Boy, Why Are You Crying?

Life Lesson #834: Learn how to multi-task.
On average, I am an excellent multi-tasker. A professional even. All those years of school doing homework, texting, listening to music or watching a movie, and hanging out with my roommates truly honed my skills. When I made it to Longwood, things were no different. I had to juggle watering, answering questions, perpetual hose problems, and mentoring high schoolers all at the same time. On one particular day, however, I found myself completely overwhelmed and unable to handle everything that was being thrown at me. Blame it on the heat. Blame it on my unusually low level of concentration. Blame it on the promise given me that I could get in the lily pools as soon as I was finished watering the hibiscus. Whatever melts your chocolate. So here I am in the 98 degree 98% humidity rose house watering the hibiscus when a family walks through. Considering the fact that thousands of people visit Longwood everyday, I didn't really pay any special attention to this family until the son asked if I could spray him in the face with my watering wand (that's not a typical request). I brushed it off as a joke. I mean seriously...surely he knows that's not a good idea. Not only do we use untreated water, but I also had the fertilizer on. Then, his mother starts in on me. While I'm politely telling her no, a man interrupts and starts preaching to me about callings. He's asking me if I feel close to God while I'm working at Longwood, if horticulture is my calling, and if I appreciate God making the world so beautiful with plants. About two thirds of the way through his sermon (I call it that because he was wearing a clerical collar and is therefore qualified to preach), I look up and that kid is misting his face with the water coming out of a hole in the hose. Really people? Really? So I interrupt my new buddy who is now trying to save my soul to save this kid's life (or at least his vision). When all the hubbub died down, I was left dumbfounded. Did that seriously just happen or was it a figment of my dehydrated imagination? Nope it was reality. I finished watering shortly afterwards and was able to retreat to the comfort of the lily pools for the rest of the day.

 
After a day like today, all I want to do is go home and relax until someone comes up with a dinner plan or evening activity, but my roommate MacKenzie had other plans for our house. On my way home, I receive a text from her saying that she found ants in the kitchen and that we need to be more "cleansly". Yeah, ok, I'll be sure to do that as soon as I look up the word cleansly in Webster ::deletes text without replying:: So, I walk in the house (completely ignoring the new sign that says to take off work boots before entering) and head towards the kitchen for a Gatorade. As soon as I walked through the doorway from the dining room to the kitchen all hell broke loose. MacKenzie was running around mass-cleaning every surface she could find mumbling about ants and crumbs and who knows what else. I didn't even have to say hey before she started in on me about how nasty our house is and how no one cares about cleaning anymore and how someone had hidden her broken bat from her without telling her about it. Being the non-confrontational person that I am, I decide to stand there and take one for the team. I figured she needed to rant about it then all would be right in the world for awhile until she found something to bitch at poor Katie about. So I endure the yelling and the passive aggressive comments for about 5 minutes and just when I think I'm off the hook she throws a curve ball at me. She starts crying. Woah. Panicking. Do I console her? Do I get her a tissue? Do I leave the room and let her work it out herself? I'm completely frozen in place wondering why she's crying about ants when Emma walks in the house. Hallelujah! The rest is all a blur until MacKenzie takes refuge in her room for about an hour. You'd think she would be calming down from all the hysteria, but I think she was fuming instead. People started congregating at our house to go swimming on the Brandywine River as an after-work-we're-all-tired-and-hot activity, which turned out to be one of the best ideas we had the entire summer. We got lost in a detour that took us 30 minutes out of the way. I got pulled down river by the rip tide around the dam, and Andrew and Victor had to swim down to rescue me. We explored up stream and all got covered in riverweed. Justin found a pair of broken sunglasses (the first of many pairs he collected as the summer went on) and wore them like a pirate eye patch the whole time. Emma scraped her butt on the rocks when she got sucked in by the rip tide. We seriously couldn't have planned a more hilarious trip. Afterwards, we decided to celebrate our outting with Mexican ice cream. Score! I sampled the new shredded cheese flavor, which had chunks in it, but wasn't impressed enough to pay $2.50 for a whole cup of it. Shredded cheese you might ask? I couldn't make that up even if I tried.

Best Conversation of the Day:
Jason: How come you're throwing away the stork cut-out?
MacKenzie: Because somebody hid my broken bat behind it without telling me.
::long, very awkward pause during which Katie and I are trying not to laugh::
Emma: Yeah...sorry about that...
::another long, very awkward pause during which Andrew is trying not to look guilty because he's the one that broke the bat::
Jason: Soooo...Can I have it?

Do You Make Tomato Soup With Tomatoes?

Today, I looked at myself in the mirror and asked the essential life question: How can you be from the south and have never tried chicken and dumplings? The sad part about this whole talking to myself in the mirror scenario is that I didn't have a good answer. My mom never made them for me? I didn't like the sound of a dumpling? Rubbish. No excuses. Katie's birthday to the rescue! She decided to make all the interns chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and fresh pie. I know what you're thinking...why is she making her own birthday dinner? I don't know. We all tried to tell her we'd take her out or make her something, but she's a stubborn Indianian (After a long debate, we decided that's what people from Indiana are called). But I digress. I'm pretty sure her grandmother's recipe didn't turn out quite the way she expected it to, but it was still edible. There was so much leftover that we ate chicken and dumplings for a week and still had to throw some of it away.

Plant of the Day: Musa spp.

Banana tree in the west conservatory.

I wanted to highlight bananas in this blog post because they are such fascinating plants. Despite the fact that we all refer to them as banana trees, they have no woody parts, and the 'stem' (called a pseudostem) is actually just the base of the huge leaf stalks. Each shoot of a banana has a terminal inflorescence, which means the shoot grows up, flowers, fruits, and dies. Somewhere in the middle of the growing and the dying, a new shoot (or pup) is produced from the mother leader stem. Once the leader stem produces its fruit, it must be cut back to the ground so the plant can use all its energy for growing the pup into the new leader stem. This cycle continues as long as the corm (swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ) remains alive. Since the hybridized bananas we buy from the store are seedless and therefore sterile, throwing up pups is the plant's way of reproducing. Fertile bananas growing in the wild can have seeds up to the size and consistency of a golfball and reproduce through pollination.

