Throwback Thursday - New York Trip

For our first Throwback Thursday, I'll be taking us back to our New York trip from this past summer.

What an eventful time we had before we even got there. Due to bad weather at both airports, our flight was delayed for several hours, putting us in New York around 2:00am Friday morning. We were granted a later wake up call to try and catch up, but once up and moving we hit the ground running. 

Let me take a step back and give you the scope of why we were on this trip... The first summer in the public horticulture program, students take the Public Gardens Management course, taught by Dr. Robinson. One of the perks is traveling to various public gardens, including a big trip to a large city with well-known gardens, to see public horticulture in action. Our trip this year was to New York and our destinations were a restored train rail, one of the most visited parks in the world and a garden with more to see than we had time for. With that preview, I'll give you the scoop about each.

We were grateful to have Dr. Fleener, who we knew at the time as Ann, plan and wonderfully execute our travel. If not for her, we would have missed out on some of the best experiences in the Big Apple! So, many thanks, Dr. Fleener!

Now to continue... We were ready to go Friday morning to head out and we did as New Yorker's do -- took the subway! Only one turn around and we stepped off the platform at our destination, the High Line. 

The High Line is a restored above ground train rail line where two gentleman with a vision created an area for people to enjoy a little green scene in the hustle and bustle of New York. It is about a mile walk with an additional half mile to be completed in the near future. 

Smile, Dr. Williams!

Tom Smarr, Director of Horticulture

The Fab Five in the Big City!

I'm typically one to talk about my food and everything I get to taste, but this go round I'll just stick to the gardens!

Day two -- We are out bright and early because we have one of the most popular public parks to conquer, Central Park. Our first item on the itinerary is a tour, which starts at the top of the park, but we are coming from the bottom. The question arises who wants to walk it and who wants to hop on the subway? Those who opted for the subway were considering the long day ahead and wanted to save their legs, while the rest of us who walked all 55 blocks just wanted to enjoy as much of the park as possible. After the tour we had the rest of the afternoon just to wonder and wander through the park. My favorite section was the Mall - a large tree covered strip with benches and vendors scattered through out. I like to people watch and this satisfied my itch!

Italian Garden - Conservatory Garden

English Garden - Conservatory Garden

The Mall

Day three was our final day in New York and we started it off in Central Station (which is celebrating 100 years!) hopping on a train to head towards the Bronx and New York Botanical Garden. My only regret in writing this portion is that I spent half my time trying to recover my backpack I had left on the train. So my pictures will be limited. There is 250 acres of pure nature soaked in botanical insight.  We received a short tour of the perennial garden and learned a great deal about the management and volunteer side of the garden.

Perennial garden with Conservatory in the background

Trial garden

This wrapped up our trip as we headed back to the airport and got out of New York on time! That closes the trip on the garden side, but we had a few more experiences while there...

A huge thanks to Dr. Sibley and whomever made it possible for us to go to Lion King on Broadway! I'm not much of one to enjoy the arts, but I absolutely loved this!

We also had the opportunity to go to the top of the world! Okay, maybe the top of the Empire State building. Here's a view from the top...

Well, that's our trip in a nutshell -- I hope you enjoyed the journey as I traveled down memory lane on this Throwback Thursday. (Okay, maybe this was posted on a Friday!)

War Eagle y'all!

Kira

This week was a crazy, busy, whirlwind of a week! Yesterday (Friday) I presented my proposed research project in my first seminar to the AU Department of Horticulture, which is a kind of a big deal for master's students. The AU department of horticulture truly is a great group of individuals who truly care and want to help their students. I could not have gotten through my seminar without the help and support of my committee, fellow public hort students, and of course, the Lord. I made it through though, and hopefully, the rest of this busy semester will be less stressful! I really like it here at Auburn, and I am very happy with my choice for graduate school. Y'all will be happy to know that I now cheer "Hail State and Go Tigers!"

 As for my research, I am looking at the impact of a sustainable agriculture curriculum on children in a camp. I am very excited about the project. The research site is a really neat camp. It is an Episcopal church camp in north Alabama called Camp McDowell. The camp is expanding, and one area in particular that is also expanding is the camp's Farm School. The camp has asked the AU department of horticulture to help design and install a farm-based demonstration garden for the new addition to the farm school.

For my research, the plan is to develop a sustainable agriculture curriculum with the help of the farm school educators at the camp and an agriculture curriculum developed by an urban agriculture organization called The Food Project. Once we develop a curriculum that is similar to the camp's farm school curriculum, we will perform a pre-test/pos-test research design to see if and what the kids learned from the garden-based activities based on the curriculum. A follow-up survey will be administered in order to gain some insight on their perceptions and attitudes about the overall experience. We hope to start getting our hands dirty and get this project rolling in late spring 2014!

