ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230018
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Helen Dooley's tone was almost apologetic as she agreed to an interview. "It's not a formal garden," she repeated. "I used to have a formal garden when I lived at Forest Hills, but this is not a formal garden."
Formal or not, the wide expanse of multicolored irises in bloom behind the swimming pool at Chateau Riviere, where Dooley has lived for the past 23 years, is a breathtaking sight. She grows the flowers for her own enjoyment, but gladly shares their beauty with others. Each resident of her building receives a bouquet of the first blossoms. Many are given to nursing homes, and the blooms are available for celebrations when needed.
"I've always been an avid gardener and horticulturist," the 88-year-old Dooley said. "My husband [Robert T. Dooley] and I worked together in our large formal flower garden at our home in Forest Hills. I started the Forest Hills Garden Club ... . We're celebrating our 45th anniversary this year."
After her husband's death in 1970, Dooley realized she would have to move to smaller quarters, but dreaded leaving her garden. When the city of Salem cleared trees and brush from the strip of land behind the apartments, Dooley saw an opportunity to have the garden she craved.
"I asked them to clear out the wood," she said, "and they gave us permission to plant whatever we wanted."
For two years she and a friend tried to grow vegetables, "but the raccoons ate it all up, so we switched to flowers."
The friend later moved away, but Dooley continued the garden, adding more each year until she was cultivating an area about the size of a city lot. She has managed it alone for the past eight years.
"I come out when it warms up the end of February and early March and work on the weeds," she said. "They are really a problem. Then I throw out the fertilizer. Lots and lots of 5-10-5. The iris love it!"
Although the area is planted with many varieties to assure blooms throughout the growing season, the showy iris is her favorite flower. Clumps of sturdy green leaves and fragile blossoms - some swaying on stems more than 3 feet tall - crowd together, producing a sea of blue, white, lavender, mauve, yellow and salmon.
"They multiply so fast and are easy to grow," Dooley said. "And not a single borer!"
Before the iris buds open, forsythia, money plant, primroses and other early bloomers color the garden area. After the iris blooms fade, carnations, larkspur, lilies, love-in-the-mist and other perennials will take over.
The patio of Dooley's apartment boasts colorful pansies and violas, many of which she presses in telephone books to make decorative note paper. Inside her apartment, a huge fern (brought inside this year because a cardinal nested in it last summer), a Norfolk Island pine, African violets and many other indoor plants compete for space and attention with pictures of five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her daughter, Phyllis D. Butts, retired this year from Roanoke County schools. Her son, Tom Dooley - formerly a referee for the NFL - is in construction in Charlotte.
Helen Dooley worked as a registered nurse, retiring a few years after moving to Chateau Riviere. "I was in the class of 1929 at the old Jefferson Hospital," she recalled. She is still active in the Salem Baptist Church, Salem Woman's Club, the Roanoke Rose Society, Roanoke Bird Club and Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs.
Each spring and fall, she looks forward to another special activity.
"Six of us girls who are retired rent a house, usually in West Virginia - Cass or Canaan. We stay a week in the spring and a week in the fall, watching birds and hiking, and riding the train in the mountain. I'm the oldest, and I'll go as long as I can still keep up with them!"
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART Staff 1. Helen Dooley picks an iris fromby CNBher garden behind her Salem apartment to make a cut-flower
arrangement. 2. Of all the flowers Dooley grows, the iris is her
favorite.