Fireworks Duty

_]_
B U _ _ E R

I have found a foolproof way to win at Hangman. Poor Kail never stood a chance against this word.

Sidewalk chalk takes me back. Way back.

Note to self: When you have fireworks duty and are told to meet at Dogwood Allee at 9:00 PM, don't assume you can just walk into the gardens and ask where Dogwood Allee is. I asked an intern, 3 security guards, 2 VSAs, a facilities guy, and 2 gardeners. How is it that 9 different people, 6 of which had radios, had no idea where the huge line of dogwoods are in the gardens? Oi vey. After about 45 minutes, Victor came to the rescue, and we watched the fireworks together before they wisked me away to the back of the property to pick up caps. Within 5 minutes of meeting Brian from facilities, I knew his entire life story including the girl he met from Kentucky, his engaged 18 year old daughter, and the fact that he recently lost 50 lbs because he wanted to see his 4 year old son grow up. He seriously didn't slow down until he had to get out the Billy Goat, but even then he was trying to talk to me. The Billy Goat is loud and I have bad hearing as it is so I just nodded and smiled for the rest of the night. There's no telling what he said to me or how many times I nodded and smiled in the wrong place, but it's really just whatever. By midnight, we had all convened in the main fountain garden where I found out only guys and hardcore girls are allowed to work for fireworks duty because of the backpack blowers. Good thing I'm a weenie girl and was only given a trashcan and a cherry picker. We don't want to get overloaded or anything.

Siam Tulip

I Like Tuwtles

I'm interrupting the regular programming of Beth stories to bring you this special program of My Week in a Blog Nutshell. Each day and supervisor are different, and I love them all for very different reasons. All of them (except Andrew) have been at Longwood practically their whole career. I call them Longwood Lifers.

Mondays

I spend every Monday with Andrew Hemme in the children's gardens and estate houses. He is a recent graduate from Cornell University and was an intern at Longwood before being hired as a full-time gardener. My first day he had me sweeping for what seemed like forever. I don't want to be insubordinate (Andrew's favorite word) so I learned quickly to "sweep with a smile" and try to enjoy the instant gratification. Aside from sweeping and watering, he has had me espaliering the nectarines, planting new melons, tying the melons, eating figs, and pruning. He is also the only supervisor I have that knows how to take a break even when it's not 100 degrees outside.

Biggest Learning Curve: Distributing nematodes for 4.5 hours because we didn't know you could adjust the amount of water in the suspension. Instead of 12 gallons for every 5 million nematodes, we found that 3 gallons is more than enough. 12 gallons is a lot of water, and it took the nectarine house over a week to dry out enough to water it again. That's a long time!

Favorite Task: Picking and eating the fruit in the estate houses.

Least Favorite Task: Pinching the petunias.

Nectarine House

Tuesdays

Mary Allinson is my Tuesday supervisor. She is the section gardener for the West Conservatory and takes care of the garden path and the bonsai. With her, I'm never bored because we jump from task to task so often. Sometimes I'm pruning vines that give me rashes while other times I'm cleaning up the edges of the garden path where unassuming visitors tread on the plants. I like to refer to my Tuesdays as a hodge podge. Mary is always good about showing me new things she thinks I will interest me, and she loves to go for little field trips through the gardens for a change of scenery. Around the time pinching the bonsai mums is getting boring, here comes Mary with a plant she wants to find outside. Sure, I'll go help look for the Veronica out in the idea garden or the Celosia on the brick walk. Not a problem. 
Biggest Learning Curve: When Mary prunes something, she prunes it way back. Practically to the ground, in fact. It took me a few times to understand that the plants will recover and flush back out in a week or two. Now I'm a pruning machine!
Favorite Tasks: I absolutely love bonsaing the mums. She has trusted me to take care of the cascade, which is 3 years old (that's old as far as mum bonsai go). I've even learned how to wire them so they will grow in the form that she thinks is best.
Mary also includes me in her monthly plant auction down in research. They test plants for different parts of the garden to incorporate into their designs, and she takes most of them to the garden path for indoor testing. It's funny to hear them all talk about the plants and compare them to better varieties. The best, however, is when Jim Sutton tells the research coordinator "Just compost it and pretend like this never happened."
Least Favorite Task: Helping Ethel-Ann weed the orchids over at the nursery.

Bonsai

Wednesdays
Most Wednesdays, I spend with Marie (she's French-Canadian so I won't even try her last name) in the orchids. If Marie happens to be out, Lee Alyanakian supervises me for the day. It's tricky though because Lee is actually in charge of the orchids, but Marie is my main supervisor. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the orchid display in the conservatory gets changed out so there are always fresh blooms for people to see. It takes 9000 orchids to supply a 25 ft x 25 ft room, and it usually takes 2 hours to get everything looking the way it should. We go around to each of the greenhouses and choose the orchids that look the best, clean them up, and put labels in the pots for identification purposes. The best part is that I get to put my creative side into my work, which is always happy. After we change the display, I water everything, show the high schoolers how to water the 3000 cattleyas, and commence repotting whatever Marie thinks should be repotted. I've become an expert Phalaenopsis repotter over the past 2 months. 
Biggest Learning Curve: Hello! They're orchids. Everything was a learning curve.
Favorite Task: When we gave a brief seminar to the high school students, I taught them how to pot keikis from our Phalaenopsis. The best part was I got to pot one up for myself and take it home. I love a free plant!
Least Favorite Task: This one time, Lee had me crawling under the 3 ft benches pulling all the weeds. I know we have to stay on top of them so they don't get out of control, but it really isn't a pleasurable task. At least Lee had been down there doing the same thing the day before. I have a lot of respect for supervisors that take on some of the dirty jobs. 