Expect more fun things to come! Adios!
-Hilary :)

Fun with Phlox

For my thesis I am studying stem cutting propagation of three plants native to Alabama. One of these is the herbaceous perennial Phlox pulchra. Historically it was found in nine counties across the state but has disappeared from all but five today and even those populations are dwindling. If I can establish a propagation protocol for it, we can protect it from going extinct and introduce it to the landscape industry so whoever wants it can enjoy it in their own backyard!

Back in September Seth and I went out to Tom Corley's cabin in Loachapoka to take cuttings from his Phlox patch. We brought them back to Auburn, where we divided them into terminal (tip) and medial (middle) sections. After treating them with no hormone, Dip'N Grow solution, or Hormodin 1, the cuttings were stuck in soil and left under mist.

Monday marked six weeks from when Seth and I stuck the cuttings, which meant harvesting time! Hilary, Kira, and Leah helped me take measurements of the roots which included a subjective rating, number of roots longer than 5 mm, and length of the three longest roots. I haven't run the statistics yet, but I can say the terminal definitely did way better than the medial cuttings!

Leah, Hilary, and I went back to the greenhouses Wednesday to transplant the rooted cuttings to trade gallon pots. We potted up fifty-three and now they're sitting outside, ready to overwinter. I can't wait to see them in Spring. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll have some blooms!

War Eagle! 

Jeremiah DeVore

Interning with ACES...

At the end of last month, I gave a seminar to the Horticulture Department here at Auburn about the internship that I completed this past spring with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.  Preparing for the seminar reminded me just how great of an experience that was and made me want to share that will all who follow our program.

The first part of my internship was devoted mostly to research and professional development.  During this time, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two conferences with the Home Grounds Teams at the Extension Service: The Southern Gardening Symposium at Callaway Gardens and Georgia Organics in Atlanta.  Both conferences were highly beneficial and extremely enjoyable.  At the Southern Gardening Symposium, I listened to many speakers on several difference subjects dealing with gardens in the South—I even got to see the author of my most favorite resource for design: The Southern Gardener’s Book of Lists by Lois Trigg Chaplin.

 One of my favorite parts of this internship was shadowing Extension Agents.  Several days I traveled to meet with Dani Carroll or Mallory Kelley and followed them as they went about their days.  I was able to experience first-hand what an Extension Agent in Horticulture actually does—I went on home visits and made phone calls to homeowners and attended Master Gardener meetings and generally helped people.  I learned that this is a real career option for me as I loved every second of it.

My other big task for this internship and extending horticultural knowledge took the form of literary endeavors. I worked with Kerry Smith, Edwin Marty, and, of course, publications from other states’ Extension programs to adapt a Community Gardens Start-Up Guide for Alabama.  This publication should be edited and put into use this year.  I also wrote several Q&A articles and a feature article for Alabama Gardener Magazine, a part of the State-by-State program that releases a gardening magazine monthly in each state.  It was such a joy to be able to impart knowledge to others and to see my name as the author in a magazine.  My seventh grade English teacher was convinced I would become an author—I guess she was right about that!

But, my very favorite experience from this wonderful internship was that of working with Master Gardener classes.  From the beginning of the semester, I helped to facilitate the Master Gardener Intern Class in Lee County. Over the course of the semester, I was privileged to be able to develop friendships with these students and see their horticultural knowledge grow first hand.  I was so glad to be able to teach them about Landscape Design, in addition to 8 other Master Gardener Intern Classes across the state.  We spent 4 hours together and I taught them the basic principles behind landscape design, the design process, and we even got started critiquing some photos! I loved teaching all of these students and can really see myself doing this in the future. 

Public Horticulture is such a great field that allows me to be around plants and to serve others.  I think the Extension Service is such a great resource for all areas including horticulture and it was an honor and a joy to learn about this field during this internship.

Until next time, 

Leah Rogers

Dreams abound!

Hello all!

I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm finally getting around to posting my portion on the public horticulture blog. If I haven't been introduced, I'm Kira Chaloupka and in the Fab Five co-hort. Though I'm in the program I have a slightly different role... I work in the Dean's office for the College of Agriculture as the Graduate Assistant of Recruitment and Alumni Relations. In short, I work with students, both prospective and current, as well as those who used to be. I love the opportunity I've been given to share my experiences and further promote both Horticulture and Agriculture. Here are a few things I've been involved with...

