2015/2016

Charlie Ive end-term report Interchange Fellowship

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Contents Page

Introduction page 2

Work Rotations 3

Natural Lands 3

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 4

Indoor Display (Conservatory) 4

A Longwood Christmas 5

Production 5

Facilities 6, 7

Nursery/Production 7

Outdoor Display 7, 8

Day trips 8, 9, 10

Chanticleer garden 11

Long distance trips 11 - 24

Conclusion 25

Many thanks 26

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Introduction

The Interchange Fellowship 2015/2016 sponsored by the Garden Club of America and the

Royal Horticultural Society is a year-long work-based horticultural program. The program is

based at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The Fellowship gives the

opportunity of working in several different sections of the Gardens and the chance of

choosing the sections in the final three months, which allows the Fellow to revisit sections of

the garden of interest to them. The Fellow also has the opportunity to travel and see gardens

and places of horticultural interest across the USA.

The aim of the Fellowship is to improve horticultural ties between the United Kingdom and

the United States of America. My goals were to improve my plant knowledge; improve my

network of contacts in North America, and to greatly improve my career prospects. I arrived

at the start of September 2015 and I left in late August 2016 this is a brief description of some

of my adventures from my year in the USA.

The 1,000 Bloom Mum at Longwood’s Chrysanthemum Festival

Work Rotations

The Interchange Fellow has the opportunity to rotate twelve times around the Gardens,

spending a month in each section. The first nine rotations were assigned and the last three

were the Fellow’s choice. The Fellow will be moved around the department to make sure

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that they get to experience the whole section and work with a professional in that section’s

team.

A normal working day is eight hours; five days a week and with the odd weekend

undertaking watering duty. Starting hours vary depending on the department; most

horticultural departments start at six or seven in the morning, with lunch at eleven thirty. The

end of the day was at two thirty or three thirty. With the changing seasons there were other

additional duties that needed to be addressed, such as snow operations and deer fencing.

Natural Lands

The Natural Lands team’s role is to maintain the

beautiful 86 acre Meadow Garden, wetland and

woodland areas around the Longwood estate.

The team aims to promote biodiversity by

removing invasive plants, encouraging wildlife

into the garden, and by planting native plants.

While working in Natural Lands, I helped with

many tasks, including flower arranging, making

dragonfly Christmas decorations removing

invasive weeds and watering. I also had the

opportunity to map out the bird boxes that are

located in Longwood’s Meadow Garden.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

My second rotation was in Integrated Pest

Management. IPM’s role at Longwood is to prevent

pests and diseases from coming into the gardens by

inspecting plant material. Most mornings, we

inspected incoming chrysanthemums for white rust.

Every morning we checked the live mouse traps

around the gardens for mice and voles. We found

over 60 little rodents during my month in IPM.

Another key part of IPM is scouting for the six main

pests that affect the gardens; thrips, whiteflies,

ELISA test for tomato spotted wilt

virus (TSWV).

Mapping the location of the bird boxes, this

allows us to count population of birds in the

garden.

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aphids, mites, mealybugs and scale. Once these had been identified we would work out how

much of the plant was covered and how many plants had the pest and advise the growers on

the best treatment. Virus testing is an important part of IPM, testing plants that may be

infected with a virus is important for keeping the plants healthy. Another fun job that I got to

help with was cleaning pond weed and algae out of the two lakes at Longwood.

Indoor Display (Conservatory)

The Indoor Display team looks after the

Conservatory and the glasshouses that are connected

to them. I work in the Conservatory during the

Chrysanthemum Festival. During my time in the

Conservatory, I worked with the orchids, re-

arranging the orchids and re-potting a large

Dendrobium into a massive pot. Re-potting orchids

is an important and difficult job. Orchids transmit

two viruses which can easily be transmitted to other

orchids. Therefore hygiene is very important, every

time you re-pot an orchid you have to change your

gloves and throw away the newspaper which is used

to collect all the soil and debris of the orchid. All

the equipment has to be sterilised before use on a new orchid.