Orchid Display

Thursdays

Joyce Rondinella! Definitely high on my list of favorite supervisors. She's the section gardener over the tropical terrace, the cascade garden, and the palm house. A typical day consists of soaking the palm house (and myself in turn) from the tunnel level, helping Linda water the hut, and cleaning up in the tropical terrace. Now that the high school students are with us full time, I have them water the palm house for me while I go around cleaning up brown leaves and such. I'm helping them build a lot of character. If it gets too hot, Joyce lets us go into the library to "learn something useful." She wants us to ask a lot of questions and learn as much as possible while we are here.  
Biggest Learning Curve: Joyce really values interns that ask a lot of questions so I have had to step up my game. Why do we irrigate the Rabbit's Foot Fern from above? What's the difference in a palm and a cycad? Does the compost tea really make your plants healthier? 
Favorite Task: Some of the staff at Longwood have satellite libraries at their desks, and Joyce's is one of my favorties. She has books about orchids, Roberto Burle Marx, palms, bromeliads, etc. I love sitting down on a hot day and just browsing through them. I've even made it a game every Thursday to learn something new from one of her books.
Least Favorite Task: It's a tie on this one. Either cleaning and watering the plants in the hut or showing the high schoolers how to water in the palm house. I can either be bored out of my mind for an hour or listen to girls complain about dirt on their clothes and bugs in their hair.


Encephalartos woodii: One of the rarest plants at Longwood

Fridays

"Friiiiday! Friiiiday! Gotta get down on Friiiiday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend." ~Rebecca Black
Not only is it Friday, but I get to work in the lily pools with Tim Jennings. I get to start off the day by fertilizing the fern passage, which takes almost 2 hours, and watering the carniverous plant cases. Then, I head into the rose house for a heavy watering and hibiscus clean up. By about 10:30, it's time to head into the pools for the rest of the day! We clean up the dead leaves and spent blooms, reposition plants and lights, and answer a lot of questions. It's the most peaceful when there isn't a huge flush of people, and I can just enjoy the water.
Biggest Learning Curve: My biggest setback was learning how to interact with the public. I am asked a lot of questions about the water plants, and I have to be able to summon up my knowledge at a moment's notice. Luckily, Tim is usually around so I am able to watch how he entertains people's questions and mimick it. He's really taught me a lot about professionalism while working.
Favorite Task: One day, Tim was tired of being in the pools so he suggested we climb to the top of the conservatory to look at Longwood from up there. Score! He showed me how much easier it is to design from an aerial view because it helps you see proportions and placements. I was in heaven! Everything is so much better from up high.
Least Favorite Task: When I work with other people in the pools, I try to take one for the team and give them the pair of waders that I know don't leak. That leaves the leaky pairs for me. One time, I chose wrong and picked out a pair that puddles in the shoe. I may as well have just gone in without waders at all.

Me with the Water-Platters.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

FAQs

My first day working in the lily pools, Tim gave me 2 pieces of advice. 1. If you start to drown, just stand up because the water is only 30 inches deep and 2. When you put on those waders, you're an instant celebrity so be sure to smile for the camera and act like you know what you're talking about. Done and done. Here are some of my favorite questions and comments that we all get while we're working.
1. What are you doing?
2. Why did you pick that one?
3. Is that a plant? (It's really, really hard not to be a smart ass when I hear that one. We're a garden. Yes, that's a plant!)
4. Watch out for gators! (That one gets a sympathy chuckle every time because the person obviously thinks they're clever)
5. (While putting on my waders) Look at those sexy pants!
6. Can I take this home?
7. What do you do with the nectarines after you pick them?
8. Where's the bathroom?
9. Is there anywhere air conditioned in the conservatory?
10. You've got the best job in the whole garden!
11. Is the water warm?
12. Can I get in?
13. Will you spray my face with water? (Big no no. Usually, we're using fertilizer water anyways.)
14. What's wrong with my plant at home? The branches are falling off all of a sudden.
15. Why won't my plants bloom for me?
16. Ah! Mangos!
17. Can I take your picture?
18. Oh my gosh it's so hot out here! Aren't you boiling? I don't know how you handle it.
19. Why aren't the roses blooming?
20. This place is so beautiful! You all do such a great job! (My personal favorite)

Oh Captain! My Captain!

I'm on a boat!

When I came up to Pennsylvania, I promised myself that I would try new things and make the most of my experience in a new place. So far I have lived up to that promise, which is how I found myself canoeing down the Brandywine. Luckily, Kail is an Eagle Scout so he's basically a professional at all things outdoors and was kind enough to let me ride in the front of the boat. He had all the hard work steering in the back, and I was the captain of our mighty vessel. "And stroke! And stroke! Onward ho!" I really got into it. As we reached our first pseudo-rapid, I hear from somewhere behind me, "I look once more, just around the riverbend." It was Justin serenading himself (and everyone else around him) with the first song in Pocahontas. There's a blast from the past. How could I not join in for at least one chorus?
Side Note: If you skim your paddle along the top of the water in just the right direction, you can effectively splash your canoe partner. Kail and I got in somewhat of a water war there for a while. I don't want to toot my own horn, but toot toot. I won :D
We happened along a dinky rope swing about 1/3 of the way down the river, and I can now check that off my list of things to do before I die. About 2/3 of the way down, we had to get out of the river and drag our boat on land to avoid careening over the dam. Now, I am completely useless in situations like this so I designated Kail as the official boat tower. Good thing he had his swim trunks and his flippy floppies (And...T-Pain...) because I turned around just in time to see him fall overboard as he's trying to get out of the canoe. Graceful.
By the end of the adventure, I was doneyuns, but it was so much fun! I had no idea what I'd been missing these past 22 years of life. If there's one thing I've learned since moving up here it's to try anything once. You never know who you're going to meet or what you're going to experience if you don't.