School started with a bang and to embrace our love of food and fellowship, we hosted a Welcome Back picnic for all of our students in the college. The student organizations set up shop and promoted their club. We had a great time mixing and mingling!

 

 

 I also get assigned to random tasks, such as checking web recording devices and programs. To do this I requested the assistance of one of our students workers, Nettie Eakes, to help me test it out! Here we are at "Mission Control" located in the basement of Comer. For the practice run, we displayed items up for auction at Ag Round like this nice welding mask.

 

 

 My big project for the year is coordinating the Ag Exploration Days, which are hosted across the state at various experiment stations, where we talk with prospective students about all the opportunities presented through the College. Below, you can see some of the Ag Ambassadors helping students make ice cream. I've been to Clanton and Fairhope with expectations to be in North Alabama next week, and closer to home later in November.

Representing AU College of Agriculture and its many majors in Fairhope

As you can tell, I do quite a bit of traveling. But I spend my fair share of time in the office and my recent addition to my desk is Herbie! He was given to me by my super awesome boss!!

He's the brown one on the left, admiring his future blue home!



The last thing I want to share is the dream board... where ideas are chased and inspiration comes to life! We've marked off a few things, with plenty left to seek.  

 

 

Classes are moving on, my research is coming together (which I will hopefully speak on next time), and work passes the months, which I can't believe it's almost October!

 

This is short and sweet, but gives you a little glimpse into my life as a graduate assistant. I've got to run and prepare to leave bright and early in the morning...

 

Happy Friday!

KC



 

The Mighty Oaks

The game has begun and we’re off to a good start. We have some real all-star players this year and they’re ready to learn some trees! I’ve heard our football team is doing pretty well too! I’m a teaching assistant this semester for Dr. Ponders arboriculture class and as always the opening season game was the mighty oaks.

The train is already picking up speed and we’re now into the hickories, but the oaks will always be my favorite. This summer I was able to be part of the team that assisted Dr. Keever in propagating the poisoned Toomer’s Oaks. I helped stick some of the over 3,000 cuttings taken from rhizomic shoots after the trees had to be cut down. I never did roll the trees during my time at Auburn though I’ll never forget being at the final A-day celebration roll. Being able to help with the oaks propagation was a really amazing opportunity to preserve one of Auburns traditions.

Helping with arboriculture has also been a great experience. I guess I’m what you would call a soft spoken person so it’s been a great opportunity for me to learn how to teach. The professors here at Auburn are an amazing resource and it’s great to be able to help inspire the next generation of horticulturists.

Thanks for reading and as always, have a great tree day!

Bloggin Time!

After an eventful, busy week at Auburn and an enjoyable few days in Destin, FL with my grandparents, I am finally getting around to the blog; my first blog post for the public hort program, actually! My week started off quite hectic, full of class, homework, TA assignments, and just plain ole life. Once Thursday arrived, I headed off to Destin with my grandparents to attend the Mississippi Poultry Association Conference. My grandfather is a poultry vet, partially retired, for MSU. Little did he know, or myself and my grandmother, that his presence was requested for his induction into the Mississippi Poultry Association Hall of Fame! It was quite a surprise and wonderful ceremony, and I was so happy I got to be there for him. My Papaw always told me and the other grandchildren that "knowledge is the one thing that people can't take away from you, and you are the only person who can obtain that knowledge." My Papaw has always pushed me to do well in school and learn meaningful, applicable things, for not only my benefit, but for the benefit of others. He is one of the reasons I decided to further my education by pursuing a master's degree. And now, here I am, studying public horticulture at AU.

For my research, I am focusing on educational and edible garden design and demonstration for youth. The project will involve designing a garden(s), and installing and maintaining the garden(s). In conjunction with the gardens, an educational program will be implemented as well to correlate and reflect specific elements of the garden. An example of that would be designing a vegetable garden and implementing educational curriculum focused on vegetable gardening of the specific plants in that garden. I am very excited and happy with the research avenue I am pursuing. Landscape design, installation, and maintenance, along with educating youth about plants, the benefits of plants, and just facilitating interactions and relationships between people and plants, especially youth, is what I plan to pursue career wise.

So that's my week and a brief over view of my research! As a Mississippi State University alumni, I am still learning the ropes here at Auburn, as well as the campus. So far, my time here at Auburn has been nice. I love the campus; it's beautiful. My department is great and so is our program. I am looking forward to what the future holds for not only myself, but everyone in the program. We are all pursuing related, yet various and distinct research topics in public horticulture that I feel are very relevant, influential, and important for our industry. I hope we all have a great fall semester, with as little stress as possible and lots of fun.  




