Day Four: Exploring the Desert!

It's a day late, but we had a late night, so today's post covers Thursday and Friday.

Thursday (day four), we broke loose from routine and decided to travel back down to Tucson to visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was only Dr Eakes, Hilary, Jeremiah, Kira and Seth on this adventure. Hanna stayed behind to go to the sessions (see blurb below), Ann wasn't feeling good, and Leah had a flight back home.

The Tucson trip will be told in photos, each person contributing their favorite aspect of the journey.

From Jeremiah's view:

This shows early stages in the life of a saguaro cactus. Clockwise from bottom left shows 1-4 years, 15-20 years, 20-25 years, and 5-10 years. The saguaro is a notoriously slow grower, not blooming until it reaches around eight feet in height. They usually begin branching around 75 years.

A section of the Museum paid homage to geology and the formation of the Earth. This is a display of many beautiful minerals from around Arizona.

Of the animal displays, this bobcat habitat was my favorite. There were actually two in the area and shortly after this picture was taken this one began grooming the other. It was precious.

We got lunch at a little cafe attached to the gift shop before heading back to Phoenix. Like many of the gift shops in Arizona, there were many prickly pear products to choose from. Despite only having chocolate and vanilla listed on the menu, I asked if a prickly pear milkshake was possible. Sure enough, she made me one! It tasted similar to a strawberry shake but a little tangier. I would definitely recommend it!

From Hilary's perspective:

The Saguaro National Park and Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum were quite different from the parks I was use to visiting, especially since I am a southerner. But it wasn't just the difference in plant materials that separated my experience there compared to other parks I have I have visited, it was the design and layout of the park that I personally thought made the experience unique. For example, the diversity and information available to the visitors was quite interesting. I felt like I was learning more than just new plant material; I felt like I was learning about the natural, environmental, and cultural characteristics pertaining to Arizona as well. Besides the beautiful saguaro cacti, I loved being able to see and learn about the native wildlife, geological compositions of rocks and mountains, insects, and more. To me, knowledge about such characteristics within a region, area, or landscape is important to know in the public horticulture because public horticulture gardens or displays are the environments that affect, create, and involve relationships between plants and animals.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the visit. Enjoy!

From Kira's lens:

Saguaro National Park sits inside the Sonoran Desert

The funny little prairie dogs were definitely not camera shy. There were some newborns wandering around, but they kept to the shade. 

Along with the land dwelling animals of the Sonoran, they also had an aquarium where you could view the animals from the Gulf of California such as these Garden Eels.

Inside some of the habitats there were little caves with viewing panes so that if by chance the animal climbed in you could have an up close look. Mr Porcupine was unaware of the onlookers, draped across the rock asleep.

From Seth's eyes:

Hi Dr Eakes!

Hanna spent the morning attending sessions and rounded it off with a lunch and impressive keynote 
speaker...

I knew that I wanted to stay behind and attend the keynote lunch as soon as I saw that Justice O' Connor was going to be giving the keynote address. As a woman who defied all odds and became the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, I was excited to see what she had to say. As we began eating and they went through the boring hum-drum of most meetings, I was a little apprehensive that I was going to be bored out of my mind. When they finally introduced the Justice everyone in the audience sprang to their feet in a standing ovation just for the mere fact that she was asking onto the stage. I thought it was the cutest thing that she had to be helped on the the stage and realized that she was older than I'd imagined. She began her speech by going over her humble beginnings growing up on a ranch in Arizona. As she told about her achievements, one including graduating from Stanford Law third in her class,  I began to see that this woman wasn't just the first woman Supreme Court Justice, but she was the trailblazer for all women in law and in general. She compared her journey's, failures and feats to rainbows, saying "Sometimes it isn't about finding the pot of gold at the end if the rainbow, but the journey getting there; so chase those rainbows and keep working, because it's worth it." I left the lunch inspired to be an innovator and realized that despite what I may face, it will all be worth it in the end.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor 

We were reunited once again as APGA prepared to leave that afternoon to head to the Desert Botanical Garden, located not far from Arizona State University. We had heard so much about it, seen so many volunteers representing it and were ready to see it for ourselves. The plan was to explore the garden for a few hours as well as enjoy the food, drinks and entertainment throughout, then gather back up for one last dinner with APGA. Here's a glimpse at what we saw...

Jeremiah loved Agave and with hundreds of varieties to look at he was overcome with excitement! This garden was home to thousands of species with multiple varieties of each. Every time you turned the corner you'd see something you hadn't before.

Yes, this is one cactus, and what a monster it was!

Not only do they have abundant plant life, they also protect many of the native wildlife species. This is the endangered Desert Tortoise. Other wildlife that crossed our path were rabbits, roadrunners, lizards of all kinds, and even a family of quails.

Some parts of the garden were very manicured, but most of it kept the natural look.

Here are more photo's courtesy of Seth:

We got a chance to see one of the night blooming cactus.

We finished the night off with a delicious dinner, but due to extra time spent wandering in the garden, by the time we arrived all of the tables were mostly full. This was to our advantage because it gave us the opportunity to split from our group and meet other people, which we fully enjoyed! There was also a ballet performance for us afterwards.

That was Thursday, then there was Friday when we were homeward bound. We all took the morning to just enjoy the resort one last time before heading off to the airport. We had a fabulous trip and as for the Fab Five, we plan to return next year, when it is hosted in Colorado being, funded by one of APGA's travel scholarships.

Representing in our red, white & blue -- Seth, Hilary, Jeremiah, Hanna, Kira, & Ann

This concludes our first APGA conference. Thanks for taking this adventure with us! Keep up weekly for more updates in Public Hort.

War Eagle,

The Fab Five

EXTRA EXTRA!! -- Our Favorite Cacti!

Baja Fairy Duster - Jeremiah

Mammilaria geminispina 'Crestata' - Seth

Purple Prickly Pear - Hilary

Organ Pipe Cactus - Kira

Day Three: NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK!

Day two of sessions has come and gone and we have learned so much that our heads are spinning with information. We began early this morning and have been going like the energizing bunny since our alarms woke us up bright and early. Like yesterday we all split up to attend the different sessions that we found to be the most interesting to us, while Dr. Eakes and Kira went on the urban farm tour. One major thing we all have become pros at: networking! Below you can read short tid bits of what we learned.

Session 1:

-- Content is King:
     Like yesterday, I chose to attend the marketing and leadership sessions. The first session that I went to bright and early this morning was about social media and how we as public garden professionals can connect with visitors on a more informal level and really make them feel as if they are appreciated by the institution. Whether it's a photo contest, commenting or liking a visitors post, or posting how-to's and informational videos, in today's world, anyone who wants to have a successful business MUST connect with customers and be able to carry on a continuous conversation with them through some sort of social media platform. I chose this session because I believe in the coming months I will be able to apply what I learned through the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association (which you should all follow/like when I get it set up!) to help get the association more current and allow for growth. (Hanna Pettus)

-- Succulents Reimagined: Kat McCullough, Senior Gardnener, Longwood Gardens
     Kat McCullough is the main designer and creator of succulent wreaths, archways designs, wall hangings and even 12 foot succulent trees for Longwood Gardens. Most of the designs are used for Christmas displays but can be utilized and manipulated for various events as well. Some of the plant materials Kat recommended working with include echevarias, kalanchoe, euphorbia, narrow leaved aloes and more. These plants were selected based on the minimal watering requirements, cost efficiency (some more than others), soil was not required,and most could be easily propagated and reused in a new design.  Kat also briefly discussed the creation process of a succulent design, which begins by selecting hard goods first, such as a sturdy metal frame, followed by large pins to secure packaging materials such packing peanuts, and then the pinning of soaked peat moss to serve as a water source for the plants. Nylon string is then tied in a criss-cross pattern to add further security to the framework. Plant materials are added last and are typically grouped in mass to create emphasis and enhance the presence of certain plant materials within a design. Lastly, a sturdy hanging device is installed as a backing in order to hang the design.
I really liked Kat's presentation, not only because she   introduced new designs with the use of succulents, but because she created efficient designs  that were sustainable for 6-7 weeks, possessed reusable materials, and expanded the ideas of designing with such a popular and relatively inexpensive and easy to grow plant material. Not only are her designs creative, they are easy and fun, and can even be done at home! (Hilary Heath)


Session 2:
-- Creating a Butterfly Exhibit: If You Build It, Will They Come?
     There were three presenters which spoke about different aspects of developing a butterfly exhibit. Many gardens have seasonal butterfly displays which can help to attract visitors during slow periods. In order to have a butterfly exhibit a permit from the USDA is necessary to legally own display them because they classify then as pests. There is also more paperwork needed for tropical butterflies than for North American species. The butterflies are purchased from farms and can be shipped all over the world. If you're interested here is a video one of the farms they mentioned in Costa Rica.  

One of the speakers also talked about which plants are the best nectar sources for butterfly exhibits. Some of the suggestions which can also be grown in home gardens include pentas, lantana and heliotrope. The presentation encouraged other gardens to construct exhibits to add an extra element of interested and magic to their displays. (Seth Allen)


Workshop:
-- Biomimicry: Innovating from Life for Conservation and Education:
     The premise of biomimicry is nature has designed effective, sustainable systems for eons; why not emulate those in our designs? Native Americans of various tribes have long been applying this principle but the idea had been all but lost in Western culture. The modern movement was pioneered by Janine Benyus, author of “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.” During this presentation we received an outline of design strategies from nature: twelve principles in the three categories of efficiency, resilience, and relationships. Everyone was then broken into groups of three or four and given a plant. We were instructed to brainstorm ideas of how inspiration from that plant could benefit an industry of any sort. My team members, Deb Grove and Scott Munroe, and I were given anEchinofossulocactus crispatus (a cactus about the size of a pill bottle) and produced a myriad of ideas. My favorite was an LED lightbulb shaped like our cactus. In our design, the spine-producing areoles of the cactus were the light-producing diodes of the bulb. The ribbed, wavy structure of the cactus was pertinent to the design, as it increased surface area, thereby allowing greater heat dispersion from diodes, an important aspect of LED light design. Other groups designed aloe leaf shaped roof shingles, an agave-shaped water catchment system, a barrel cactus shaped building, and other things. Aside from a few technical difficulties with the projector, this was an excellent workshop that inspired me to think outside the box and appreciate the simple, powerful designs of nature. (Jeremiah DeVore)

Session 3:
-- Full STEAM Ahead:
     STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math. In this section, a panel of speakers discussed how they incorporate these five areas into various children's programs at their public garden. As I walked into the room, I was handed a flattened cereal box and a marker and told to use that rather than other means to take notes. That's one way to reuse and recycle. Also, a cardboard box was passed around and they told us to take one of the various items and place it somewhere in the box; by the time it made it around the room it was supposed to be a work of art. The facilitator of the project made a comment people who picked something and slapped it on the box just to pass it on; yes, that was me. Overall, the session was more of a case study type discussion and we just learned how that particular garden used STEAM; however, I never really learned what types of programs they used to incorporate it. Oh well! (Kira Chaloupka)

Session 4:
-- Re-Thinking the Rose Garden:

     The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden was designed in 1916, completed in 1988, and renovated in 2007 by Peter Kukielsk. Peter's renovation project is an ongoing project that focuses on the sustainability of the beautiful hybrid tea roses we know today within the landscape. The first hybrid tea rose was created in 1867, called "The Queen of the Garden", and is what Peter refers to as a rose with "messed up genetics". Basically, "The Queen of the Garden" opened the flood gates to, yes, more beautiful rose varieties, but roses facilitated with unsustainable beauty within the landscape. How so? Genetics focused on flower form, color, and fragrance but negated from important genetic characteristics for survival or sustainability such as resistance to disease and hardiness within the landscape.  What defines a sustainable yet breathtakingly beautiful rose? Well, a rose is not a rose anymore after 150 plus years of genetic alterations, but Peter defines a sustainable rose as a thing of beauty and strength with the ability to thrive within the landscape without the use of pesticides, sprays, or fertilizers. (Hilary Heath)


Urban Farm Tour -- Agritopia!
     This morning, Dr Eakes and I (Kira), went on the urban farm tour, which took us out about 45 minutes from Phoenix. This place was awesome! The name, Agritopia, ties together the idea of a Utopia with an agriculture concept. In short, it was an HOA (Homeowners Association) centralized around sustainability and community. There was way too much to explain it all, so I'll stick with my two favorite parts and just show pictures for the rest.
     My first favorite part was the crop square. On section held the community garden, where members of the community can purchase a 20'x20' plot for $250, which includes water. The other three sections are used in summer/spring and winter/fall crop production. They use crop rotation and keep one field fallow with a cover crop. The second favorite part was the orchard. They had it all from citrus and apples to olives and dates with peaches, nectarines and apricots in between! Just walking through, I was overcome by the sweet smell of peaches.
     Overall it was a great experience and really showed me the reality in creating and sustaining a slow food movement -- that you can get people involved in horticulture/agriculture and at the same time educate them on it's importance.

Community Garden 

One of three crop fields; community in background

Orchard

Head Farmer Erick at the farmers market

On site restaurant featuring meals with community grown produce

We continue on tomorrow with a break in the sessions by taking a trip back down to Saguaro National Park near Tucson. Check us out tomorrow for a recap!

War Eagle,

The Fab Five!

Day two: Restless Leg Syndrome

Hey y'all! This post is being written by the Fab Five (pictured below) and we are the incoming class/second year students in the Public Horticulture Program. We are excited to be here for the first time at the APGA!

L-R: Kira Chaloupka, Hilary Heath, Jeremiah DeVore, Hanna Pettus, & Seth Allen

Let the sessions begin!

The conference has officially started and we spent the day attending  different sessions pertaining to various aspects of public gardens. Below are short blurbs describing some of the sessions we sat in on.

Session 1:
-- Creating Restorative, Empowering Environments for Therapeutic Healing:
     Tuesday morning’s education session consisted of three presentations. The first was given by Barb Kreski, director of horticultural therapy services at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She explained the relevance of horticultural therapy in involving all members of the population, including the growing demographic of those with Sensory Processing Disorders. Nancy Chambers recently retired from being director of The Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden. Their organization oversaw many programs. Most striking to me was a program implemented fourteen years ago working with elderly homeless clients in NYC to establish community and amend the isolation many of these people seek. Kara Roggenkamp wrapped up the series, giving specifics of her work with the Pioneer Education Center and Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children. (Jeremiah DeVore)

--Designing Beauty:
     Four speakers presented during the seminar; each speaker exhibited different yet beneficial and educational views on defining the meaning of beauty, how to create beauty and different prospectives of beauty. Some important points I personally feel are the core entities of beauty, which were reiterated and heavily emphasized by each speaker, more so landscape architect Gary Smith, include design elements and principals such as balance, proportion, texture, etc. Other important aspects of beauty include the emphasis of certain themes that make a space beautiful, relationships between art and horticulture, cohesiveness of the entire staff within a design or project in order to facilitate a complete and holistic understanding of a design within the management as a whole and more. Concerns for sustaining beauty were voiced in a Q & A session at the end of all the presentations, which is crucial for our industry, especially public gardens because we as designer or horticulturalist need to be able to adapt and change with the trends or the environment itself in order to maintain the interest of the public and the space as well. Hardscape maintenance was one of the sustainability issues that caught my attention because most people think of sustainable plants first and seem to forget the importance and impact hardscapes have in creating and maintaining a beautiful space. All in all it's the simple aspects within a design that make a space beautiful and the way the viewer interprets or is impacted by the space. (Hilary Heath)

-- Emerging Trends for a Changing World:
     What do visitors want when they visit a public garden, zoo or aquarium? How can gardens adapt to the rapidly changing demographics in the United States? These are a couple of questions public horticulture professionals have to begin addressing now. Some think that the technological revolution is still in the beginning stages. This is not the case. Technology is the now, not the future. It doesn't separate people from others like some would believe, but actually allows people to be more connected than ever. Children, adults and even seniors can benefit from the technological revolution. As an industry, public gardens have to adapt to this change and develop creative ways to integrate education, hand-on experiences and even storytelling to keep visitors connected and entertained as they experience the beauty and diversity of nature. As a young professional this session really made me think about how I can contribute and be, as Caroline Lewis of the CLEO Institute said, "an authentic leader." Can you become a champion of change? (Hanna Pettus)

Lunch:
-- Keynote speaker: Dr. Christián Samper, President & CEO of the National Conservation Society
      For lunch we were served a delectable southwest chicken salad. It took a while to get down, however, for an award ceremony was simultaneously underway. The following apple cobbler was much easier to enjoy, as we took a hiatus from applause to receive a lecture from Dr. Cristian Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Dr. Samper addressed the importance of maintaining biodiversity and how that can be facilitated by collections in botanical gardens. His enthusiasm permeated the room through his speech, giving rise to a standing ovation at its conclusion. (Jeremiah DeVore)

Session 2:
-- Student Presentations:
     This session is just what the name implies... Presentations given by the students. These ranged from research the student had/has been working on to interested topics. Some of the themes included research on Collaborative Marketing Groups, Grant application process for children's gardens, Engaging the community in public gardens as well as the interest in Rediscovering the story of Helena Rutherfurd Ely (who helped found the Garden Club of America). After each student presented there was a time of Q & A. (Kira Chaloupka)

Profession Section:
-- Emerging Professionals:
     Professional sections are a time when groups of professionals in a certain category meet to discuss ideas and future projects they would like work on. As "emerging professionals," several of us sat in on this meeting along with about 15 other peers. Working through an agenda, we talked about an annual project we would like to see accomplished. We decided a webinar with garden directors would be great; they could give tips on what they are looking for as future employees and how we can best represent ourselves in the field. We also brainstormed ideas for the following year's annual project. After an engaging round of discussion we agreed a mentoring program would be an exciting plan to implement. The basis of it would be to find a director and garden to sponsor a rising senior from a local school in the area of that year's conference and invite them to annual APGA. Once there, they would be paired with someone in the Emerging Professionals section and have the opportunity to explore the APGA and even go to lunch with the sponsor director. Being such a wonderful but new area of horticulture, we want to expose people, especially future generations, to all it has to offer. (Kira Chaloupka)

-- Historical Landscapes:
     The Historic Landscapes Professional Section was a meeting of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation which provides a place for public gardens to share resources and insight into the preservation of gardens of historic interest. They discussed plans for their upcoming meeting and asked the attendees what sorts of topics they would be interested in having presented. The group discussed a variety of topics such as which programs they used to organize their plant records, determining the time period and the original designers intent when restoring a garden and ways to advertise their gardens to promote them to a wider audience. For more information their website is http://www.ahlp.org. (Seth Allen)

Reception/Social:
     Being our first time to the APGA, we approached the reception with a little hesitation -- not knowing anyone but those we came with and seeing everyone else act like one big family didn't help much. We grabbed a drink and a side plate of nachos and wings then settled on a wall to chow down. After several minutes of eating, one of our session leaders, Rebecca Turk, came over to talk with us some more. It was almost as if the flood gates opened and our fears were washed away because from then on we were nothing but chatty Patty's, talking with anyone who would give a moment of their time. Conversations were held with a University of Hawaii professor, the founder of the CLEO Institute, a director of the Smithsonian Institution, and many more.

750 attendees at this year's conference!
So many chances to network!

It's been a long, talkative day, but with a little rest we'll be ready to take on tomorrow!


War Eagle,
the Fab Five

APGA Day One

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the conference hotel to register. We then hopped on a bus and left Scottsdale for Tucson. On the bus we learned lots of interesting tidbits about the Sonoran desert environment such as the fact that its known for its saguaro cacti. We also learned the 3 key ingredients in the recipe of a desert: 1) extreme temperatures (both hot and cold), 2) dry conditions, and 3) less than 10 inches of water per annum.
Then we learned about ethnobotany which is the study of people and plants and how it encompasses nature, art, and culture. This was much of the focus of the Tohono Chul Park (which means desert corner or elbow).  They also gave us free samples of delicious muffins made from native ingredients: pumpkin cornbread, prickly pear honey, and our favorite, chocolate chile bacon. 

After a couple hours we arrived in Tucson at Tohono Chul. We were divided into tour groups with different garden employees. With our guide, we made our way through the garden, stopping every once in a while for more details about the inner workings of the garden and pausing often to take a picture or two.  As we're still missing Italy,  We are really glad the landscape is vastly different. We've never been anywhere like this before!  Though it looks so different , we were surprised to see some repeated plants. It makes sense, however considering they share a similar soil type and arid conditions.

Our last stop at Tohono Chul was the Reptile Wrangle show where we saw our first gopher snake, rattle snake, & touched a Gila (pronounced He-la) monster. The snakes were honestly terrifying at first, but as the wranglers explained more and more about how non-aggressive each breed was they became slightly less terrifying--we don't plan on signing up for wrangler camp any time soon though.  We concluded the morning at Tohono Chul with a delicious lunch before loading back on the bus towards Tucson Botanic Garden. 

While Tucson Botanic boasted a similiar plant pallette to Tohono Chul, as it was only on 5.5 acres (as opposed to 49) it felt much more intimate and was filled with many themed "garden rooms". Our favorite areas were the herb garden, the cacti display garden, and the home for the garden's first annual "Grow-Down" competition. For this competition, four designers implemented water smart designs that could be repeated by homeowners. We wholeheartedly agreed with the committee on the best design. After touring the garden, we got to mix and mingle with other conference attendees over local dishes. Our favorite was the pineapple dusted in chili powder.

One of my (Ann's) favorite things about this conference is the chance to meet great people who love the same kind of work as we do and to network. While walking through Tohono Chul today I got to speak with the Director of Education at Fairchild Botanic in Miami which has one of the most esteemed education programs in the nation. I may have even found a place to complete a post-doc!

Another of the great experiences of this trip is getting to know the new students in the Public Horticulture program. We've had so much fun walking around the gardens with them and are excited to see how much they are enjoying it. They'll be contributing to the blog this week as one of their introductions into the program. 

War Eagle!
Ann and Leah