They have the best milkshakes in the entire world. Pinky promise.

P.S. I was going to put Walt Whitman's "Oh Captain! My Captain!" poem on here, but then I actually read it. Did you know that it's about the captain of a ship dying? So not ideal for this situation.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Plant of the Day: Cattleya

Quick Facts

1. Orchids are not hard to grow as long as you know their specific requirements. The most important thing to know is where your orchid comes from when it occurs naturally in the wild. Cattleyas, for example, are native to South America so they need medium light and temperature. 
2. There are 9000+ orchids in the Longwood accession database, and over 3000 of them are Cattleyas. Let me tell you, watering that greenhouse takes a loooong time.
3. Only repot a Cattleya if it has outgrown its pot. This will occur about every 3-5 years. Make sure to save the pseudobulb with the new growth plus 3-5 other pseudobulbs since this is where they get most of their energy.
4. They grow sympodially through underground rhizomes.
5. They are one of the only fragrants orchids.
6. 3 petals, 3 sepals, 1 column...it's an orchid!

About a week ago, Mary approached me asking if I had ever had any mentoring experience in the past. Of course, this question came out of nowhere so I couldn't think of the year of high school I spent mentoring a freshman or the times I was a TA in college. Perfect! I shook my head slowly, and then Mary lowered the bomb. She told me that for the rest of my time here, I would be mentoring the high school students that come to Longwood from Saul High School. Oh great. High schoolers. Let's just hope this doesn't turn into a babysitting job.
To celebrate the arrival of all the summer interns, the education department held a luncheon for all of us in the Terra Cota Room below the Terrace Restaurant. We all had to stand up and introduce ourselves to the director and department heads. By this point, I'm so used to saying my name and where I'm from that I don't get nervous anymore. My favorite part of the day came after lunch when Lee (my Wednesday supervisor in the orchids) let me sit in on her Orchid Extravaganza meeting. It was so neat seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into such a huge event. It doesn't even start until 2 weeks after the new year, but they have been planning it since last year. I'm almost glad I won't be here for it though because in that 2 week time period is when they rip out Christmas and put in OrchidEx. Crazy! All the construction and destruction is scheduled down to the minutes to make sure everything happens on time. While all of this planning is going on, I'm off in Beth Land wondering how they plan to make the orchid curtain. I didn't even know that was possible!

EPIC STORY TIME

Once upon a time, there was a lovely intern named Beth. She found herself in the Land of the North where she made loads of new friends, learned tons in the conservatory, and tried new things pretty much daily. One night, Stephen made Katie, Andrew, and Beth a champion meal of hot dogs, mac and cheese, green beans, baked beans, and chili. They were all so full afterwards that they decided to throw the softball back and forth because a run through the gardens seemed like a bad idea. This was a learning experience for Beth! As a child, her dad had tried to teach her how to throw off the correct foot and catch the ball, but Beth had never really picked up the proper techniques. "Well," Andrew told Beth, "tonight is the night you learn how to throw like a guy instead of a girl." Just what she'd always wanted. So Andrew proceeded to reiterate everything her dad had told her all those years ago, but this time something clicked in Beth's mind. Her first few throws were awkward, but she quickly got the hang of it. After awhile, Andrew tried teaching her how to catch the ball with her glove upside, which didn't end well. He threw the ball, Beth missed the ball, and Beth's upper thigh caught the ball. Despite the minor stinging sensation, they continued their game and even picked up another player. Sam and Beth were standing next to each other taking turns catching the ball. As with most things, Beth lost interest after awhile and wasn't paying close attention to what was going on around her. Andrew threw the ball one last time, and Sam reached for it. Beth took that to mean he was planning on catching it for her since it had technically been thrown in her direction. How wrong she was. The ball deflected right out of Sam's glove into Beth's left eye. A few drops of blood and tears later, she walked herself home to a sympathetic MacKenzie and Emma who got her an ice pack. Later on, Sam came over and gave Beth a hug, which helped. Who doesn't love getting attention from a cute guy? In the end, Sam was so traumatized by what had happened that he wouldn't play softball with Beth for 3 weeks. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

This is what I awoke to the next day. The three scratch marks are where the laces hit my cheek. 

This tale was based on a true story. No character names have been changed because no one's identity needs protecting.

Winterthur

A little tidbit of information brought to you by design intern Stephen Dorn while sitting on a bench outside the visitor center of Winterthur Gardens:

You know something? The number one pastime of humans is watching other humans. Don't deny it. Check out that family over there, for example. They're watching us watch them.

Song of the Moment: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj
YouTube Videos of the Time: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galianfinakis

Let's play pretend...

H. F. du Pont's mansion, and where our story begins. 

The year is 1928, and we have been invited to visit Henry Francis du Pont for dinner at his recently inherited 982 acre estate Winterthur. We arrive in the late afternoon just in time for a nice round of golf on the back side of the property before convening in the dining wing for a light dinner. Then, on to tea on the veranda and a tour around the gardens. There are a few azaleas to our left, a Japanese maple to our right, and a zillion trees somewhere in the middle. As we walk through the children's garden complete with fairy house and misting mushrooms, I can't help but notice the lack of color. We've walked almost the entire property, and I haven't seen much variation in the color palette. How unusual. Since we're playing pretend, I'm bold enough to ask one of the wealthiest men of his time, "Mr. du Pont, where is all the color in your garden?" "Ah, my dear girl, you noticed! You see, I prefer a more wooded feel so I use trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that allow me to attain that." "I see. It's green as far as the eye can see though." "Right you are. And anyways, isn't green a color?" "Touche, Mr. du Pont. Well played."

Playing with the fish.