  

Plant Evaluation Project for AL Botanical Gardens

As the Fall class semester is getting underway, many great opportunities have come my way in Public Horticulture.  The majority of them have come in the form of my research project's development.  The momentum of my new project is picking up speed, and there are several groups and individuals on board with it that are as excited as I am about being a part of the project.

My project consists of implementing a variety of plant trials/evaluations at three public garden entities throughout the state of Alabama.  It is meant to evaluate the performance and public perceptions of some of the horticulture industry's up-and-coming and popular plant cultivars in different locations.  Several groups have developed programs like this before, but have typically had difficulty sustaining maintenance needs for plantings of this degree.  The time involved in traveling to take data, pull weeds, and water new plants can be daunting for just one or two individuals.  So, in order to alleviate some of the maintenance work load, we're partnering with Master Gardener groups throughout the state to play a huge role in helping with this portion of the study.  In addition, these folks will be vital in the survey portion of the study which will give people from the Green Industry, garden clubs, and public garden guests a chance to weigh in on their favorite plants and why they would purchase them for their own gardens.

The people I've met with at Huntsville Botanical Gardens and Dothan Area Botanical Gardens have been stellar in there acceptance and enthusiasm for this to happen.  These two gardens are very different in the demographic of guests that they draw from and the exhibits they offer, but both are managed by a wonderful staff and committee that have the same desires in their mission statements that I do...to expand the world of horticulture and promote excellent, new plants to people everywhere.

These new partnerships will hopefully be great connections for the future of Auburn University's Public Horticulture program.  The possibilities that could develop in regard to teaching, projects, and public service projects are endless.  Being a part of the beginning of partnerships that could benefit groups for years to come excites me and helps me better envision my career and what I'd like it to be.  The opportunity to be a part of this program continues to make me grateful for this time in my life, and I'm looking forward to the possibilities that it can bring.

That's a snippet of what's going on in my corner of the world.  Catch ya again soon!!    

New Semester!

So, classes started back this week for the fall semester and I am so excited about what this year has to offer.  All of the students in the Public Horticulture Program are taking a class together: Experimental Methods in Horticulture.  This class is going to be so informative and helpful in setting up and continuing our research studies.  Probably what I am the most excited about in this course is the prospect of learning about writing grant proposals.  I have always been so intimidated by that process, but after this course, we will be prepared and that will help us to get funding for not only our research projects here on campus, but also  for any endeavor we choose to take on in our careers post academia.

Along with beginning classwork, all of us are getting started with our TA assignments.  This is always so much fun for me—I have discovered through this program that I really enjoy spending time with students and teaching them especially in hands on projects and landscape designs.  It is so rewarding to help a student have an “Ah-ha!” moment.  This semester I will be working closely with Hilary Heath in assisting teaching for both Intermediate Landscape Design and Interior Plants & Floral Design.  These were two of my most favorite classes to take as a student and I can’t wait to meet the students and help them from the other side.  

Please tune in next week for updates from Monte as the semester really gets going!

You can call me DOCTOR!

Saturday was my last day as a student at Auburn University. The arrival of the day was bittersweet, as I'm excited about completing the Public Horticulture Program and about what the future holds but I am very sad to leave this amazing job and all the wonderful friends I've made in the Horticulture Department.

During the last 3.5 years I've had the privilege to be a part of implementing the Public Horticulture Program at Auburn, to complete a huge research project and it's accompanying 300 page dissertation, to design 2 Public Gardens, to travel to 7 new states and 1 new country, to meet many new people in the public horticulture world and to discover all that it has to offer, and so much more.  These years have been some of the most eventful and enjoyable of my life and I look back on them with much joy and thankfulness.

Just a few days ago I walked across a stage and officially became Dr. Ann Fleener! I am incredibly excited about this and about where I'm heading next. After 24 years of school I am ready for a break, albeit a short one, and I plan to head out west to visit some friends in Colorado and then to drive down the west coast from Vancouver all the way to San Diego.  I'm so excited to visit several gardens in these areas and to explore a part of the country that, except for attending ASHS a couple weeks ago in California, I have yet to see.

Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island

Denver Botanic Garden, Denver

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco

After returning from that trip I plan to settle into a job in an Education Department at a Public Garden. I have several applications out at garden's across the U.S. and am waiting with anticipation to hear from them. I will let you know the moment I accept a job but for now I'm just excited to be closing this chapter and taking a break for a bit.

War Eagle!

Ann Fleener

ASHS Conference in Palm Desert, CA!

