New Owners Opening Boxerwood to the Public

Lexington News Gazeette, April 2, 1997 *

It is hard to imagine a garden that has more than 2,400 specimen plants, not including groupings of yews and dogwoods and rows of hemlocks and junipers; a garden that has 167 kinds of dwarf conifers and specific evergreens, 57 kinds of magnolias, 27 different Cornus varieties, 54 Acer species and 154 varieties of Acer palmatum, an estimated 350 different rhododendrons and azaleas and unknown numbers of crabapples and other individual varieties or species.

            Under any circumstances, such a garden would be described as a horticultural treasure, especially since all these trees and shrubs are mature, labeled and less than a mile from Lexington. It didn’t appear overnight, but it still sounds almost magical.

            For years, Boxerwood Gardens has been a bit like Brigadoon, a legendary Scottish village that was said to have appeared once every hundred years for one day only. In the Broadway musical by the same name, an ordinary mortal, quite by accident, wanders into the wood just as Brigadoon appears for this particular incarnation. He falls in love with a citizen of Brigadoon who, along with the village, must soon vanish for another hundred years.       

            For those who were not friends or acquaintances of the Munger family, Boxerwood Gardens might just as well have been such a legend. Occasionally, it would be featured during Historic Garden Week. The word would get out and, one day, a few hundred people would come. They would fall in love, and Boxerwood would once again disappear. No more.

            Beginning Thursday, April 3, Boxerwood Gardens will be open to the public on a regular basis. From now through November, self-guided tours will be available Thursday, Friday and Saturday of each week and the first Sunday of each month. Guided tours will be available by appointment.

            Of all the elements in the story of Boxerwood Gardens, one of the more remarkable is that it was created by one man during the last 30 years of his life in his free time. Dr. Robert S. Munger probably never intended to create what Boxerwood has become; he simply wanted to do it. Day by day, year by year – seldom concerning himself with the finished product – he collected trees and shrubs that interested him. In fact, he came to the conclusion that gardening was the slowest and most kinetic of all the performing arts. It would be futile to try to imagine, much less control, the outcome of a garden. It is a dance.

            He professed to have simply “collected trees” for years before he noticed a garden was happening, before he discovered patterns or principles of horticulture and began to experiment between compliance and noncompliance with them, and discovered that, from an artistic point of view, the space between the trees was as important as the trees.

            According to Elizabeth E. Munger, Munger’s widow whom he called Betts, it all began in 1957. Dr. Munger had been landscaping his family’s new home. A couple of years into the project, someone gave him a catalogue of rare and unusual trees and shrubs. Life was never the same again. That catalogue not only brought new plants, it opened a new world of interest. It brought new friends. It carried the Mungers all over the world to see other gardens and brought people from all over to visit Boxerwood.

            Interest in Boxerwood is amazingly widespread. Garden clubs representing the entire East coast call for tours. The National Arboretum comes to see the dogwood collection. People from Europe come to visit some of the rarer and more endangered species. Several nurseries gather their propagation material at Boxerwood. And yet, comparatively few Lexingtonians are aware of this part of Munger’s Life. To most, Munger was one of the last old-fashioned doctors; he made house calls, delivered their babies, sutured their cuts and treated their diseases. He was their doctor until in retired in 1976.

            In reality, Munger did not retire. He changed professions. He become his own full-time gardener and curator. For 12 years, he pursued his interest in gardening and collecting with an enviable devotion.

            In 1986, Munger hired Karen “KB” Bailey. She had fallen in love with his garden, and he had come to need some regular physical assistance. Soon after, Munger learned that he was terminally ill. Bailey became his muscle and the receptacle of his knowledge. He offered to pay for classes for her that he thought would supplement his knowledge, and he proceeded to teach her everything he knew about Boxerwood and gardening. Munger died in 1988.

            Until 1996, Mrs. Munger, with the help of Bailey as gardener, caretaker and devoted friend of Boxerwood, supervised the daily concerns of the garden. In1995, she decided to retire. The question was raised, “What is to become of Boxerwood’s future and fate?” The subsequent events add still another magical chapter to the Boxerwood legend, said Bailey. But that, she added, is another story, for another time. The outcome was that today most of the garden belongs to Bailey, the gardener, and her partner, Hunter Mohring.

            Bailey and Mohring live at Boxerwood and, together, they are committed to the preservation and continuance of Robert S. Munger’s legacy. Bailey explained, “We don’t mean to freeze it in time. We mean to be the garden’s new dancing partners, and we are honored to have been invited to the dance.”

            “As you might imagine, there is a lot of expense to a place like this,” said Mohring. “We have to maintain what is, begin to replace those that are old or dying and continue to enlarge the collections – all at the same time. We’re going to need help, muscle and money. We’re anticipating the garden can earn a large part of her keep. Even though we don’t want money to stand in the way of anyone getting to see Boxerwood, we are suggesting a donation.

            Mohring added, “We also hope to enlist volunteers. We’re not quite sure how yet, but there’s obviously a great deal to be learned here. Maybe we can trade the experience and some of KB’s know-how for the ‘privilege’ of working here. It’s being done by other gardens and arboretums.”

            Bailey responded, “Somehow, it will work out. Who would have believed we’d come this far? Boxerwood should be seen and felt. It’s simply too amazing to keep under wraps. It’s just plain beautiful. There’s always something in bloom. The wildlife is impressive. Bob planted with the birds in mind. Last spring and summer, we hatched a nest of green herons. So far this year, we have ducks, hawks, Pileated woodpeckers and the usually crows and, of course, we’re hoping the herons will return. We’ve also seen a silver fox, and deer are commonplace. And don’t forget the occasional mad golfer.”

            So Boxerwood Gardens has new partners, and area residents don’t have to wait a hundred years to find it. Even though it will not vanish this time, it should be visited soon and often. It is always changing – day by day, season by season – and always a-swirl in the dance.

(*This article has been edited somewhat to remove information that is no longer correct.)