Cathy Deutsch of Wave Hill: 10 Questions with the Director of Horticulture

Cathy Deutsch never expected to be a gardener. “I stumbled upon fine gardening almost by accident at Wave Hill,” said the Riverdale, NY, garden’s fourth director of horticulture and first woman to hold the role. “I had some fuzzy notion I wanted to be a landscape architect and made my way up from the train to what I thought was a lecture hall in Riverdale for a symposium on historic landscape preservation in America,” says Deutsch, who admits to being so green back then that she was misspelling “hydrangea” as “HIGHdrangia.”

Inspired by the majesty of Wave Hill and determined to follow her dream, she kept returning until Marco Polo Stufano, the garden’s renowned founding director of horticulture, finally agreed to let her volunteer. “I asked him where I should begin, because there was so much to learn,” she recalled. “Marco said, start with the plants you love; then he told me to go to New York Botanical Garden [NYBG].”

Deutsch took his advice, and graduated from the NYBG’s prestigious School of Professional Horticulture. She then completed two internships at Wave Hill, secured her first real job in horticulture as an arborist in Central Park, and held several horticulture roles in New York and New Jersey. Today, she’s responsible for 28 acres of gardens and woodlands at the very place that inspired her career more than two decades ago. Below, she shares some of her favorite things for the garden. 

The gardening tool you can’t live without? 

My bypass pruners go everywhere with me except my carry-on. I was reared using Felco #2 but about 10 years ago my friend Tony Bielaczyc introduced me to a Japanese version, Okatsune (I like the largest size, 104). Not only do they produce a distinct and satisfying sound with each cut, they are more durable and, miraculously, remain sharp enough to effortlessly lop wood and deadhead violas, despite pruning soil-coated roots in between. I very seldom sharpen but frequently sterilize.

Other tools I find surprisingly handy are my daughter’s set of garden tools by Toysmith. When surveying the garden early morning with my jammies and coffee, I invariably start grooming, weeding, and transplanting. Her little tools, in the corner of the patio, are just the thing I need for spontaneous, slippered gardening. Do not be fooled by imposters!

Most dog-eared gardening book?

Right now, it’s probably Nature into Art, the book by Thomas Christopher, about Wave Hill, because I’m still trying to understand all the nuance and complexity of the collections. Otherwise, The Education of a Gardener, by Russell Page. A classic.