Bromeliad Christmas tree #1

Christmas has officially started at Longwood Gardens. I had the opportunity to work in the Tropical area of the conservatory with an enjoyable team! I helped put together two bromeliad Christmas trees. I only have a couple more weeks before my junior class gets a break to enjoy Christmas with our families. Till then, we will be finishing up our classes.

Besides finishing up classes, I am preparing to go to Germany December 17th to explore urban parks, the Berlin botanic, and of course some art museums! It will be pretty exciting. Stay posted!

Bromeliad Christmas tree #2

My herbaceous garden

 On another note, my vegetable garden is still giving me some Arugula, parsley, and scallions!

Put some flowers on your table!

Round table center piece

 Now our PG class is half way through the last three month semester this year.  Midterms are complete!

The classes this semester are very exciting, giving us the opportunity to be creative. I have posted five of the floral designs I had the opportunity to make so far this semester. I have enjoyed every moment of this class.

Weave design

This semester a famous Finland floral designer came to Longwood and we got to watch his work. It was a thrill and he has so many great ideas.

Besides flowers, our landscape design class is getting us set for designing and creating a garden at Longwood based on light and sustainability. More on that later!

Till next time, enjoy the fall weather!

One of my first arrangements 

Focal-point

Long table centerpiece

The leaves haven't changed colors yet... but there is fall color in my garden!

Summer has quickly passed by and now the warm loving crops have left empty spaces in my vegetable garden. Those empty spaces are slowly being filled by Arugula, Kohlrabi, radishes, and swiss chard.

Despite the change in weather, my herbaceous garden still has beautiful color.  The herbaceous garden is showing more color then ever. The plants that are still performing are the Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm', Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Purple Dome', and Agastache 'Purple Haze'. All of these are very easy to grow plants and I can not wait to see how they do next year!

Two weeks ago, classes started for my junior class. All of us will be in class for six months, until we are in our next work rotations. We are taking Landscape Design, Floral Design, Business management, Greenhouse management, and Plant propagation. Also, I was able to take a continuing education class on edible plants and perennials. These classes have been much more exciting than our previous set of classes.

With all of this said, I hope everyone gets dirty in their gardens as long as the cold allows and gets a chance to do a little fall hibernation!

Edible gardens, New Jersey bogs, and healthy bees!

My Vegetable Garden!! 

The heat has arrived in Kennett Square and now the tomatoes in my garden are coming fast! It feels amazing not to buy any vegetables from the grocery store, except an occasional onion. I love enjoying home cooked meals from the garden.

Rosemary zucchini cakes and potatoes!

Oh yeah! These are from the garden!

I have had the chance to work with some italian honey bees. Let me just say, I would never be able to keep up with these ladies. 

My herbaceous garden! Yes, that is my corn.

Pitcher Plants at the New Jersey Bog!

This past month, I went to the pine barrens and examined some of the native flora with our masterful guide Jeff Jabco. We saw dwarf forests, bogs, blueberry farms, and of course the beach. With all the adventures, it has given me some time to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Bring on the heat!

View from the south end of my garden!

Classes have ended, the heat has been turned up, and the PG class of 2012 is back in work rotations. This gives us a little more time to play in our gardens.  Now that the weather is warming up, some of my plants are getting very excited!

Relax with my plants!!

Tomato MADNESS!!!.... Can you say homemade  Pasta sauce!

My bee balm, asters, rudbeckia, and grasses are becoming very happy and should be shooting off their blooms by late July to August!

All of my vegetables have been doing very well, especially my bloody butcher corn and tomatoes. I have bushes of basil and started making some homemade pesto! That was a very delicious decision.

Come visit and I'll cook you a dinner from my garden!

Updated Garden pics!!

My Herbaceaous plot!

My summer container!

Sit down and relax with the plants!

Tomato trellis

Entrance to my veggie plot!!

Garden Time!

View of vegetable plot from Northeast side!

It has been a while since I have posted. The reason being, time has been consumed by classes and coursework, but also my garden.  The garden is always in the works and I will update you folks with the progress as it continues. I plan on getting my pathways covered soon to slow down the over excited weeds. Out of everything in the Professional Gardener program, working in my own garden has been my favorite place to work.

View of Herbaceous garden from Southwest!

Updated garden pics to come soon!!

Nature is my classroom!

Mertensia virginica Virginia blue bells

 The first three weeks of classes have passed. Chemistry, Mathematics, History of Landscape Design, Entomology, and Speech and Communications are taking up much of our time. Also, our space for our individual gardens has been tilled and our class vegetable garden for the Terrace restaurant has vegetables started outside!

