Perfect Weather Makes for a Perfect Hortie Hoopla!

Posted in Adult Education on July 28 2016, by Education at NYBG

This year’s 4^th Annual Tri-State Green Industry Intern Field Day, held on July 20, 2016, attracted over 135 people, of which 110 of them were interns.  Many arrived early to explore and visit the Impressionism exhibition in both the Haupt Conservatory and Library Gallery, and were fortunate to see the corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) bud which had just been put on display in the Palm Dome’s pool.

The program began in the Ross Lecture Hall with Todd Forrest, the Arthur Ross VP for Horticulture & Living Collections, welcoming the guests and introducing Charles Yurgalevitch, Ph.D., Director of the School of Professional Horticulture, who opened the program and explained the afternoon’s events. He then introduced the four speakers in the program. The first to speak was Ken Druse, author and photographer. He called on a few interns to ask them what they were doing and what they hoped to do as they launch their horticulture careers, leading an interactive discussion with the room.

Following Ken, Karen Washington, Community Gardening Activist, delivered a moving talk on how she got started as someone dedicated to making NYC a better place to live by empowering people to grow their own food. “To grow your own food gives you power and dignity,” she said. Karen had a great job before she became a gardener. One day she saw a vacant lot across the street from her apartment building, and a man doing something there. She asked him about it and learned that he was going to try to plant a garden. From there, she got involved developing a community garden, and soon quit her job because she knew she wanted to grow food full time and involve the community.

Next to speak was Quill Teal-Sullivan, Gardening Manager at Meadowburn Farm in NJ, who explained her career path to date, including the several internships she took all over the US and how they led her to her current position at Meadowburn Farm.  Then the keynote talk was delivered by Kelly Norris, Director of Horticulture at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, who first spoke about how he got his start in horticulture at the age of 15, and then went on to author two books and receive several prizes while still in his 20s. He spoke passionately about his views of plants, their designs, and his philosophy about plant communities.

Following the talks in the Ross Lecture Hall, interns made their way to the first of three gardens to visit and meet with our talented Horticulture staff stationed at each of five gardens: Curator Michael Hagen was stationed at the Native Plant Garden; Forest Gardener Erica DeLuca was stationed at the Thain Family Forest; and Curator of Woody Plants Deanna Curtis was at the Azalea Garden.

The next scheduled stop was at the Judy & Michael Steinhardt Maple Collection and the Burn Family Lilac Collection where Brian Sullivan, Vice President for Gardens, Landscape and Outdoor Collections met with almost 50 interns and walked them through both for the next hour.

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While visiting each of the five gardens and collections, the interns were challenged to identify five mystery plants, one place at each garden. Those that participated brought their answer sheets to the Family Garden for the BBQ event. Edible Academy hosts Toby Adams, Director, and Annie Novak, Manager, led the food preparations for the BBQ with great help from the current SoPH students and several of the Family Garden staff.  After much mingling, networking, and eating, many prizes were awarded to those who took part in the Mystery Plant ID contest and submitted entries for the Best Horticulture Joke.

One intern perhaps summed up the day with his comment:

To be surrounded by and converse with people who share the similar passions and goals that led me to the field I am in pursuit of now is just amazing, and to be able to do so at The New York Botanical Gardens is such a phenomenal opportunity as I was able to learn from my peers and the gardens themselves.

            Taylor Jay Boria, student at SUNY ESF | Environmental Biology, 25 July 2016

Photos courtesy of John Jacono, SOPH student, Class of 2018