The orchid may be trimmed as you can see in the picture the before and after the Dendrobium

was tidy and re-potted using orchid bark and then the bark is pack in tightly to prevent the

plant from falling over. Trimming an orchid not only makes it looks better but also makes it a

lot easier to manoeuvre.

Another project I was involved with was

working on the Green Wall. Some of the

panels were staring to degrade so we

replaced them with new panels. I was

involved with the whole process from

planting the panels up, to placing them onto

the Green Wall. I spent some time in the

rose house deadheading Euryops pectinatus

and the Hibiscus and weeding. I helped

prune back around the water features in the

conservatory and I was dressed up in waders

and carefully pruned the excess foliage.

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A Longwood Christmas

Christmas is a frantic time at Longwood

for two and a half days the indoor area is

closed down as the Christmas decorations

go up and the Christmassy plants go in.

We were placed into planting teams and

the first job we did was to dispose of the

old chrysanthemum display. Then we

started planting. This was a colossal

undertaking; it started on Sunday night

and continued for the next couple of

days. When it was finished Longwood

looked like a Christmas wonderland.

Production

The production team grows and produces plants to go on display in the gardens.

There are three areas of production; upper production, lower production, and the nursery. I

spent time in upper production and lower production on this rotation. The first and second

weeks I was in upper production creating fuschia hangings, tipping back the Argyranthemum,

and of course watering.

During the third and fourth weeks of production I worked in lower production where I potted

up and cleaned a whole variety of plants. One of the most interesting bits of machinery I have

seen at Longwood was the soil mixer. A computer has a system which allows the user to type

in which plant they are potting up and the computer will say which mixes need to be used

whilst the machine will create the compost mix needed for that plant. It is a remarkable

machine, something I haven’t seen before and the dust it creates is amazing. However, there

is a substantial amount of Personal Protective Equipment that needs to be worn to carry out

this task.

Facilities

This is the maintenance side of Longwood. For me it offered a

chance to see what other areas outside of horticulture do. If

something goes wrong, these are the people who save the day;

the unsung heroes. For three weeks I worked in facilities,

spending one week in each department; Metal shop, Machinery

and Carpentry.

A very merry Longwood Christmas

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Metal work (facilities)

The metal work shop creates and builds metal work for the

gardens. There are many different creations that the metal work shop produces for the

gardens. I helped fix a lock on a box truck and helped with installing some old cooking

appliances from the era of Webb Farmhouse into the kitchen of the house. I cut over 1200

poles for use as pot stands. A new skill I had the opportunity of developing was welding; I

had an afternoon of working and playing with the welding equipment

Machinery

The mechanics at Longwood fix more than just cars, hedge cutters, leaf blowers, and massive

trucks; they seem to be able to fix anything that comes into the shop. I helped with the

fixing of a large truck, replacing a bearing on the wheel. Another job I did was helping

stranded gardeners who had got stuck in the mud or had a flat tire, which we would then

replace.

Carpentry

The carpentry at Longwood don’t just work with wood, they do a whole variety of jobs

including fixing doors, rebuilding benches, removing massive wreaths, and taking down

stages. I helped with gluing carpet tiles to a floor, putting filler around a door to stop air

coming through and I helped build a bench.

Nursery/production

I spent four weeks in the nursery. The main jobs where dead-heading the making hanging

baskets of pansies. One day we just ferried Echium from the Nursery to the Conservatory. I

spent a lot of time creating chrysanthemum spider baskets and training the chrysanthemums

in the baskets. The chrysanthemums would grow fast so every week I would go and tie them

to the canes to stop them from losing their shape.

Outdoor Display

The outdoor display team looks after the formal area

around the Gardens including the car park, Brick Walk,

Idea Garden and Oak and Conifer Knoll. In November

2015 we planted 750,000 bulbs, Narcissus ‘tete a tete’. I

helped with removing and planting the containers outside

the front of the Visitor Center. This involved having a

crane take out the Acer saccharum ‘Legacy’ (Sugar maple)

and replace them with Nyssa sylvatica, a native tree. I was

involved in planting massive Thuja into the Terrace

Garden by the restaurant.

