aahs, almost unnoticed is the small sedum which leisurely creeps and crawls, eventually blanketing the entire garden floor.

At almost 76 years old, Thompson possesses a contagious energy and enthusiasm that could lend itself to someone at least 10 years younger. She stands 5 feet 5 inches tall, with fawn colored hair and eyes, and excitement fills her voice and her eyes light up as she speaks about the crepe myrtle, "Within a few weeks this huge tree (gesturing toward her front window), which is a crepe myrtle, begins to bloom. And when it does, it really is a picture. That’s what makes people stop. They stop their cars and ask about the crepe myrtle, it’s breathtaking."

Twenty years ago, Betty brought back a plant shoot from a southern nursery, wrapping it annually with newspapers to keep it warm during the cold northern winters. The crepe myrtle (l. lagerstroemia), indigenous to the south, blooms during July and August up north. Its flowers range in size from one and one half to three and one half inches across, and its colors can range from shades of white to pink to purple. In the fall, as if saluting the change of seasons, its foliage turns bright yellow, orange and crimson, continuing the constant parade of colors in Thompson’s garden.

As breathtaking as the magenta-blooming crepe myrtle can be, Thompson’s all time favorite flower remains the rose. She suspects her love of roses comes from her father’s homeland, Bulgaria. She visited that country in 1990, and said the countryside was covered with roses.

Her love of gardening began in her 40s, after buying her current home in 1972 for her and her mother, Thompson, following a career at AT&T. She recalls that she said: "‘Mom, we’re going to have a house to retire in. You won’t be dragging Nicole (their dog) up four flights of stairs forever.’ When I found this house, the garden and the porch were the reasons we got it." Naturally a green thumb, with no formal training, Thompson believes her gardening talent was inherited from her Austrian mother. Born in November 1924 on nearby 55th Street and Broadway, one of three children of Julia and Nicholas Thompson, Betty has lived most of her life in Queens.

She confesses that her biggest problem is that if given a choice between vacuuming and gardening, the garden wins out. "The garden is like a magnet. It calls me. I love the outdoors; it’s just so pleasant being outside. I find myself singing and can easily lose myself for four or five hours. It just gives you such a sense of freedom," she said. "And of course, when you see things growing, especially within a short time span, well, the reward is overwhelming."

Thompson’s other problem? Pinning down her favorite time of year. At first, she mused, "It’s probably the spring, I love to see the daffodils and tulips, and all the different colors. But, then again, I truly appreciate the early rose buds. It’s too hot for the roses now." To tide her over from one blooming to the next, she confesses to sticking in some artificial flowers. "I start with some dogwood blossoms, and later, perhaps some gladiolus."

Some artificial poinsettias have appeared in her front yard in the dead of winter. A glimpse inside her home reveals that it, too, is adorned with life-like roses, chrysanthemums, wisteria, and a smattering of live plants.

In the end, Thompson stays noncommittal, "Actually, I guess you can say any time there’s color in the garden is my favorite time." And in her case, that’s almost always, even if the color isn’t Mother Nature’s handiwork.