Published: June 26, 2008 12:00 am            

Horticulture a family affair for Robert and Aaron Westbrook

You just never know who you'll see at the Norman Farmer's Market. My daughter Jerri and I were chatting with Charlene Perry at her booth when I felt a tap on my shoulder. There stood my friend that I hadn't seen in several years, Robert Westbrook. After inquiring of each other about what we'd been doing since last we got together he guided us to his booth a short distance from Charlene's.

On the white wall above his display a PowerPoint presentation was illustrating Dawn Redwoods that Robert had planted on one of the landscapes he designed. The back yard sloped so he constructed the necessary hardware to support the rocky waterfalls, elevated areas, etc., picked out the plants that would do well in their new setting -- with suggestions from the client about likes and dislikes -- and installed and maintains the grounds.

Robert is the third generation of horticulturalists, the grandson on his mother's side of Otis and Preston Warren who established Warren and Sons Nursery, so he "grew" naturally to love all aspects of horticulture. His son Aaron works beside his father in all the various enterprises that Robert began many years ago.

I watched them work together at a west Norman location Monday and I could tell that the father and son work very, very well as a team to keep the landscaping and marketing business going smoothly. The landscaping maintenance crew and Aaron were busily edging, mowing, running errands, etc., under the brutal heat of early afternoon and in the blazing sun. They will continue until their tasks are completed or it becomes too dark to see.

Let me tell you a little of Aaron's background. He's 24 years old, pursuing a chemical engineering degree at the University of Oklahoma, has received several scholarships including one from British Petroleum, is an OU honor student, Outstanding Engineering Student for two consecutive years. Aaron also is working this summer in the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program with Dr. Mark Nanny in environmental sciences at OU to study the effects of using soil humate for remediation of oil spills.

In addition to the aforementioned activities, Robert told me that he hands Aaron all the problems that require solving skills, helps his father set up the booth at the Farm Market, sells plants and educates people about easy-care perennials that will do well in our climate.

Robert told me that they grow all the plants they sell at the Farmer's Market. The many varieties of ferns and coral bells are grown in test tubes from plant tissue culture. From 1979 to 1983 he managed the Plant Tissue Laboratory at Warren and Son Nursery where Robert established and managed all phases of their commercial plant tissue culture laboratory. Like the Warrens, he is very interested in promoting Oklahoma native plants for the landscape as well as other easy-care hardy perennials that will be an asset to the environment.

In 1964 Otis Warren and Preston discovered a redbud superior to the usual seedling: its wax-covered shiny foliage with dense reddish purple flowers in the Arbuckle Mountains in Murray County, (Cercis canadensis subspecies texensis) cultivar Oklahoma reniformis (kidney-shaped leaves). This redbud cultivar is the most drought resistant redbud on the market.

Back to the original subject, the lovely west Norman home and landscape that the Westbrook maintenance crew was working on when I arrived, three stately 35-foot-high Dawn Redwoods growing against the west garden wall set the tone for the gardens: stately but welcoming. Robert placed the three trees there when they were about 6 feet tall about 12 years ago. They grew fast and have had no damage from the December ice storm or the strong June winds.

I don't have space enough to do justice to these special garden "rooms," I'll just list some of the outstanding specimens growing within the back gardens. The Japanese maples, there are 23, including creeping red fine-fingered maples, variegated shrub maples, weeping maples and others with the most exquisite palmate mostly rich cream with one to three emerald green streaks, a splendid clear red Japanese maple covers much of the off-white chimney.

A rocky incline with a waterfall near the top guides the eye up to a terrace whose entrance is set off by a large wooden Japanese-style pagoda where there is another water feature in the back wall. Other outstanding plants used on the grounds include: Varnish Tree, a.k.a. Chinese Parasol Tree, Fat Albert Blue Spruce and other varieties, Incense Cedar, Summer Chocolate Mimosa, Tri-colored Beech.

You will find Robert and Aaron at their booth at the Farm Market, doing what they like best talking to people educating them about plants and their relationship to the environment.

Betty Culpepper may be reached at bculpepper3@cox.net for comments, questions or ideas for future columns.

        

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