When we arrived at Winterthur, we were just in time for the free tram tour around the gardens. The guide was pretty knowledgable, and the whole experience reminded me of Dollywood. Hop on at the round about tram stop, learn from the guide, and get off at the main attraction. In this case, the main attraction was H. F. du Pont's 9 story house. Woah back up! 9 stories?! Excuse me while I reel my jaw back in. There was a 1 hour tour through part of the house, but we opted to just walk around the gardens. I mean...we are horticulture interns after all. We spent 2 hours walking around so I will hit the highlights of the tour.
1. The 100 year old Japanese Maple.
2. The people-sized bird's nest you could walk in.
3. When we got inside the canopy of a huge tree and climbed it.
4. The 2 rooms full of Campbell Soup tureens. My personal favorites were the boar's head and the Buddha. Classy.

Monkeying around.

A Dinner for Champions

That's not even 1/3 of the Longwood Welcome Line.

My commitment to this internship reached a whole new level   today. I've been receiving at least 3 emails a day for the past week about the Longwood Welcome Line the night everyone from APGA comes to the gardens. The recipients list included every single Longwood employee (375), intern (18), student (20), seasonal (?), and volunteer (750+). That's a lot of people! Somewhere in the fine print that I  conveniently skimmed over in all the emails, there was mention of matching t-shirts, pom poms, and ponchos just in case the weather didn't cooperate. I'll do just about anything for a free t-shirt (plus attendance was mandatory) so I signed in right after work and found my team leader Courtney something. You know it's serious when you're assigned a team leader. After a wait that seemed like forever, we followed Courtney out to the very entrance of Longwood to man our post. Within 10 seconds of getting to our post, a bus pulls into the driveway so we all start waving and yelling. Their faces were priceless! In the world of emoticons, we had a lot of :D and :O. One part of the email that I did read every time it came to my inbox was the part that said we could leave early if all the buses arrived before 6:00 PM. Since the first bus arrived so quickly, I figured they would continue coming steadily for a while. Boy was I ever wrong. The next bus didn't make an appearance for over an hour. In the mean time, it started to storm, Courtney got even peppier (she was well-chosen as a "cheer captain"), and the director of the gardens (Paul Redman, known in this blog as PBR) took his place at the head of the receiving line. So here I am, dying of hunger in my white t-shirt after a long week of work, when it starts to rain...no not rain...pour. It starts to pour. Thank you, Chuck Ross, for having enough foresight to order us all clear ponchos. Why clear? So the wonderful people from APGA could still read our matching t-shirts, of course. You know the cool thing about ponchos? Yeah I don't either. If you can't tell by this point, I was getting cranky. Fast. Every time a car would drive through the gates, PBR would yell, "We've got another live one!" I'm pretty sure he'd been drinking. Then, Courtney would lead my group in a rousing round of show-them-how-excited-we-can-act, while people on the buses took our picture. The whole thing was definitely an experience. The rain stopped, and the sun came out about 5:30. That made for an interesting 5 minutes where we were all trying to decide whether or not to take off our ponchos. My favorite car to come through was the president of the board because his wife was hanging out of the sunroof waving back to all of us. She was eating it up. Finally, the last bus rolled through the gate, and PBR dismissed us to get ready for dinner.

You haven't heard Don't Stop Believin' until you've heard it from 5 harpists

dinner!

Some of the interns at the fancy dinner.

Appetizer: 3 half grapes, edible flowers, 1 toasted cashew, and watermelon sauce. Yum?

Main Course: 3 beef tenderloin slices, 1 stuffed mushroom, lobster salad, and some weeds. Yum!

Dessert was the most amazing piece of guava cheesecake I've ever put in my mouth followed by a live marching/rock band and fireworks set to the ABBA soundtrack. After 2 weeks of intensity getting ready for this, Longwood really put on a show. They definitely know how to treat their guests and employees.

APGA

A nickel's worth of free advice: Never say no to a group activity that you don't have to plan or pay for.

I learned this tidbit of information my sophomore year of college when I became the member of a large group that regularly liked to hang out together. It's also how I found myself attending the Wednesday sessions of the APGA Conference with Katie and Luke. Until Katie said, " Luke and I are going on Wednesday, would you like me to sign you up for that day, too?" I hadn't really even considered going. I didn't want to miss this adventure to Philadelphia...sign me up!
After the van fiasco of not having keys and finding out it leaks unknown fluids, we made it to the Loews Hotel. MacKenzie talked me into going to the education session in the morning, which was so boring and irrelevant that I won't even bother trying to relay the details. The 2 buzz words I picked up were Fairchild Challenge and Phipps Conservatory.

Emma, me, and MacKenzie after a thrilling lecture

What do you think of when you hear the words box lunch? If you're like me, it goes a little something like this..."Oh great not another plain ham sandwich, mushy apple, and crunchy cookie." I swear they haven't changed the make-up of a box lunch since I took elementary school field trips. I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the caterers for APGA knew how to feed a group of hungry horticulturalists. They had 3 different kinds of wraps, pasta, a fresh apple, baked Lays, an Otis Spunkmeyer cookie, soda, and all the condiments you could ask for. It was heaven in a take-along box. (Obviously I was impressed since I decided to blog about how amazing the lunch was)

