Washington Winter Show 2024

54 FINDING JOY IN THE GARDENWITH CHIP CALLAWAY G rowing up in the close-knit community of Mount Airy, North Carolina, Paul Faulkner “Chip” Callaway was fortunate to have his grandparents living nearby. His fondest memories revolve around helping them tend to their lush hydrangeas and foraging with his grandfather in the forest for toad lilies. Inspired by the mystery he felt in his grandparents’ gardens, Chip understands the profound impact that nature can have on the human spirit and has made a career out of doing what he loves. Through Callaway & Associates based in Greensboro, North Carolina, Chip has designed more than 1,000 gardens, both private and public, most in the Southeast, but his work has taken him to England, Palm Beach, and Nantucket. Chip showcases his natural affinity for storytelling through his gardens; every plant, every stone, and every element plays a role in the composition. Chip has a deep appreciation for the connection between plants and history and uses heritage plants as a way to honor meaningful people and events, incorporating the likes of old camellia varieties and lavender lilies into his designs. Always in motion, he encourages frequent editing of the garden’s story — he is quick to note an overgrown boxwood can destroy the scale of a home and removing existing plants can provide a clean sheet fromwhich to begin a new chapter. Chip’s gardens have captured the hearts of generations, as has his charming personality. His immense wit is reflected in the juxtaposition of his formal and elegant landscapes, punctuated with playful perennials and annuals. The WashingtonWinter Show is honored to count Chip as an advisor and a returning speaker, this year serving as a panelist for Sunday’s Lecture, “Planting the Seeds of Restoration,” alongside Sir Peter Crane of Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Calder Loth, formerly of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and J. Dean Norton of Mount Vernon. Chip has built quite a fan base inWashington with one patron applauding his return by saying, “I could listen to that man read the phone book!” We are delighted to share a conversation we recently had with Chip and look forward to welcoming him back — For the Joy of It. You have a friend in our Luncheon speaker, Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill. How did you two come to know one another? Henrietta and I have been friends for almost 30 years after we met when we both were speakers at an antiques show benefitting the Brenner Children’s Hospital at Wake Forest University Hospital. When she came to speak, I learned she had never visited Biltmore, built for her great grandmother’s brother, George Washington Vanderbilt, so I called the owner’s son, Bill Cecil Jr., to see if he would like to meet his cousin. He was delighted, and we drove to Asheville to spend the night and learned that Henrietta’s father, the late Duke of Marlborough, had run a school at Blenheim Palace on managing historic estates where Bill had been a student. Do you see the tensions between historic preservation and environmental sustainability, and how do they play out? Actually our forefathers were far more sustainable in their garden practices than we have become in the age of insecticides and chemical fertilizers. The only tension I see is the enormous cost of maintaining gardens as elaborate as those our ancestors enjoyed. Anne Brooks Rudzki, Master Gardener, Owner of Capitol Roots Containers This article is sponsored by The Curtin Family in honor of Mrs. William J. Curtin and Mrs. H. Bartholomew Cox, WashingtonWinter Show Board of Directors