Its been a couple weeks since my last blog and the New York City Trip, but I have one last thing to share with y'all about the trip! The three other interns and I were asked to give a presentation to all the staff once we returned to show them our experience. Here is a link to the powerpoint presentation we came up with!
NYC Presentation
In these couple weeks following our trip we've done many jobs and a lot of work, at the garden and elsewhere. Here is a brief description of some of them.
PRODUCTION CENTER
We, Rachel and myself, have spent a lot of time with the garden's grower in the production center, which is the greenhouse and nursery area of the garden. We spent majority of one day up-potting (a term I learned recently from the grower meaning, to transplant a plant to a larger pot once it is ready/has overgrown it's current smaller pot). Periodically, throughout these past two weeks, we've also helped with sowing seeds, propagating cuttings and making divisions. Below is a picture of just a small amount of the day lilies we worked on.
LARGE EQUIPMENT TRAINING
My fellow Interns and I also underwent large equipment training on a small and large Kubota tractor as well as a Genie Boom lift.
GROW MOORE
Grow Moore is an event held at the garden where fellow growers and nursery/botanical garden owners may come and explore the garden, take cuttings, and learn from each other. We were able to assist these guests throughout the garden during this event.
SAVANNAH RIVER SITE COLLECTING TRIP
Rachel and I had a really cool opportunity to go on a collecting trip with the garden's director and plant recorder at the Savannah River Site. Savannah River Site is a nuclear reservation originally built in the 50s to refine nuclear materials. Their focus is to protect public health and the environment in hopes of transformation into future use. Why this place was really neat for us to visit is due to the fact that much of the site's natural areas haven't been touched in over sixty years. This kind of preservation allows for some of South Carolina's rare native species to be present along with a plethora of other plants. A few we were out looking for were Baptisia lanceolata, Coreopsis rosea, Styrax grandiflora, Nestronia umbellule, and many more! Here is the only picture I have from the trip, (I never took my phone far from the car as we were walking through all kinds of swamps, brush, and forests) unfortunately it is not of plants but it was one of the the many wildlife creatures we observed that day.
Rachel and I had a really cool opportunity to go on a collecting trip with the garden's director and plant recorder at the Savannah River Site. Savannah River Site is a nuclear reservation originally built in the 50s to refine nuclear materials. Their focus is to protect public health and the environment in hopes of transformation into future use. Why this place was really neat for us to visit is due to the fact that much of the site's natural areas haven't been touched in over sixty years. This kind of preservation allows for some of South Carolina's rare native species to be present along with a plethora of other plants. A few we were out looking for were Baptisia lanceolata, Coreopsis rosea, Styrax grandiflora, Nestronia umbellule, and many more! Here is the only picture I have from the trip, (I never took my phone far from the car as we were walking through all kinds of swamps, brush, and forests) unfortunately it is not of plants but it was one of the the many wildlife creatures we observed that day.
A TURTLE!
*I wish I would have captured a picture of my favorite area of the site. It was a huge swampy area right on the river where we went walking through the muck and all over and around Bald Cypress knees. I had never seen them in real life before and there were millions everywhere. It was super cool!*
*I wish I would have captured a picture of my favorite area of the site. It was a huge swampy area right on the river where we went walking through the muck and all over and around Bald Cypress knees. I had never seen them in real life before and there were millions everywhere. It was super cool!*
POLLARDING/PLEACHING
There is a curved hedge of Sycamore trees near the Welcome Center of the garden. The garden recently decided they wanted that hedge to have a pollarded/pleached look. A few other horticulturists had cut them back a couple times before but they had grown many feet since, passing those frame cuts. Rachel and I were assigned to tame them all back to their previous cuts, encouraging fuller growth and growth more towards each other in a hedge-like fashion.
CALLING ALL PLANTAHOLICS
Calling all plantaholics was a class the garden offered to help gardeners find plant sources in the area as well as from all over the country. They provided a list of nurseries, bulb/seed companies, and greenhouses they use to purchase plant material from. Following this, the class attendees were taken out and into the garden to learn how to take divisions of these four plants, Cannas, Muhly grass, Mums, and Dasylirion. Myself and the other interns assisted throughout the class, especially with the divisions portion.
CHARLESTON
The interns and I traveled to Charleston with the garden's head horticulturist and one of the horticulturists to work on a property they manage there. CHARLESTON IS BEAUTIFUL, so was the garden we worked in. The two major accomplishments of the trip were replacing a turf section in one area and planting a mature palm within the garden. We also did a lot of cleaning up, such as weeding and cutting back of overgrown plant material. Apart from the palm, our biggest planting, we planted numerous other plants throughout and re-mulched all the beds. It was a busy two days but really fun and in an exciting location! Here are a few pictures of the garden we worked on.
CUT FLOWER GARDEN
One day, Rachel and I spent most of our time cleaning up the Cut Flower Garden. We planted some and weeded a whole lot. However, everything was full and blooming it was gorgeous. I took a few pictures to share here below.
FARMERS MARKET
Another intern and I represented Moore Farms at the local, Lake City Farmers Market selling day lilies and tomato plants!
BAY LAUREL HEDGE
I have mentioned this project before, but briefly I'll give a short description. This hedge surrounds three areas of the garden. Recently it has developed a scale problem so we've been doing an insecticide experiment with it's eight sections (using a different type of insecticide for each section to determine which eliminates the scale best). Rachel and I applied the first treatment a couple weeks ago and this past week the hedge was due for its second treatment, which we applied as well. Here is a picture of us in the process.
STAY TUNED
This past week marked the half-way point of my time here and as crazy as that sounds, it has been seven weeks. The time has flown by and unfortunately I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Luckily, i'm optimistic and am choosing to see this situation as the cup being half-full. I still have seven more wonderful weeks here so stay tuned for all that's to come!
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