The Hatch Act

On Friday, August 13, I received a short, 5am text from a friend, plantsman, Laurence (Larry) Hatch, saying goodbye. Larry 65, had notified me a few weeks earlier, that he was in the late stages of heart failure, brought on by a life of obesity. All I could think was how odd it was to send a text message when you are being disconnected from life support and pain meds. Having lost a spouse in hospice care, the idea that anyone would still have the state of mind or physical ability to send a text is shocking. For those who had the pleasure of knowing him, Larry was anything but normal.

I first met Larry in 1982 at NC State, when he arrived to start graduate school in the horticulture department, after finishing his undergraduate degree at Cornell. Even as a young man, Larry was an encyclopaedic plantsman, as well as a strongly opinionated, introverted loner, which is probably why we bonded. In the early 1980s, Larry built the first rock garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum, before going on to establish the worlds’ most complete collection of Juniperus horizontalis cultivars at the arboretum, for his Masters and PhD work. Years later, as he was on the home stretch of his doctorate degree, personality clashes with his major graduate advisor, caused him to drop out of school, abandoning his final defense.

For the next decade, few people heard from Larry, as he seemingly disappeared from horticultural scene. During this time, I would still occasionally field his plant related calls, glad to find that his passion for plants hadn’t faded. After dropping out of school, Larry had started his own consulting business, Taxonomic Computer Research, although income wasn’t sustainable. In 1994, a lack of funds caused him to pivot into the world of hospitality IT, where he remained for the next five years, before becoming a full time medical technician in 2000.

While Larry had sequestered himself out of the horticultural spotlight, he still spent every waking moment away from his real job, honing his skills as a horticultural cultivar historian, by compiling a massive database of all known and historical plant cultivars. Larry’s goal was to create a single online database of every ornamental plant cultivar that had ever been named. Until wee hours of the morning, he would pour over plant catalogs from the 1700s and 1800s, emailing me each time he made an exciting re-discovery that solved a current taxonomic quandary. To call his goal monumental, would be a grand understatement. Every spare moment was spent on research, whether it was traveling to document plant collections, exchanging information with plant breeders and taxonomists worldwide, or posting on social media plant sites as “Larry of Cary”. On his travels, Larry would often spot interesting plants in public spaces and take photos and send us the direction, so we could hopefully get them propagated. The photo below is a weeping Ulmus parviflora seedling he found at a local NC bank.

Finally, around 2005, he went live with his new venture, the website, Cultivar.org. Larry created three different subscription sites, one for Woody Plants, one for Interior Plants, and one for Hardy Perennials. Larry was also co-founder of the International Coleus Society. Realizing that many plant genera didn’t have an official registrar, Larry took on the job of registering new plant cultivars for breeders around the world, working alongside a team of equally obsessed plants lovers, he had assembled worldwide. In later years, Larry expanded to publishing his on-line compilations into book form, and then making them complimentary videos available on his You Tube channel. My favorite of Larry’s projects was his brilliant mail order nursery satire, Shady Deals Nursery, which became a joint venture, when we both had spare time and couldn’t sleep. I think we could safely say that Larry did us ADHD/OCD-endowed folks proud.

Larry would travel around the country visiting botanical gardens, where he photographed, studied, and measured the plants, but that often occurred after staff had gone home for the day. Because he was so stealthy, he gained a reputation as the Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects) of horticulture. Even now, Larry is still far better known in the European plant community than here in the US. One of my favorite Larry Hatch stories is from almost 20 years ago, during one of our open house days. I had just finished chatting with Larry, and he had walked away to continue his photography, when two of the country’s top plantsmen, Dr. Todd Lasseigne and Dr. Richard Olsen showed up. I mentioned something about Larry’s Cultivar.org site, and both Todd and Richard commented that they didn’t think Larry actually existed, since no one they knew in the plant world had ever seen him. Within seconds, I was able to pull them all together, where they immediately began chatting in Latin tongues, like long lost friends, which they remained.

Larry was an only child, preceeded in death by his parents, Clyde in 2010, and Hope in 2020. Knowing that Larry’s health was declining, myself and JC Raulston Arboretum director, Mark Weathington, had been in discussion with him to leave his websites to NC State University. Fingers crossed that all the papers were signed before his passing, although it will be a huge financial and time consuming project to revise the sites and make them more organized and more widely available.

Sadly, Larry never took time to exercise or eat properly, which in the end would lead to his untimely demise. During the last few years, his weight had ballooned to the point that walking was almost impossible. He would always show up at our Open House days with his telephoto lens, so he could take closeup images without having to get off the golf cart as I shuttled him around the garden. As many of us know, it’s difficult to watch someone you care about, kill themselves all because of an uncontrolled addiction.

His contributions to the world of horticulture are beyond amazing, and I already miss our regular email conversations, where we would take deep dives into a wide range of plant taxonomy topics. It’s a shame Larry has never been honored or awarded for his contributions. A more social person, would no doubt have had a mantle full of awards, for even a fraction of Larry’s contributions. What an amazing life…it’s been my honor to call you a friend.