Learning to wield in the metal shop

Removing the sugar maples by

crane

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The newly planted Narcissus on oak knoll

Plant Records

Plant Records look after the accessioning of the plant collection labelling and mapping the

locals of all flora on the Longwood estate. During my month in Plant Records I learnt how to

map where plants are in the garden and how to put that data onto BG maps. BG maps work

by going and finding the plant/tree in the field placing the computer next to plant/tree and

then taking a point from a handheld computer. Then the handheld computer is connected to a

desktop computer the data is then transferred to the desktop computer which plots the data on

to BG maps so the whole gardens are mapped.

Indoor display

In April I had the opportunity of going back to indoor display. I helped on the green wall

creating new tiles and then placing the old tiles with the new. I spent some time working with

the Orchids repotting them and rearranging the display. I also spent time in the conservatory

cleaning out the water features, this involved taking all the coins out fitting the netting at the

bottom and then vacuuming the bottom which was full of algae.

Outdoor display

In July I when back to working in outdoor display I was rotated around the three departments;

the idea garden, formal garden and the woodland. In the idea garden I was picking fruit

sorting out labels, weeding. In the formal garden I helped prune back the Wisteria in the

Wisteria garden, set out containers for nightscape. I was involved with cutting the topiary in

the topiary garden and cutting back Yuccas in the car park. One tool I enjoyed working with

and will bring one back to the UK with me is a soil knife; I hadn’t use one before and I found

it very useful for planting bulbs cutting through roots and digging. Other tools I enjoyed

using was the battery power hedge cutters which where brilliant; I have been used to using

the two stroke petrol hedge cutters which are heavy and vibrate a lot so you can only use

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them for a set amount of time. The battery power hedge cutters are a lot less noisy and so are

far better for us gardeners in the long run.

Research

I spent one week in research, on the first day I worked on tissue culture on chrysanthemum’s

and Cana’s. The process involved taking the old specimens out of the test tube observing the

specimens to see how many specimens you could divide. When you remove the agar from the

base, cut some of the leaves off and then place the specimen into new test tubes with agar at

the bottom of the test tube. You then push the roots into the agar then put a cap on the top of

the tube and wrap plastic around to stop contamination. Hygiene is a key to this process the

work area blows cold air out of the lab to help minimise the risk of contamination. The

equipment has to be sterilised i.e. placed into an extremely hot tube which kills off the

potential contaminants.

Natural lands

For my last couple of weeks in America I decided to go back to natural lands, the department

I started in eleven months earlier. August was a very hot month so there was a lot of

watering that needed to be done. I was also involved with planting plugs and we built a deer

stand ready for hunting season and I was involved with invasive weed control.

Longwood Trips

On every Thursday the Longwood students had either a trip, a workshop on site, or row clean

up. These trips can be very varied from tours around brewery and vineyards to beautiful

Gardens and flower shows. The workshops have included making Christmas wreaths,

cleaning and preparing Cliva for show and making pottery to name a few.

New York Botanic Gardens (NYBG) I was very privileged to have a guided tour of New

York Botanic Gardens. We were shown around the whole site; we saw the native garden and

the herbarium seeing samples that Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin had collected. We were

given a tour around the Conservatory looking at their amazing orchid display.

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New York Botanical Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden; we embarked on a trip to Brooklyn in October. Brooklyn

Botanics is a small 52 acre site in the centre of Brooklyn. The gardens serve the local

communities brilliantly with a great education program. It has a children’s garden which

started in 1914.There were some beautiful areas like the Shakespeare garden which was

created in 1925. My favourite was the stunning Japanese hill and pond garden, built in 1915

and restored in 2000.

Grounds for Sculpture In the heart of New Jersey is a unique sculpture garden. The garden

was created by artists, around the garden are elements of famous pieces of art which you can

have fun playing around with. One of their aims is to improve the garden areas around the

sculptures. The sculptures came in all different sizes from tiny too large.

