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