A group of interns eating their box lunch

The afternoon horticulture session sounded promising so most of the group headed that direction after lunch. As a landscape design graduate, I can always go for a good talk on Jens Jensen. The lady that spoke is a professor at Purdue, but I'm not so sure how prepared she was for her talk. She kept saying she didn't have enough time so she rushed through her PowerPoint. Call me crazy, but I think her biggest problem was that she tried to cram an hour long college lecture into 15 minutes. It just can't be done. Now the main event and basically the only reason I didn't skip the afternoon session to explore Philadelphia. Underwater-themed gardening at Seaworld Orlando. Shamu! Can you imagine having to compete with Shamu for people's attention? What a task! They knew this garden needed to be a place where people could go for a quick break between shows, rides, etc. When designing and implementing a design, there are bound to be a few obstacles that must be dealt with.
Obstacle 1: When a team of 3 non-plant people designs your garden.
This is so not ideal in any situation. When faced with this, however, the team of horticulturalists at Seaworld did the best they could with what they were given. The design was amateur, but there were some neat ideas they knew they could focus on.
Obstacle 2: When that same team of people gives you internet print-off pictures of the plants they want. Without plant names.
Also not the greatest situation. The install team was able to find great plants they knew would work in the Florida heat and that had the certain look they were trying to achieve. It's hard to find land plants that look like kelp by the way.
Obstacle 3: When you have an underwater-themed landscape made of hazardous plant material.
Both large and small cacti were used to give the look of coral, which means the state of Florida requires fencing to ensure public safety. I say let them learn their lesson the hard way but it's really just whatever. Luckily, sand fencing is up to code for this situation and doesn't detract from the overall look.
Obstacle 4: When you have a large barn as your backdrop instead of the natural landscape of the area. 
When Seaworld first opened, it was owned by Anheuser Busch. The barn where visitors could go for free beer is still there even though the whole beer thing disappeared when Anheuser sold Seaworld. Something about nostalgia was mentioned so they decided to keep the barn. That's an interesting transition. From the shore, to coral, to kelp, to an 1800s style barn? There is no overcoming something like that so the horticulturalists just had to deal with it.
Obstacle 5: When someone wants to add pink flamingos to your underwater-themed garden.
Just let them. It's not worth the fight. 

Coral Garden: It's amazing that you can use the look of one plant to imitate another

Coral Garden: They even added fake fish!

Kelp Garden: See the barn in the background?

Shore Garden: Notice the "pink" flamingos

Shore Garden

Final Countdown

It was definitely crunch time here at Longwood over the past 5 days preparing for 400-500 visitors from the APGA Conference. They arrive Friday afternoon between 4:30 and 6 via coach bus, and we are greeting them all in the APGA Receiving Line. More on that in a later post.
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Monday: APGA countdown - 4 days
Today, Andrew asked if I could come into work at 5 AM. That's ridiculously early, but it's not like I can say no. So I said yes with a smile :D You know those horror movies where the unsuspecting girl walks through the misty woods and all you can think is, "No! Don't go in there! That's where the bad things are!"? That's exactly how I felt at 4:50 AM walking through the woods to the potting shed. "I should turn back and drive. What was that sound? Oh my gosh I'm going to get kidnapped, and no one will ever know." It's funny how dramatic the mind can be when it's on high alert. There are definitely good and bad things about going into work that early. The good thing is that I got off at 1:30 instead of 3:30. The bad thing is that it's 6.5 hours until lunch break instead of the usual 4.5.

Trachelospermum jasminoides - Star Jasmine 

Andrew has a Star Jasmine growing as a blanketing vine up the wall in the bamboo forest of the Children's Garden. In late spring and early summer, the blooms look like a massive tapestry of white and green. It really is quite impressive. After all the blooms are spent, however, they leave behind brown carcasses and unsightly seed pods (not to mention the cottony scale damage on much of the foliage). It was my job to scale a 15 foot ladder to prune out all the brown patches, spent blooms, and seed pods. Other than that, he had me doing super tedious work to get ready for APGA.
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Tuesday: APGA countdown - 3 days
This morning while I was deadheading and pruning more Star Jasmine in the Children's Garden, I got to thinking about how much I wish I could work with my iPod to make the time go faster. Out of nowhere I hear over the PA system "You are the Dancing Queen. Young and sweet. Only 17." Well, it's not Zac Brown Band, but I'll take it. After about 5 more ABBA songs, I felt like I was part of the Mamma Mia cast and hoped Meryl Streep would come prancing down the aisle with Pierce Brosnan at her side. Thank you, Longwood, for testing the fireworks music this morning! It really did perk us all up.

Agonis flexuosa - Willow Myrtle

The highlight of my day today was pruning the Willow Myrtle in the passageway of the Children's Garden. The whole trick is to stagger your cuts with no nubs or stubs to make it look natural. I'm finally getting the hang of taming plants without making them look awkward in the process. I always feel a sense of instant gratification as I step back to examine my handiwork. Also, the neat thing about the Willow Myrtle is that the foliage has a mixture of eucalyptus and mint aromas when the leaves are crushed. I smelled like a million bucks for at least an hour after completing that assignment.

Ardisia japonica - Marlberry

For years now, my father and grandfather have been telling me that the tasks we are given and the situations we face in life make us stronger. We like to refer to this as "building character" (I've mentioned it a few times in past blogs).  Well, Daddy and Papa, you will be proud to know that Victor and I did just that this afternoon. The Marlberry in the Fruit House has developed a thrips problem, which has caused about 1/4 of the foliage to turn a sickly brown-silver color. That's unacceptable for the current APGA standards so it was our task to sit down with a bucket and pick out every single brown leaf we could find. 3.5 hours later, Victor and I composted 15 gallons worth of brown leaves in the soil shed. I have come to grips with the fact that not a single APGA guest will walk into the Fruit House and say, "Wow! That Marlberry doesn't have a single brown leaf on it. I wonder how they keep it looking so perky at this time of year." They also, however, won't say, "Wow! That Marlberry looks really sickly. Maybe they should consider a species better suited for this kind of growing condition." We must look on the bright side of things. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday: APGA countdown - 1 day
My morning consisted of detailed grooming with Linda in the Tropical Terrace. I was climbing behind palm trees, crouching in the Aglaonema, picking out more brown leaves, and skimming floaties out of the stagnant pond. I got tickled when I remembered the line from Andy Griffith where Opie tells his Pa, "Johnny Paul says if you put a horse hair in stagnation water, it'll turn into a snake." Where's a horse hair when you need one?

