{"id":4703,"date":"2011-11-01T12:04:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4703"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:10:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:10:23","slug":"the-mistress-of-moss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4703","title":{"rendered":"The Mistress of Moss"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Norie (Riddering) Burnet '52 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Norie (Riddering) <\/strong>Burnet \u201952<\/strong> still remembers one of her first encounters with plant life. She was visiting the Bronx Zoo with her mother and baby brother, and as other children gawked at the tigers and monkeys, a three-year-old Burnet wandered over to the grass and plucked a stray violet she\u2019d spotted. Her mother scolded her, pointing to a sign that read, “Do not pick the flowers,” and tucked the renegade blossom into the hood of her younger child\u2019s baby carriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking that plants must be pretty important if you could get in trouble for picking them,\u201d Burnet says now. \u201cI took that little violet home to our New York City apartment and held onto it. I wanted to keep it forever, but of course it didn\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, that early experience sparked a passion for plants and gardening that still burns brightly nearly 80 years later. It\u2019s a passion that has helped Burnet earn the definitive title of \u201cThe Moss Lady\u201d and has led her Richmond, VA, garden, Eden Woods, to several major horticultural awards. It\u2019s also turned her garden into a point of national interest: over the years, it\u2019s appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, was featured on an HGTV program called A Gardener\u2019s Diary<\/em>, and has even been documented in the Smithsonian\u2019s Archives of American Gardens.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of plant enthusiasts make pilgrimages to visit Eden Woods each year, consistently impressed by its sprawling, cushy moss and hundreds of vivid shade plants. \u201cI think a garden is there for sharing, and that\u2019s what I try to do,\u201d Burnet says. \u201cTo me, this is truly a garden of Eden, and it\u2019s become a garden of Eden to so many visitors who come here. They say it\u2019s like walking into a terrarium\u2014so lush, so green, and also so inviting and peaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in Burnet\u2019s four-acre property and three-quarter-acre garden, the superstar plant is one that\u2019s typically cast as a villain\u2014more often poisoned or yanked out than it is revered. And when she moved into her woodsy Richmond<\/p>\n

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Norie in her Norsworthy Hall dorm room in 1949. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

home about 30 years ago, Burnet says that\u2019s how she felt about moss, too. \u201cI had the mindset that moss belongs in the woods, not your garden,\u201d she says. \u201cI spent years trying to get rid of it, but one day, one of my sons said, \u2018Moss is so pretty, Mom. Why don\u2019t you just let it be?\u2019 I didn\u2019t really cotton to that idea, but I started taking a new look at the moss and cultivating it slowly in certain areas. I found that it was really returning a lot of beauty to me, and the rest is history\u2014it just went off from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letting moss take the place of grass, Burnet began slowly to fill her garden and yard with dozens of other shade-loving plants: magnolias, hollies, ferns, azaleas. \u201cWhen I first moved here, it was pretty much a benign jungle,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was really no garden to work with. I decided to take it one step at a time. I\u2019ve learned that\u2019s the best way to do everything: Don\u2019t focus on the enormity of what you want to do, just focus on making one area at a time pristine and beautiful and it will eventually all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she retired from teaching about 15 years ago, she was able to devote even more time and energy to gardening, and though she\u2019s 81 now, Burnet still maintains Eden Woods and her four acres of property mostly by herself. \u201cI feel like an imposter because I don\u2019t feel 81,\u201d she says. \u201cThe garden has kept me young and vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardening also satisfies her artistic side. \u201cI dearly love art and classical music, and I\u2019ve sold a number of my paintings,\u201d she says. \u201cBut painting takes a lot of time and energy, and I can\u2019t do that and garden. At a certain point, I just figured there were plenty of great painters out there, but not a lot of moss gardeners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take a photo tour of Eden Woods. Click on any image below to view it larger. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t