Vince Dooley is not your typical gardener. In Georgia, the name Vince Dooley is synonymous with football. For 25 years, he coached the University of Georgia Bulldogs and sowed the seeds of many championship teams. In 1988 Dooley traded in the pigskin for the pruners. Instead of players, he started working with plants. Garden plans replaced playbooks, and flowers replaced flags. And he pursued a new passion--gardening.
With the same dedication and enthusiasm he had for football, Dooley turned his three acres of land in Athens, Georgia, into a gardener's field of dreams. Two of his favorite plants are wisteria and Chinese wisteria. While he enjoys the beauty of his garden, Dooley tackles it with the fire of a blitzing linebacker.
Dooley has 25 varieties of Japanese maples. As any good coach will tell you, winning is a team sport. In Dooley's garden, trees can't do it alone. He considers one of his plants, fothergilla, a cheerleader. It is a native to the Southeast and its blooms look like pompoms. He also likes viburnums, and one variety in particular, 'Mohawk,' because of its great fragrance.
He credits curiosity with sparking his interest in gardening and at the university, he took courses. One of his teachers was Dr. Michael Dirr, an authority on woody shrubs and trees.
There are definitely similarities between gardening and football. Now Dooley nurtures plants just like he nurtured his players.
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