Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano describe their arboretum as “an aesthetically arranged experiment station to test interesting and useful plants” — like honeyberry, a honeysuckle relative with blue fruit that ripens very early. Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Hortus is an inspiration. Our thanks, as always, to Margaret Roach for sharing on the broad and diverse topic of gardens and gardening:

Ms. Levy and Mr. Serrano are visual artists who moved to Stone Ridge, N.Y., 25 years ago. Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, their 21-acre undertaking, began as a backyard garden. Mia Allen

How One Couple Turned Their Backyard Into an Arboretum

Their passion for fruit you’ve never heard of started small. Now they have a botanical garden that’s open to the public.

This is what happens if you stay put, and keep digging holes: An effort that begins innocently enough — planting a garden at home — may grow on you. And it could morph into an arboretum.

Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, a 21-acre expanse in Stone Ridge, N.Y., with about 11 acres under cultivation, got its start as Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano’s much smaller backyard. It has been 25 years since the couple, both visual artists, moved from San Francisco to Ulster County, where they now count more than 240 genera in their plant collection.

And it all began, as most gardens do, by making space for irresistible finds from local nurseries — no master plan involved.

More than a few were plants that bore fruit.

“Scott was channeling his inner bear, planting a lot of berry plants,” Ms. Levy recalled. They both favored species whose leaves or seeds might inspire their artwork.

A few years in, with a young family and a budget to consider, she forced a reckoning, voicing the concern that they should focus their gardening efforts. “If we’re going to plant salvias,” she proposed, “let’s just have different species. If we’re going to plant anything, let’s start thinking about an overall design, and how we’re planting and where.”

Before long, they had exhausted the possibilities at nearby garden centers and began ordering tiny rooted cuttings of shrubs and trees from rare-plant nurseries. Others, they grew from seed — even trees…

Read the whole article here.