The giant ladies at Grounds for sculpture

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On a field trip with Longwood we visited a Lavender farm.

Chanticleer garden

This is a jewel of a garden in Pennsylvania, and my favourite garden I visited in America

words can’t do it justice, created in 1912 this garden has developed into one of the most

stunning gardens in North America. With ties to Great Dixter there are many similarities

between the two in the planting style. There are 35 acres of gardens with a slight hill open to

the public areas of the garden include tennis court garden, teacup garden, rein and gravel

garden, pond garden, cut flower and vegetable garden and the serpentine garden.

The photo above is the ruin garden

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The plantings just seem to flow from the moment you step into the garden, meandering down

the hill you never quite know when one area of the garden finishes the next area of the garden

begins.

Long distance trips

Pittsburgh and Falling water

Falling water, the photo above is a Frank Lloyd-wright designed house in West Pennsylvania

it was built between 1936 and 1939 over a beautiful waterfall which echoes around

house. The grounds around the house are woodlands and the house seamlessly blends into the

landscape.

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Phipps conservatory is a botanical garden located in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Created in

1893 this garden is predominantly under glass with one acre of gardens outside. There are

many different glasshouses with different themes, in one there is a glasshouse which is set up

like the Congo; there is also a desert garden and tulip garden. A great garden all year round

one that can’t be affected by the rain with ever changing displays Phipps is a unique garden.

Road Trip West Coast, Arizona, Nevada, California

It was a difficult decision deciding what area to travel to in the States with so many beautiful

places and an abundance of gardens. What interested me was seeing different climatic regions

and brilliant range of flora. I have always had a fascination with the American West and

seeing cacti in the wild would be marvellous, so I decided Phoenix Botanical Garden would

be perfect. The coast line of California was an area I knew as having a multitude of gardens

and a great growing climate.

First stop Pasadena where I was very kindly hosted by the Garden Club of America.

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I visited the Pasadena Garden Club at LA Casita Del Arroyo. I helped plant some Heuchera

that the members of the Garden club had grown. I gave a small talk on what I have been up to

and spoke about my plans of what gardens I would be visiting on my trip.

My host had very kindly created a most fabulous itinerary and the first day I was taken to

Theodore Payne Foundation nursery in LA. Theodore Payne nursery grows and sells native

californian flora there are around 5,000 native plants for example this wonderful Saliva

spathacea ‘confetii’. I was taken around the nursery and there seems to be a big push towards

native drought tolerant plants.

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The first garden I visited was Descanso Gardens in Pasadena this is a 150 acre garden. The

garden was also becoming more drought tolerant. I was very kindly shown around the garden

by David Brown and Rachel. The garden has thousands of camellias and when I was there

they had just finished a new prehistoric garden with a new collection of Cycads.

I was then given a tour of LA Arboretum which was a very interesting arboretum and has

some very enchanting gardens like the Madagascar Spiny Forest. There where some

interesting sculptures such as the serpent, I was very fortunate to be taken around by Tim

Philips.

That evening we had a small drinks party at Arlington with Betty Mckenney who was

instrumental in creating Arlington garden and some of the members of GCA and I gave a

short talk on my adventures in America so far. Arlington is a three acre community garden

which the public are free to walk around it was a dilapidated waste ground which the local

community clubbed together to create this amazing space.

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The last garden I visited in the Pasadena area was The Huntingdon. I was taken around the

garden starting with a tour of the rose garden with Tom Curruth, Tom mentioned that they

prune there Roses back 60% every year which was interesting in the UK I have been told to

prune back by a third this may be due to the climate or different gardening styles. I then went

on a tour around the Desert garden with John Trager and the last garden I went around was

the Chinese garden.

Arizona

I then flew to Phoenix Arizona where I meet up with two friends from Longwood.