Joyce taught me a little bit about Bromeliads today so I've decided to test my memory skills.
1. There are 3000 classified species of Bromeliads in the world. Many of them are able to crossbreed, which leads to new hybrids and the discovery of new species.
2. Pineapples are Bromeliads.
3. Some Bromeliads are stoloniferous - a long horizontal stem that grows along the surface of the soil. Others are rhizomatic - a thick horizontal underground stem of plants.
4. When cultivated for food, they are a good source of fiber and vitamins. They can also be harvested as the meat tenderizer bromelain.
5. Homeowners are not advised to water their Bromeliads from the top because the cups catch excess water. The leaves slowly rot away if the water sits in the cups for too long, which isn't ideal for healthy plant situations.
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Friday: It's go time!
All we did today were some last minute touch ups before APGA and the weekend. They were all so incredibly insignificant in the grand scheme of life that even an Andy Griffith quote wouldn't help.

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A Note to the Readers: With all the APGA preparations, this was not the most exciting week of work. Most of what we did was tedious detail work to make everything look as close to perfect as possible. I tried to make this entry more interesting by picking out the highlights of the week. Thanks for reading!

Pajamas

Corn ice cream. Try it. Love it. Pass it on.

Last night, Katie mentioned a quaint, little place called Buckley's Tavern in Centerville, DE where they serve brunch 1/2 off on Sundays if you wear your pajamas. Since it's not socially acceptable to wear pajamas in public on a regular basis, Stephen and I jumped on her offer to go there before church at 11. 9 AM rolled around Sunday morning, and we headed out to Buckley's in our pajamas. Mine were especially adorable if I do say so myself. Note to self: never go somewhere new without checking the opening and closing times first because Buckley's doesn't open until 10. So here we are awkwardly standing in the doorway of Buckley's in our pajamas (with all the waiters staring at us) trying to figure out what to do. Stephen pulls up Waffle House on the GPS, but it's 15 miles away. Rats. The IHOP in Wilmington was only 9 miles away, which in comparison to 15 miles seemed like a great idea. Hindsight is always 20/20. Did you know it's possible to be underdressed at an IHOP? I sure didn't. I felt judgemental eyes give us the up-down as we entered the restaurant and were told by the hostess that it would be "awhile" before we could be seated. "Awhile" later, which turned out to be roughly 20 minutes, we sat down by the bathrooms, and I tried French Toast for the first time. Pancakes are definitely the way to go at IHOP (imagine that). In the end, we missed church, but we got a nice tour of the grey part (not nice but not the ghetto either) of Wilmington in our pajamas.

Fireworks Setting

Travels of the Weekend: King of Prussia Mall, King of Prussia, PA
There is literally a store in this mall for every shopper. From Forever 21 for the lightweights like me to Nordstrom for professionals like the Kardashians. We wanted to hit up the food court first because none of us had eaten lunch. After stopping at 2 maps to find our way, we made it. It wasn't especially impressive, but the Asian food was good so that's really all that matters. The girls wandered into Sephora after lunch and proceeded to giggle over lipgloss for almost an hour. I spritzed myself with Poison by Dior (bad choice) before heading out to find the boys at Banana Republic. We never made it there because we got lost in the world of Bath and Body Works. We found the boys an hour later and all got smoothies to top off the successful shopping trip. All-in-all, I can definitely see why people rave about this mall so much. It has 2 different buildings and 2 floors in each building. Crazy! West Town sure doesn't have that.

Tickets for the fireworks show are $31 per person for the general public and $10 per person for Longwood staff. For MacKenzie, Jason, and I, however, the fireworks show was free thanks to a source who chooses to remain nameless. We had 31 minutes to kill once we found a seat so I proceeded to people watch. Fortunately, the best ones were right in front of us. First, a Middle Eastern couple parks their wide load stroller right in front of us, which caused a chain reaction of us having to scoot over. The new couple we sat behind was eating fancy cheese and crackers out of a cardboard box. They even had a topping that vaguely resembled caviar paste. Then, the real fun began. The fireworks absolutely blew me away. Boom's Day can't even compare except when they do Jaws and the waterfall. These were bigger, louder, brighter, more colorful, and had a better soundtrack. The show lasted exactly 39 minutes with a 3 minute intro and a finale that left us all wanting more. We walked back to the row in the pitch black and saw the coolest display of lightning bugs. They must have gotten excited by the fireworks because there were thousands of them in the trees and bushes. It was a spectacular way to end the evening.

Doesn't this look like a flower?

Fun Fact: Fireflies in Spain are an orange color, and South African fireflies are green.

Best picture of the night.

What's That Smell?

Please listen to song while reading blog

The Palm House: 
In the Palm House, the sound of rushing water and unusual palms under-planted with lush groundcover plants create a tropical feeling throughout the year. Cultivated for centuries, palms are used for clothing, shelter, fuel and food. Cycads, which are also in the Palm House, are an ancient, non-flowering group of plants closely related to pines and other conifers. Prolific in the age of the dinosaurs, cycads today are considered living fossils.
Noteworthy plants: Three-Cornered Palm (Dypsis decaryi), Queen-Palm (Cycas circinalis), Wild Date Palm (Phoenix sylvestris), Bottle Palm (Hyophorbe lagenicaulis), Clustered Fishtail Palm (Caryota mitis)

As soon as I crossed the threshold from the tunnel into the Palm House, I entered an alternate reality. I felt like I was Ursula from George of the Jungle, and a butt-flap wearing Brendan Fraser would swing down on a vine to whisk me away to Ape Mountain. Alas, no Brendan Fraser appeared as I dragged the hose (ew is that a spider?) out of the tunnel to "give everything a good drink". I'm sure there's a trick to dragging the 300 foot hose around without shmushing plants (oh my gosh I hope that frog doesn't jump on my head) or tripping myself, but I haven't figured it out yet. Since the Palms are directly planted into the ground instead of into soil on top of concrete, their root systems are incredibly extensive and must be watered thoroughly. This means that by the end, there are standing puddles both on the ground and in my shoes. I do find it mildly satisfying to be covered in mud as I put away the hose because I feel like I actually did my job well. You can't be a horticulturalist without getting dirty.
"Oh my goodness gracious! What on earth is that smell?!?!" is all I could think as I watered a particularly large cycad. It seriously smelled like someone let their dog do its business in the water supply. It got stronger and stronger then suddenly...nothing. Not even a hint of sewage in the air. You know what it was? Mushroom compost. Kennett Square is the mushroom capital of the world, and the farmers were preparing their crop with some fresh compost.

