Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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LEXINGTON -- For several hours on Thursday, the children of Janet Campagna's third-grade class at Waddell Elementary School in Lexington became ... alive.

Divided into three groups of five, they sat silently amid the trees of Boxerwood Gardens Arboretum and Nature Center and tried to sense things as if they were deer.

They noticed sights, sounds and smells, and they rapidly answered questions when asked.

They picked up poles and fished for the duckweed that covered a shallow impoundment of water called the New Pond in a suffocating, pale green blanket. They used a stick, a conch shell, a large sieve and a colander as "hooks."

Bare-handed, they shook and dropped the duckweed into pots and transferred it to the roots of nearby trees and shrubs.

What killed the pond for real fishing would nurture plants for the future.

Stepping lightly

In the early afternoon they walked ever-so-silently around the Old Pond, trying to spot turtles and frogs. In everyday life, few children are rapt for so long.

The five youngsters following volunteer Phyllis Fevrier came up with eight frogs and three turtles, the highest total of the day's three groups.

If Henry David Thoreau were alive to tour these gardens, he'd be pleased. Here lies silence, emotion and spirit.

Maybe it's the naturalness of it all. Maybe it's education steward Elise Sheffield's teaching techniques, which emphasize silence and observation. Maybe the lack of perfection -- Boxerwood celebrates nature in all its cycles from birth to death -- puts us at ease in a society where perfection is dangled before us sinners, too often ruining our self-esteem and wrecking our peace of mind.

Constant, iconoclastic gardener

Dr. Robert Munger, a general practice doctor, started landscaping the grounds of his new home in 1952. In 1957, he began to collect rare and unusual trees and shrubs, traveling to distant places and corresponding with fellow planters.

In 1977, he retired from his medical practice. In 1985, he hired Karen "KB" Bailey as his assistant.

In 1988, he died. His wife, Betty, kept Boxerwood going, with Bailey continuing to work there.

In 1996, when Betty Munger wanted to retire, Hunter Moehring found herself with just enough money to finance the purchase of 8 acres of the 15-acre property for $200,000.

The next year, the gardens were opened to the public.

Later, in no particular order, came not-for-profit status, a curriculum compatible with the Virginia Standards of Learning and a look at the future.

Moehring, 63, says she and Bailey may sell their gardens to the Boxerwood Education Association in a couple of years and retire to a small house on the property.

The goal, of course, is to keep the garden going. An hour spent walking, sitting or, especially, watching schoolchildren soak up its charms would convince the hardest person that something special lives -- and dies and regenerates -- here.

Moehring is smart. That's obvious the minute she starts talking. She calls herself "a problem-solver," says she has all but earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and admits the garden tests both her intellect and her intuition.

Ask her what makes the place special and she'll say "emotion" and "spirit."

Accompany her on a tour and you'll marvel at the Great Oak, estimated at 100 to 150 years old, and a weeping cherry tree that Robert Munger supported with a still-evolving arbor, making it the largest weeping cherry you'll probably ever see.

You'll listen to birds and run across a small snake and study the various pieces of art and love the complexity of it all.

Happiness, joy, vitality

At one time, Boxerwood Gardens Arboretum and Nature Center boasted the largest collection of dogwood trees east of the Mississippi.

Now, Moehring said, its 7,000 trees and shrubs include hundreds of varieties of rhododendrons, azaleas and conifers and 163 varieties of Japanese maples.

Each year, the Lexington and Rockbridge County schools send three grades to the gardens. They prepare for their visits beforehand and, afterward, discuss what they've learned.

Moehring says this year's budget is $176,000, and "we're always close to the edge."

Something else besides the silence and beauty is evident: the devotion of the people who work there to their task.

Elise Sheffield, 45, is a Brown University graduate who used to teach English literature at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista.

After treatment for breast cancer, she refocused her life by taking over the educational program at the gardens. She loves watching children who may not succeed in school immerse themselves in Boxerwood's life lessons.

"I see a lot of happiness, joy and vitality of life," she said.

At Boxerwood, it's all about paying attention.

Joe Kennedy's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.