This blog will encompass my last two weeks here as I only have eight days left in South Carolina. It's hard to believe I began my internship here back in May, that feels like yesterday! However, I know a lot of time has passed when I remind myself that it's August already! The time is also evident when I look back through this blog; the amount of experience and learning is incredible for three short months and it won't stop until my very last day here. I am so thankful that Moore Farms kept learning as their top priority throughout my entire internship experience.
--> THIS WEEK
UPSTATE SC
The week started out very exciting with a trip to upstate South Carolina to visit a few gardens there. We left early Monday morning and returned on Tuesday, late afternoon.
- Hatcher Garden, Spartanburg, South Carolina: This was our first stop and we received a tour by one of their Horticulturists. The garden is a public botanical garden and woodland preserve tucked away in a little neighborhood right off the highway. It began as just the yard of the retired Harold and Josephine Hatcher. Over the span of thirty years they acquired ten acres of property and it eventually became what it is today; a nonprofit organization, free to the public and open all daylight hours everyday. It survives today by donors and volunteers determined to preserve this beautiful garden and the joy it brings to the community through programs and events. Below are some of the pictures I took while we were there.
- Spartanburg Community College Arboretum, Spartanburg, South Carolina: Our next stop was visiting SCCA where a professor Jay Moore toured us around the campus gardens and Kevin Parris showed us around their production area and Magnolia trial gardens. SCC is a small, two year college yet very based in horticulture. Seeing their campus gardens and how interactive their students were able to be there was wonderful.
Here are a few pictures of their campus gardens below.
I mentioned Kevin Parris briefly above, but more thoroughly, he is a major Magnolia expert and researcher. He works a lot with the hybridization of particular genuses and works to preserve almost extinct magnolia types in order keep their genes present in the future of Magnolias. This picture (below) is a rare Magnolia he is trailing at SCCA.
- The Figlar's, Pickens, South Carolina: Our third and final stop of the day was Dick and Anita Figlar's residence. Dick Figlar is one of the world's greatest plantsmen in regards to Magnolia and is probably the most renown Magnolia expert of North America. After spending the evening and morning touring his private study arboretum and talking with him, we knew those to be true. He has a decent area of land surrounding his house in the mountains of upstate South Carolina. There he created an arboretum/grove of Magnolias amidst the native South Carolina terrain. Also, closer around his house he has numerous cultivars and genuses from all over the world to observe, preserve and showcase. He allows researchers and guests to tour each upon request. Showing us these rare specimens and sharing his knowledge of Magnolias with us was simply unbelievable.
- South Carolina Botanical Garden, Clemson, South Carolina: Tuesday morning we headed to Clemson to see the state's botanical garden. There a grad student of Clemson University, who also works as one of the horticulturists at the botanical garden gave us a tour. He showed us the Children's Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the Native Meadow, and the Desert Garden. Within the desert garden is my favorite zeric plant (the first picture below). He also walked us through some future areas of garden that are under construction and experimentation at the moment. It was really cool to see things in the beginning phases. The second picture below is a pond area they are wanting to showcase lowerland and coastal regions of the state through.
VEGETABLE GARDEN
Rachel and I did a lot of work in the vegetable garden this week. We harvested, as normal, mainly beans and a few eggplant. But mostly we pulled out spent spring and summer vegetables and planted new fall ones! We sowed numerous carrots, beets, bush beans, okra, and cucumbers.
GARDEN WALK
As both horticulture internships were ending quickly, (Rachel this past Friday and mine this coming Friday) our garden director scheduled a garden walk with us. It was really just us walking through the garden with him talking and reflecting on our internship here. It was really nice though. It was a cool full circle type experience thinking back on our first weeks here to now, months later.
PRESENTATIONS
As for our intern presentations this week, they all went great! We all elaborated on the topics assigned to us and were evaluated by the staff throughout the presentation. I put together a powerpoint including some data I found throughout the summer observing the trial daylily collection. Here is a link to the powerpoint:
Daylily Presentation
The presentation experience and evaluations from the staff were very helpful. It was a lot more nerve-racking presenting in front of twenty (almost) co-workers all evaluating you than to one professor evaluating you while twenty other students are just watching. However, we all did well and will take the criticism with us to future jobs.
--> NEXT WEEK
DATABASE
Majority of next week will be all database work. It will be my last week so all the information I have recorded on the daylily collection thus far (May-Aug) must be entered into the garden's database. I have been keeping my own records in an excel spreadsheet I created at the start of the project, but the information will be a lot more beneficial to the farm if it is within their own database. This task will take a long time I predict, as there are roughly three hundred and fifty cultivars of daylilies and I have information and pictures for each one. Yet, this will be a great learning process for me on how to use, enter records and navigate through the garden's online database. I am also greatly looking forward to sharing and putting to use all the information I have gathered throughout my time here.
STAY TUNED
Next week I will post about all the places I was able to visit in the area throughout the past three months, so keep following to see the exciting and fun places of South Carolina!
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