Thanks and farewells for flower show's Pepper
By Virginia A. Smith
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 7, 2010
In Philadelphia "green" circles, Jane G. Pepper is about as close as you can get to a celebrity. At the flower show, she can't walk five feet in any direction without somebody stepping up to shake hands, give her a hug, offer a hi, good luck, bon voyage, and "thank you, thank you."
For 25 years, Pepper has been president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which produces the Philadelphia International Flower Show. No one is more closely identified with this popular and historic tradition, but when the show wraps up today, she's pretty much done.
Pepper, 64, will retire at the end of May. Already, the goodbyes have begun, and she's having a bittersweet time of it. She has been part of PHS since 1976, when she signed on as a flower show volunteer.
"My thoughts and emotions are a jumble of happy and sad," Pepper says.
On the one hand, she will soon have time to travel and reconnect with her multi-continental family; ride her Trek 7200 hybrid bicycle; take spirited walks with Angus and Paris, her beloved poodles - and reinvent herself, which she has definite ideas about.
On the other hand - and this is when Pepper chokes up so badly she can hardly talk, right in the middle of the Convention Center, as she's making her way around the flower show - she'll miss so much.
She'll miss the yearlong planning of the show, a city staple since 1829, and the eight days of fun, plant competition, and education that attract about 250,000 visitors annually.
She'll miss the tree-plantings, the community gardens, the programs and lectures, and, oh, the people: 112 employees, 16,000 members, and thousands of volunteers, 3,500 with the flower show alone.
"I'm trying hard not to think about it. You can see the kind of family PHS is," Pepper says as the tears flow. "I want to focus on enjoying this time."
She's not embarrassed in the least at having shown her real feelings, which are obviously mixed. And so the tears vanish as quickly as they came.
Brian Eichenlaub, an educator from Silver Spring, Md., has just walked up to Pepper to say, what else, good luck and thank you. She's smiling again, and immediately engages him. You can tell she's done this a few times.
In the 90 seconds that Pepper and Eichenlaub have known each other, she's learned that he's been coming to the show for 20 years and that he's playing hooky today - with his boss!
Pepper makes the case for him to join PHS - free show tickets, vendor discounts - and then, next year, how about taking a few days off from work (officially) to be a show volunteer? His garden-loving boss will surely understand.
"I never thought of doing that, but I think I will," Eichenlaub says, adding, "Thank you for all you've done, Jane."
After picking up an errant coffee cup and tossing it in a trash can, Pepper heads for "Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club," the secret garden her friends have created for her at the show. It honors her Scottish heritage with the wool tartan of her clan, the Grahams - Pepper's given name is Elizabeth Jane Graham Guest - and features icons from the music of her favorite band, the Beatles.
There's a "Yellow Submarine" mailbox, a "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" birdhouse, and a mini-strawberry field, although ripe strawberries had to be procured from Reading Terminal Market across the street because the plants didn't fruit in time.
The garden is also growing what Pepper cultivates at home in Media, plants such as viburnum and hydrangea and vegetables such as spring lettuces and slender Japanese eggplants. She grows these with abandon, harvesting 150 of them last season and giving most to friends and staff.
As she's inspecting the tribute garden, which 140 people volunteered labor, money, or materials to make, you can hear whispering in the crowd.
"That's Jane Pepper," someone says. "I saw her on TV."
Before you know it, there's a chorus of "We'll miss you, Jane" and "Good luck to you, Jane" and "Thank you for all you've done."
Pepper acknowledges all of the speakers, shaking each hand. "Thank you," she says.
Giving thanks has been a big part of Pepper's job, as has fund-raising. The Legacy Landscapes program, launch- ed in 2008 in anticipation of her retirement, has raised $9.2 million of its $12.1 million goal. The money will be used to take care of the public gardens and civic sites PHS maintains, places like the Azalea Garden and Logan Square.
Pepper's keeping close watch on the Legacy total, but during a break in her busy show schedule she also goes over the list of volunteers who contributed to her garden. As Pepper reads out a name, one of the garden's organizers, Midge Ingersoll, says "donated money," "made a flower basket," or "forced the bulbs."
