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!