Peggy Singlemann and I sit at her kitchen table on a cold, snow-covered January morning, sipping Lady Grey tea and enjoying a fresh loaf of her sour cream coffee cake, made from a recipe handed down to her through a family friend. When Peggy was 10, she entered it in a church baking contest—and won first place. The upset—she was the only baker under 40—nails this Queen of Green in a nutshell: she’s a master.
She was Maymont’s horticulturist for nearly four decades. Though she hung up her shears, retiring in 2022, she can still recite from memory every element of its 100-acre landscape: beds, borders, trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, even weeds and invasives. Perched high on a bluff overlooking the James River in Richmond, Maymont is the city’s Gilded Age estate, built in the Victorian style in the 1890s by James and Sallie Dooley. Remarkably, Peggy’s tenure at Maymont was longer than the Dooley’s, and she helped shape it into a world-class arboretum and one of the city’s most valued and visited public parks.
Peggy’s green thumbprint is all over Maymont. She arrived in 1984 when things were a bit rough and overgrown. With a staff of one (herself), she tackled Herculean projects not for the faint of heart, restoring its gardens, cataloging its arboretum (some 2,500 trees), and helping produce its signature events like Herbs Galore and Garden Glow.
It was at Maymont where she once played “name that plant” with Michael Dirr, one of the world’s rock star horticulturists. So this would be the equivalent of initiating a game of “play that guitar” with Eric Clapton. Funny thing about Peggy: she won. “In all fairness, I was on my homecourt,” she says, recounting Dirr’s 2013 visit.
Today, post-Maymont, she maintains her status as horticultural royalty. Her website, RVaGardener.com, highlights the many hats she wears: garden coach, landscape designer, speaker, and bonafide TV star—as host and co-producer of Virginia Home Grown on VPM, Virginia’s home for public media.
Enjoy excerpts of our conversation that follow.
Madeline Mayhood: Let’s talk a little bit about natives … Why are native plants important and what’s with all the attention now?
Peggy Singlemann: As a community member of the earth, we need to reconsider our plant choices and gardening practices that are comfortable and familiar to us. Plants are at the bottom of the food chain: they feed the insects, which feed the birds and other small wildlife, and fish, which feed their predators, on up the chain to larger mammals at the top. From a sustainability perspective, native plants have adapted into the fabric of our environment. They require less water, less insect and disease inputs, and can manage weather extremes better.
Change is not easy but knowing that making different choices leads to a bigger impact is valuable at this time. Our land is being covered with corporate centers, shopping areas, parking lots and houses—the natural open areas are diminishing. The native plants which our native insects, fish, fungi, and wildlife depend on to survive are diminishing.
I get it, change is difficult, and we have our comfort plants. That said, I am advocating making changes to landscapes a few plants at a time.
MM: When someone talks about a “monoculture” in relation to landscapes and gardens, what does that mean, and is it good or bad?
PS: Monoculture means that one plant is dominant in a landscape. A good example is a lawn. Even if broadleaf plants are growing in the lawn, if grass is the dominant species, then it is a monoculture. Monocultures are not beneficial; they go against nature. Nowhere in nature is there a monoculture because plant diversity is key to a vibrant and sustainable environment. We need to rethink our landscapes and reduce the monocultures we have developed by infusing native plants where possible. If a home is landscaped with a variety of evergreen Japanese or Chinese hollies, then it’s time to substitute those plants with our native yaupon and American hollies.
MM: What’s the absolute most underrated plant ever?
PS: The American holly, Ilex opaca. This native, deer-resistant, evergreen plant has many varieties which grow to different sizes from the low-growing shrub ‘Maryland Spreader,’ perfect for foundation plantings, to the vertical growing ‘Cave Hill’ or ‘Satyr Hill’ for tight spaces. Growing in shade to sun in acidic soils, this plant has few insect issues and disease threats. The glory of the American hollies is they maintain their red berries throughout the winter, becoming a prime source of food for birds. There is nothing more entertaining than watching a flock of cedar wax wings vie for the best berries on the tree in the late winter.
MM: If you could visit any botanical garden (or private garden) anywhere in the world, where and what is it?
PS: I want to visit the Baroque-style tiered gardens of Isola Bella in Stesa, Italy, and the spring display of bulbs at Keukenhof in the Netherlands.
MM: What is your go-to website for information?
PS: Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, Washington State University. A list of her research weighing in on garden myths and hacks on the Internet is invaluable. This is science-based research, wonderful, proven, factual information. As a professional horticulturist, I geek out on research and encourage every gardener to check out this site.
Native Plants in a Nutshell
Resources for revitalizing your garden with native plants.
Illustrations by Katie Pelikan
To identify invasives in your landscape, check out the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Invasive Plant List with a goal of replacing any listed plants with natives.
To kick exotics and invasive plants, visit the U.S. Forest Service’s webpage, “Native Plant Alternatives.” You’ll end up with lots of natives to consider.
Then target the non-invasive but non-native plants in your landscape, the objective being to eventually replace them with natives. Locate native plant nurseries in your area by hopping on the Plant Virginia Natives website.
Click here to access these native plant resources online.
This article originally appeared in the April 2025 issue.