Every person on the list will get a photo of the tribute garden with a personal note from Pepper. "It's the best way to say thank you," she says.
She's known for those notes. And for being organized, a quality she summoned to orchestrate a family reunion last week in Philadelphia. Fifty-five members of her far-flung clan, including three of her four brothers, came to celebrate her career.
The younger crowd, including a nephew in a kilt, had a grand time at the Plough & the Stars, the Irish pub in Old City, after the formal gala for Aunt Jane. Niece Joanna Guest, 31, a math and science teacher from Wanaka, New Zealand, volunteered with the floor crew in the show's plant competition.
Pepper jokes that with so many relatives staying in downtown hotels, "I'm doing my bit for the city's economy."
And when people ask what's next for her, she says something similar: "I want to give back to my community."
This is the short version:
In retirement, Pepper will run garden tours to Britain for PHS. She'll remain a trustee at Longwood Gardens and a board member at the First Hospital Foundation and Fox Chase Cancer Center. (In 1999 Pepper, friends, and colleagues endowed a chair in cancer research at Fox Chase to honor her husband, G. Willing "Wing" Pepper. A longtime Fox Chase board member and former president of Scott Paper Co., he died in 2001.)
As her successor, Drew Becher, former head of the New York Restoration Project, settles in at PHS, Pepper will be joining a few more boards: American Public Gardens Association, Natural Lands Trust, University of Pennsylvania Press. She also will cochair the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia's World Class Greater Philadelphia Initiative and other efforts.
Then - and, frankly, when Pepper talks about this one, it sounds like her favorite - she'll become an apprentice at Creatively Speaking, Jim Cotter's weekly arts program on Temple University's public radio station, WRTI-FM (90.1)
"I love the arts. I love the program. I'll be a gofer," Pepper says. "Who knows what this will lead to?"
The journey's the thing for this gal. In flower show terms, that means her favorite time is setup week, when the show is being put together. She finds the getting-to-opening-day more exciting than opening day.
So maybe this retirement gig will turn out to be one long setup for her next big show. Pepper's many friends will have fun figuring that one out. She, no doubt, will enjoy it all.
Watch Pennsylvania Horticultural Society president Jane G. Pepper describe the show: www.philly.com/ FlowerShowVideo
Philadelphia International Flower Show
For 25 years, Pepper has been president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which produces the Philadelphia International Flower Show. No one is more closely identified with this popular and historic tradition, but when the show wraps up today, she's pretty much done.
Pepper, 64, will retire at the end of May. Already, the goodbyes have begun, and she's having a bittersweet time of it. She has been part of PHS since 1976, when she signed on as a flower show volunteer.
"My thoughts and emotions are a jumble of happy and sad," Pepper says.
On the one hand, she will soon have time to travel and reconnect with her multi-continental family; ride her Trek 7200 hybrid bicycle; take spirited walks with Angus and Paris, her beloved poodles - and reinvent herself, which she has definite ideas about.
On the other hand - and this is when Pepper chokes up so badly she can hardly talk, right in the middle of the Convention Center, as she's making her way around the flower show - she'll miss so much.
She'll miss the yearlong planning of the show, a city staple since 1829, and the eight days of fun, plant competition, and education that attract about 250,000 visitors annually.
She'll miss the tree-plantings, the community gardens, the programs and lectures, and, oh, the people: 112 employees, 16,000 members, and thousands of volunteers, 3,500 with the flower show alone.
"I'm trying hard not to think about it. You can see the kind of family PHS is," Pepper says as the tears flow. "I want to focus on enjoying this time."
She's not embarrassed in the least at having shown her real feelings, which are obviously mixed. And so the tears vanish as quickly as they came.
Brian Eichenlaub, an educator from Silver Spring, Md., has just walked up to Pepper to say, what else, good luck and thank you. She's smiling again, and immediately engages him. You can tell she's done this a few times.
In the 90 seconds that Pepper and Eichenlaub have known each other, she's learned that he's been coming to the show for 20 years and that he's playing hooky today - with his boss!
Pepper makes the case for him to join PHS - free show tickets, vendor discounts - and then, next year, how about taking a few days off from work (officially) to be a show volunteer? His garden-loving boss will surely understand.