Saturday we got stuck in Salt Lake City overnight because of weather and pilot delays. Delta made it up to us quite nicely, however, by giving us upgrades to first class the next morning, of which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Sunday

Because of our delayed arrival in California, we were late catching up with the Public Horticulture Garden Tour but made it to the second stop, the Fullerton Arboretum.  In addition to seeing the diverse landscapes California has to offer, we learned several interesting tidbits, such as the difference between a pond and a lake.  Rather than size being the determining factor, the difference is related to the amount of sunlight that reaches the bottom.  In a pond, sunlight reaches through the water and supports plant life, while the sunlight cannot reach the bottom of a lake.

Leah’s favorite part of the tour was visiting the Arboretum’s shop and nursery called the Potting Shed.  Here she acquired several botanic books from the 1950’s, further enabling her old book addiction.

Ann’s favorite part was the succulent garden that was filled with the best plants in the world, Agave. It also incorporated other interesting cacti and succulents, many of which she’d never seen and a Century Plant in full bloom

Monte’s favorite area was the tree grove with a creek running through it that was planted with bald cypress and numerous other conifers.  It was a quiet. Peaceful spot to sit and reflect.

We then left Fullerton and headed to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, which interestingly enough, has moved from Santa Ana to its current location closer to palm desert. Its focus is on entirely native plants and it contains the 10^th largest herbarium in the U.S.  While at the gardens, we were able to tour their seed bank which ranks as California’s #1 and official seed bank. There we saw several old specimens and learned about their operations.  We were also able to tour the grounds, which boasted a beautiful container garden, a wildflower meadow, and a gigantic heritage oak. The oak and its surrounding area was far and away our favorite part the garden.

Following the tour, we headed towards Palm Desert where we passed through “Windmill Valley,” which was filled with more windmills than we could possibly count. This was our first introduction to the many sustainable practices utilized in California.

Monday

We started off the first official day of the conference by attending the Human Issues in Horticulture working group.  Working groups are meant to bring people from the same field of interest together to share ideas, offer advice, collaborate on potential projects, and of course, to socialize.  We also attended the Public Horticulture Working Group and discussed an idea to bring both groups together next year for a colloquium.  In the colloquium we plan to discuss qualitative research, an approach that is an integral part of each of our research projects.  The idea was well received in both groups, and we’re excited to see how it may impact these two groups in the future. During the meeting, Dr. Robinson was re-elected as the Public Horticulture Working Group Chair, while Ann was nominated as the chair elect and will serve as the chair in 2015. Ann is very excited to receive such an honor and also excited for the great resume builder it provides! Following the two working group meetings, we attended a poster session where we saw a great variety of research projects in our area. We even had a great conversation with the Assistant Director of Crosby Arboretum in Mississippi who shared with us about her various roles at the Arboretum and the many benefits and challenges of working at a public garden.  She even recommended a garden to us, Alabama’s own Splinter Hill, which boasts a great carnivorous plant display.

Tuesday

We went to the amazing Joshua Tree National Park. We headed out in the afternoon and were there long enough to see an amazing sunset and moonrise. The plant life was incredibly diverse and ranged from Ocotillo to Barrel Cactus to, of course, the Joshua Tree, which appeared as we drove higher up the mountain. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip as it demonstrated the native habitat of the California area. It was quite a change from the heavily irrigated turf that surrounded our hotel and actually left us speechless, so we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Wednesday

Leah returned to Auburn on Wednesday for a final. Monte and I (Ann) attended a symposium hosted by the Public Horticulture Working Group, and led by Dr. Robinson.  At the symposium, we discussed the challenges and opportunities of operating a University Garden. The discussion was varied and fast-paced and provided us with great advice to apply to the garden we’re planning to implement on Auburn’s campus.  It also provided us with practical advice we can apply in our future public garden careers. During the symposium I (Ann) found out about a new job opening in the Education Department at Longwood Gardens. That evening I met with a Longwood employee to discuss the job opportunity and to receive advice on how I can boost my chances of getting the job.

Thursday

Monte left early in the morning to return for Auburn, as he had to move out of his apartment over the weekend. I (Ann) attended the Teaching Methods Oral Session where I heard several interesting talks about how individuals were applying innovative teaching methods at either their garden or in the classroom at their university. Later in the day I presented my own research in the Human Issues in Horticulture Oral Session.  My research was very well received and several people were interested to learn more about the study.

In addition to having a great time, this conference provided us with the opportunity to network, and during the trip we spoke with fellow graduate students, multiple professors, and many professionals in the field, all of whom may be our co-workers or employers in the future.