Robert Nold is a member of numerous plant societies, including the Alpine Garden Society and the North American Rock Garden Society (who honoured him with its Award for Service), and a regular writer for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society and the Colorado Gardener. His monograph on the genus Penstemon (Timber Press, 1999) was honoured as an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine. Bob enjoys his garden in Lakewood, Colorado, with his wife, Cindy, an artist who shows her own fondness for plants and hawkmoths through her photographs and watercolours.
Timber Press: Do you have a favorite species of columbine? Is there one you just can't wait to see each year?
Robert Nold: I don't have a favorite species, but I can hardly wait to see Aquilegia jonesii in full bloom in the garden here in March, and if I'm growing A. glandulosa (which I'm not at the present time), I can hardly wait to see its 4-inch-wide flowers open.
TP: How did you first become interested in horticulture? When did this hobby become a passion?
Nold: I've been gardening almost all of my life. I started to garden about 1956 when I was five. I've never not been interested in gardening but there have been times when I had no garden. Gardening really turned into an obsession when we moved into our current house 18 years ago. I like all kinds of plants, but still remember my first experience with the Colorado columbine Aquilegia coerulea, growing in a garden across the street from the house here in Colorado where I grew up, after moving here from southern California.
TP: How do you like to use columbines in your garden design? What plants do you like to associate with them?
Nold: The larger ones just get stuck in here and there without much regard to design. The smaller ones go in the rock garden. I don't really take much of an interest in plant associations or color combinations. To me those are outdated concepts.
TP: What do you recommend to the novice columbine grower? Do you have any important tips specific to raising this plant?
Nold: The novice has as much chance of success as the expert. Columbines are among the easiest of garden plants to grow.
TP: Your approach to gardening seems to be one that is very natural, accommodating to most garden inhabitants, and low maintenance. Is this correct and how did your approach to gardening develop?
Nold: The low maintenance is simply laziness on my part. I don't have a lot of spare time to spend in the garden and would just as soon walk out into the garden after coming home from work and be delighted by something in bloom that wasn't in bloom the day before. Our garden is almost entirely organic. I'm not a purist in this regard, but we use very few chemicals in the garden. I also have a hard time following instructions so I probably couldn't mix chemicals in the proper proportions if my life depended on it. We have dogs (border collies), and love the various animals, birds, snakes, insects, raccoons, and even rabbits that visit our garden, and I think we have an obligation to provide them with an environment free from poisons. And anyway, I've learned not to take garden pests too seriously. Most infestations disappear on their own accord in a healthy garden environment.
TP: Do you have a favorite place to view wild columbines? If so, where?
Nold: My favorite place is probably near the summit of Boreas Pass here in Colorado, with the populations of dwarf forms of Aquilegia coerulea growing in the rocks at about 11,000 feet.
TP: How do you hope people will view columbines after reading your book? Is there anything you hope they'd learn?
Nold: Yes, I hope they'd learn how easy to grow they are. I also hope that people would see the wide range of plant size, flower shape, and adaptability to various garden situations, and use more of them, different species and cultivars, in various ways.
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