What I Learned Today:

1. Zero turn radius lawnmowers are not for the inexperienced. I almost took out a PG's precious garden plot before a low-hanging branch almost took out my precious face. Steering wheels I can handle...awkward lap bars I cannot handle.
2. No matter how long you live in Kennett Square, you will never get used to the smell of mushroom compost.
3. Row clean-up is just as character building as it sounds. If you can't mulch or drive the Kubota, you are sentenced to weeding duty in everyone's flowerbeds or picking up rocks in the parking lot.
4. I am not a boisterous person.

 

 

 

The main cycad in the Palm House

The Palm House from the viewing deck

Don't Look Down

Bougainvillea

            

 Beautiful picture right? It grows as a vine or shrub, withstands dry conditions, and is deer resistant. What's not to love?! I'll show you.

 

Feel free to say "ouch" because those are my forearms after 4 hours of pruning the Bougainvillea in the rose house. When I got to work that morning, Tim said he had a special project for me. Score! Third day on the job, and they're already trusting me with special projects! We go get an extension ladder before heading into the rose house. Now, at this point, I have no idea what I'm getting myself into because no one has actually told me anything, which later I found out why. Tim pulls a hanging basket-type contraption along the cat-walk (25 feet in the air), and I think "Haha joke! Who's getting in that thing?" Yep, you guessed it...me. As I awkwardly scaled the ladder, Tim yelled up, "Be careful when you jump on. It swings. Oh and there's a bolt at the top so don't hit your head on it." Great. Don't fall, don't hit my head on the bolt, and don't say those potty words going through my head. What seemed like a lifetime later, I checked all 3 items off my list and began dragging myself down the cat-walk. 4 hours later, I'm still hanging in the basket pruning because I was afraid to get down. Jumping from the swinging basket to the top of a ladder wasn't the ideal situation I had visualized in my mind. In the end, I hit my head on the bolt every time I had to move the swinging basket, there was a cut up my nose from one of the thorns ricocheting off my pruners, and my arms resembled something from a horror movie. On a positive note, I lived to tell the tale (yes, I did have to jump from the swinging basket to the top of the ladder), and I even built character in the process. 

Beth: 1

Bougainvillea: 0

Medieval Serfdom

es·pal·ier  
n.

1. A tree or shrub that is trained to grow in a flat plane against a wall, often in a symmetrical pattern.

2. A trellis or other framework on which an espalier is grown.



TIME WARP
Today's saga begins in 17th century France. The serfs are laboring away in the castle's courtyard training fruit trees to grow 2-dimensionally along a trellis or frame. In the midst of burning people at the stake for heresy, espaliering became popular among the upper class because it lengthened the growing season and saved space. They found that if you trained the branches vertically while they're young then horizontally as they age, the amount of fruit produced increases substantially. Allowing the branches to grow horizontally also created a more formal look and interfered less with the open space in the courtyard. Nowadays, people utilize it in their owns yards to hide unsightly walls or to enhance the beauty of a small space. It is considered an art that takes many years of patience and hard work, but the results are well-worth it.
That is how I found myself on an 8 foot ladder all day tying back stray branches from the nectarine trees in the fruit house. I'm sure most people would find the task dull, but I really took to it because it was so relaxing. The best part was stepping back after completing an entire tree to survey the results. There are many different types of espalier, but the trees at Longwood are in what's called a fan shape. This means there is a central stem with many branches coming from it at a 45 degree angle. The main goal is to train each branch so it covers a hole and creates one mass of foliage.
Working in the fruit house has it's perks. Andrew let me try one of the figs he harvested, and when I accidentally knocked a nectarine to the ground, he took out his knife so we could split it. I've finally found someone that knows how to take a decent break!

Rum and Coke Float

I spent the morning recuperating from my first day of work. After a while, I got really bored and decided to utilize the advice my dad gave me. "Don't just sit around waiting for something to happen. Run the roads. Do your own thing." I made plans to visit Hagley Museum and Library because it is relatively close to the row and is free with my Longwood ID. I like free so my Michelins hit the road. After a few (il)legal u-turns followed by a short stint driving down a one way street going the wrong way, I made it to Hagley along the Brandywine River. Since I'm not much for reading pamphlets (especially ones with numbered stops on them), I decided to do some research on the internet of what to expect from my experience at Hagley, which is where the du Pont story begins. In 1802, E.I. du Pont founded his gunpowder works on 235 acres of land complete with mills, a worker's community, and the family home. To find out more about Hagley and how it got the name Hagley, click on the link above.
The Brandywine River is such a beautiful setting for taking a walk. It's so relaxing, and I really enjoyed seeing all the different kinds plants. It is a bit too late for the wildflowers so I had to rely on the Tiger Lilies along the banks for some color. Along the way, I stopped at some of the mill ruins, but they were creepy. Needless to say, I didn't linger long. I tend to go into a fun place I refer to as Beth Land when I take walks, which is where I was when a beaver came running across the path not 5 feet in front of me. I jumped clear out of my skin, but oddly enough I think I scared it more than it scared me. Thanks to Andrew Temple, who linked an article about crazy beavers to me, I knew not to get too close. Rabies wouldn't be ideal this far away from home and UT Hospital even if it would make for an epic life story.

 

Top 5 YouTube Videos of the Night

1. Jack Sparrow
2. Kittens Inspired by Kittens
3. Talking Dog
4. Honey Badgers
5. Maximum Protein Bar

Game of the Night: Kings
Purple...Green...Orange...No wait, this is the rhyming round not the colors round. Nothing rhymes with purple!