"I never thought of doing that, but I think I will," Eichenlaub says, adding, "Thank you for all you've done, Jane."
After picking up an errant coffee cup and tossing it in a trash can, Pepper heads for "Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club," the secret garden her friends have created for her at the show. It honors her Scottish heritage with the wool tartan of her clan, the Grahams - Pepper's given name is Elizabeth Jane Graham Guest - and features icons from the music of her favorite band, the Beatles.
There's a "Yellow Submarine" mailbox, a "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" birdhouse, and a mini-strawberry field, although ripe strawberries had to be procured from Reading Terminal Market across the street because the plants didn't fruit in time.
The garden is also growing what Pepper cultivates at home in Media, plants such as viburnum and hydrangea and vegetables such as spring lettuces and slender Japanese eggplants. She grows these with abandon, harvesting 150 of them last season and giving most to friends and staff.
As she's inspecting the tribute garden, which 140 people volunteered labor, money, or materials to make, you can hear whispering in the crowd.
"That's Jane Pepper," someone says. "I saw her on TV."
Before you know it, there's a chorus of "We'll miss you, Jane" and "Good luck to you, Jane" and "Thank you for all you've done."
Pepper acknowledges all of the speakers, shaking each hand. "Thank you," she says.
Giving thanks has been a big part of Pepper's job, as has fund-raising. The Legacy Landscapes program, launch- ed in 2008 in anticipation of her retirement, has raised $9.2 million of its $12.1 million goal. The money will be used to take care of the public gardens and civic sites PHS maintains, places like the Azalea Garden and Logan Square.
Pepper's keeping close watch on the Legacy total, but during a break in her busy show schedule she also goes over the list of volunteers who contributed to her garden. As Pepper reads out a name, one of the garden's organizers, Midge Ingersoll, says "donated money," "made a flower basket," or "forced the bulbs."
Every person on the list will get a photo of the tribute garden with a personal note from Pepper. "It's the best way to say thank you," she says.
She's known for those notes. And for being organized, a quality she summoned to orchestrate a family reunion last week in Philadelphia. Fifty-five members of her far-flung clan, including three of her four brothers, came to celebrate her career.
The younger crowd, including a nephew in a kilt, had a grand time at the Plough & the Stars, the Irish pub in Old City, after the formal gala for Aunt Jane. Niece Joanna Guest, 31, a math and science teacher from Wanaka, New Zealand, volunteered with the floor crew in the show's plant competition.
Pepper jokes that with so many relatives staying in downtown hotels, "I'm doing my bit for the city's economy."
And when people ask what's next for her, she says something similar: "I want to give back to my community."
This is the short version:
In retirement, Pepper will run garden tours to Britain for PHS. She'll remain a trustee at Longwood Gardens and a board member at the First Hospital Foundation and Fox Chase Cancer Center. (In 1999 Pepper, friends, and colleagues endowed a chair in cancer research at Fox Chase to honor her husband, G. Willing "Wing" Pepper. A longtime Fox Chase board member and former president of Scott Paper Co., he died in 2001.)
As her successor, Drew Becher, former head of the New York Restoration Project, settles in at PHS, Pepper will be joining a few more boards: American Public Gardens Association, Natural Lands Trust, University of Pennsylvania Press. She also will cochair the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia's World Class Greater Philadelphia Initiative and other efforts.
Then - and, frankly, when Pepper talks about this one, it sounds like her favorite - she'll become an apprentice at Creatively Speaking, Jim Cotter's weekly arts program on Temple University's public radio station, WRTI-FM (90.1)
"I love the arts. I love the program. I'll be a gofer," Pepper says. "Who knows what this will lead to?"
The journey's the thing for this gal. In flower show terms, that means her favorite time is setup week, when the show is being put together. She finds the getting-to-opening-day more exciting than opening day.
So maybe this retirement gig will turn out to be one long setup for her next big show. Pepper's many friends will have fun figuring that one out. She, no doubt, will enjoy it all.
Watch Pennsylvania Horticultural Society president Jane G. Pepper describe the show: www.philly.com/ FlowerShowVideo
Philadelphia International Flower Show