With all the exciting projects going on, once in a while it is nice to get away and explore the most valuable learning tool, nature itself. Jeff Jabco, our AMAZING teacher, was our guide in the exploration of Shenk's Ferry. This beautiful trail is right along the Susqhehanna river and is presently blossoming with native wild flowers.

Shenk's is a must see and I hope to check it out in the coming weeks for the Orchids that will be popping up!

Erythronium americanum Yellow trout lily

Arisaema triphyllum  Jack in the Pulpit

Pampered plants, Menacing foilage, and italian honey bees!

Beginning in March, I started working in research at Longwood Gardens. I was placed in research during the time of Longwood's unveiling of Clivia miniata 'Longwood Debutante'. The clivia symposium also took place during this time and I took part in cleaning the plants. I have never seen plants so pampered. First to clean a clivia, you must remove dead petals, then clean all the leaves with soap and water, remove any dead foilage, and then massage milk all over the leaves. Longwood's Clivia definitely gets the spa treatment.

In research, they had many projects going on and the one I feared the most was working with the  selenum, a plant that  has thorns over its leaves and stems. This plant is being grown for it's orange non edible fruits. They are a very strange plant.

Now that Spring has begun, it is also time for honey bees at Longwood Gardens. I had the opportunity to unleash some of the gentle italian honey bees in their  new hives. Currently, they are being introduced to their new queen.  As a student, I will have more opportunities working with the bees! 

So, now that my first three months has come to an end,  it is time for my six classes to begin!

A Winter hare that is ready for Spring!

One of the Mum Greenhouses

In the month of February, I worked in Production at Longwood Gardens.  During my time there, I had the opportunity to work with Yoko, who is capable of producing a mum that has one thousand blooms.  For the next week, I worked with Koa, from Hawaii, helping pinch mums for the mum show later this year. It was great to be behind the scenes and see how Longwood Gardens operates their green houses.

My floral arrangement

This month the Class of 2012 helped the senior class with the Symposium. The senior class did an amazing job and brought in $8500 for their class trip to South Africa. For the sale, we made flower arrangements with pussy willows, tulips, and lilies.  All of the them were sold at the symposium. The whole experience was wonderful.

Deborah Butterfields "Cast Bronze Horse that looks like drift wood"

Besides working in production and helping the senior PG's, I was able to take a trip to Grounds for Sculpture. I saw Deborah Butterfield's work and also some contemporary sculpture work in the garden. I have never seen so many contemporary sculptures outside before. It was interesting to see how a part of the art world was working within landscape. I plan on checking out Grounds for Sculpture in Spring to see how some of the work contrasts the plants.

Grounds for sculpture path!

This month flew away and I hope there is no more snow in the forecast because I am ready to spring into my garden!

Spring time in Winter

Plants: Euphorbia fulgens, Kalanchoe, Narcissus, Tulipa, Roldana petasitis

Weekly snow fall of half a foot doesn't stop the daffodils and tulips from stretching their blooms in the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens.

Above: Me, Kaitlyn(PG friend), Hydrangea macrocarpa,  Clerodendron quadrangularis 

I spent three weeks working on the indoor display changing the display from Christmas to Orchid Extravaganza.  The displays at Longwood constantly change so the garden reveals only vibrant blooms. The inside of the conservatory now shows signs of a beautiful spring.

Random facts: 

• citrus trees in orangery attacked by cottony cushion scale and the vedalia beetle eats the scale in spring
• planting media in conservatory is 2.5 feet deep
• snow melted off of conservatory glass with hot water pipes
• some orchids are epiphytic and live in trees
• many of the conservatory plants thrive in the winter in their native country (cool wet winters and hot dry summers)

PG Class of 2012

Check out the Video!

And so it begins with Christmas....

The first week for Longwood's PG Class of 2012 started with much excitement and anticipation!  

The day I arrived every single person had a wonderfully energetic and positive attitude. I had the chance to have dinner with all of my class mates and our fearless leader, Brian Trader. Later that week, the 2012 class had the opportunity to listen to the Longwood historian and Archivist. It feels great to be apart of this amazing garden.

During a brown bag lunch, the class was able to meet many of the smiling faces that we have the opportunity to work with! Then the week came to a close and snow blanketed the ground.  My first weekend at Longwood was filled with shoveling snow, but working at such a beautiful garden with wonderful people made it a special time. 

Classes begin Monday. I will be taking the Principles of Horticulture, Green roof plants, and Conifers! Along with those classes, I will be working in the conservatory removing christmas and replacing it with Orchids.