Clyde Wachsberger became an avid gardener in his mid-30s after acquiring a small house and property at the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. While the garden was his passion, it was a lonely pursuit and he longed to share it with someone. However, his efforts to find a relationship with another man, “a friend who shared my deepest yearning to be someone special for someone special,” were not successful.
Some years later, and by a remarkable chance with a misplaced personal ad, he connected with Charles Dean, a maître d’hôtel at a high end Manhattan restaurant. Sparked by their mutual interests and attraction, they quickly established a relationship, much of it built around the same home and garden they now shared named Adworthy House, celebrating their meeting.
They were great experimenters and always eager to try new plants, pushing the limits of their climate zone and indulging in romantic fantasies of tropical flora. Winter reading of nursery catalogs was a special fascination. Together they edited an anthology entitled “Of Leaf and Flower: Stories and Poems for Gardeners” (2001), in part to “explain the profound passions and wild obsessions that motivate gardeners.”
Sadly, Dean and Wachsberger’s time together was limited to about 15 years. Wachsberger developed cancer, but before it took his life, he wrote and illustrated a heartfelt memoir, “Into the Garden with Charles” (2012). While the author did not minimize the story of his disease, his writing focuses on the strength he found in both the garden and his loved ones.
While the after story is sad, this is an upbeat book about the joy of optimism found in a love of plants, and in the often whacky stories of family, close friends, and a faithful, fuzzy mop of a dog. The plants are pets, too, often with personal names and always cherished, until they try to smother or overrun everything else. Gardeners everywhere will understand.
Excerpted from Brian Thompson’s article in the Fall 2022 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin