A New Year, New Semester, New Beginnings

Greetings fellow Public Horticulture bloggers and followers!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year's! Happy 2014. It's a new year full of events and fun things for those of us in the public horticulture program here at AU. Many of us in the program are involved in various educational and fun events that focus on horticulture, naturally.

Here's what's in store for us and for you as you follow us on our journey through the program this spring:

• First up is the Gulf States Expo in Mobile, AL this January 29th-31st, as well as the SRASHS meeting in Dallas, TX January 29th-February 3rd. 
• Next on the list is the fabulous spring FFA Clinic February 18-19, which will be hosted by the university at the AU greenhouse complex. 
• In March we have spring break! Woo! And oh yes, the awesome PLANET Student Career Days March 27th-30th. This years host for Student Career days will be Colorado State University in Denver. Our PLANET club is already gearing up, practicing for competitions, and planning for a fun and successful trip to represent AU horticulture and show off our mad horticulture and landscape skills.
• In May, we have the BIGGIE. Our annual Public Hort ORR trip will be in..... Drum roll, please! England! When we return from our trip, it will be time to show the newbies how this hort thing goes as our new public horticulture students begin their journey as public horties mid-May. 

For those of you interested in the events listed above, such as PLANET, SRASHS and ASHS, and FFA check out their websites. All of these organizations are great sources for horticulture, landscape, and agriculture information. 
 http://www.studentcareerdays.org
http://www.srashs.org/
http://www.ashs.org/
http://www.alabamaffa.org/

Thank you for your interest and support as we continue to progress in our education and experiences in this one-of a kind, crazy, stressful, fun, totally worth it, graduate degree program. Y'all are in for a treat with all of the fun events we have coming up this semester and we are too!

Until next time, take care!

-Hilary H. :)

An Atlanta Christmas Light Look Back

     After a busy, productive, and dare I say stressful fall semester for us Public Hort. folks, we took off on a day and night trip to enjoy the Atlanta Botanical Gardens once again.  This time, however, it was to celebrate Christmas together and enjoy their "Garden Lights, Holiday Nights" exhibit.  But, before our evening stroll in the garden we stopped for a late lunch at Mary Mac's Tea Room in downtown Atlanta (recommend by Dr. Williams - expert in all things culinary).  They specialize in classic southern home cookin' complete with favorites such as pot liquor, chicken fried chicken, Arnold Palmer lemonade, and peanut butter pie.  Mmmmmm!!!

     Following our extended stay around Mary Mac's dining room table, we had a couple of hours of daylight to burn before entering the garden, so we pre-gamed at Piedmont Park adjacent to Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  Mock tree ID quizzes were given between Seth, Kira, and I while Dr. R, Hilary and Hanna took turns chauffeuring baby Ethan around the lake, playground, and soccer fields.  It was a nice afternoon despite being a crispy, chill winter's day.

     Then, as the sun began to set, we made our way to the garden entrance.  "Garden Lights, Holiday Nights" is the Atlanta Botanical Garden's annual christmas light presentation that features lighted gardens, shiny structures, poinsettia trees, hot cocoa with s'mores, Christmas carolers and more.  It's a walk-thru experience that takes you through lots of different holiday themed displays filled with music, campfire smoke, Christmas cheer, and that jolly ole elf himself.  Here's just a sample of what they create:

Blue tree tunnel.

Sometimes poinsettias do grow on trees.

We loved the vegetable garden.

Panorama of main lawn.

Christmas Cobra

Sidewalk Starlight

'Earth Goddess' in blue

     Everyone loved this time together following the fall semester before Christmas break!  Botanical Garden trips like this one are always fun ways to bring us closer together as group.  It translates into us working better as a team when it comes time to get group projects done and makes our time in Public Horticulture all the more memorable.  I'm looking forward to this semester and the various things we'll be working on throughout the Spring.  Makes sure to check back in weekly to hear the latest news on what each of us is doing!

Biltmore Fun

To start off our Christmas Holiday Break, my husband took me to see one of the most wonderful places in the world, especially for someone who loves public gardens so much: the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.  It was the first time I had ever been to the Biltmore and Christmas was such a great time to go.  This offered a chance to see a garden in what might be considered the off season because of the lack of living plant material, however it was still beautiful.  I think that winter offers a much more abstract and structural view of a landscape than summer simply due to the leafless trees and flowerless beds.  It is one of the best times to view a garden for a designer as it forces you to think about the potential of a space in all seasons. 

The Christmas decorations in the house were unbelievable—and my favorite were the floral arrangements made from greenery grown on site and flowers from the conservatory.  The floral designs had to be a challenge for the designer simply because of the need to fit the expansive scale of the home.  The grounds were slightly less set up with Christmas décor with the exception of the massive Christmas tree display on the front lawn.  The gardens did not appear prepared for nighttime visitors, and I think that adding lighting might take away from the natural forested look of so much of the property.  Lighting added to the formal gardens nearest the house might, however, open up extended hours of visitation and perhaps draw new crowds to the estate without parting from the original mission of this now public estate.

Visiting the Biltmore Conservatory was probably my second favorite aspect of the trip.  The orchids were stunning as were so many other plants.  One of my favorite things about greenhouses is their ability to combine architectural and horticultural beauty.  In fact, each of those areas makes the other more impressive. 

\

Be sure to visit the Biltmore if you can—it truly is worth it.  And, be sure to check back to the blog to see more of what the Public Horticulture Program is doing this semester at Auburn.  Welcome back! Happy New Year!

-Leah Rogers