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We were given a tour of the Desert Botanical Garden by Star, this garden is amazing with a

fantastic range of cacti and I got to see the American West which was a fascinating

landscape. The Desert Botanical Garden is a mesmerizing garden it only gets seven inches of

rain a year and is in the middle of the Sonoran desert so the flora was unlike anything I have

ever seen before. The garden is around 50 acres in size to explore however you do not want

to be outside for too long as the weather is sweltering. There are trails which you can follow

around the garden, what I found made the garden unique was you never knew where the

garden stopped and the desert began.

Spring Preserve in Las Vegas is an eight acre botanic garden currently under a lot of

development and the state museum of Nevada is based there. With only four inches of rain a

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year this is the driest garden I have ever been too, but despite this there still seemed to be a

lot of plant life.

Yosemite the day we drove through was the first day the Tioga pass had been open after a lot

of heavy snow.

Filoli is located 25 miles south of the city it has a Mediterranean climate but an almost

English country estate feel; the inspiration came from an Irish estate. The garden is 16 acres

but is surrounded by over 650 acres of grounds, the garden is broken up into sections: Sunken

Garden , a beautiful informal knot garden as seen above, there is a kitchen garden, vegetable

garden and a cutting garden.

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Above is the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.

Metrosideros Excelsa at New Zealand native in the San Francisco

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The Mediterranean garden at San Francisco Botanical Garden

San Francisco Botanical Garden is in the heart of the city set in 55 acres. The garden has

plants from all corners of the world the New Zealand garden reminded me of the time in

there. The garden was laid out very well and the plant range was fantastic with flora from

South Africa, Chile Australian, Mediterranean and the native Californian plants. Next to the

San Francisco Botanical Garden is the Japanese Tea Garden a small garden but well done the

path meanders around the garden taking in the temples and bridges and the tea house at the

centre of the garden.

Berkeley Botanical Gardens is a 34 acre garden nestled above the university with far reaching

views towards the Golden Gate Bridge. They have used borrowed landscape brilliantly as you

walk around the garden you occasionally catch a sneak peak at the bridge. Due to the

Mediterranean climate there is an abundance of flora which can grow like Protea from South

Africa.

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The final day in the West Coast we walked around the stunning and very old Muir Woods

seeing the coastal redwood. The trip was an unbelievable experience from the desert of

Phoenix to the snow clad mountains of the Sierra Nevada there where so many amazing

gardens and areas of horticultural interest along the way.

Florida

In the month of June I went as far south as Key West and as north as Toronto Canada and I

visited some of the best gardens in North America.

I started the month going to the American Public Garden Conference in Miami, Florida. This

was a fabulous week of learning and networking and garden visits in the Miami area. On the

Monday we went to the Big Cypress preserve which is next to the everglades; the preserve

had amazing plant life. The site is 729,000 acres large and the rangers have many problems

including invasive species removal. We waded through the swamp seeing Bromeliads all

over the trees.

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Wading through the Cypress preserve

Bromeliads growing in the trees

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I presented a poster at the APGA conference on Garden Club of America/Royal Horticultural

Society interchange Fellowship and other Fellowship and traineeship around the world.

During the week I got to listen to some great speakers and I attended many good discussions

and talks. There was at party at Vizcaya, this gave me the opportunity to network with some

great leaders of horticulture and see the city of Miami.

Royal Botanic Garden Hamilton

This is an interesting garden broken up into different gardens which you have to drive to or

catch a bus between. The most recent addition to the garden is a new rock garden created

from a quarry this is one of the best rock gardens I have been to and the planting is brilliant.

The new rock garden at the Royal botanic garden Hamilton

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Chicago

In early July I visited the city of Chicago and the surrounding area taking in four states

Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. While there I visited Chicago Botanic, Morton

Arboretum and attended a Garden Club of America meeting in Lake Geneva.

I was kindy taken on a tour of the Chicago Botanics by Tim the Director of horticulture and

one of the highlights was the Japenese garden. The new science center at Chicago Botanic is

a marvel it has a green roof on the top of the building. On the roof the garden are currently

trialling different soil depth to see which depth is most suitable for plants to grow in. The

science block is a must see building as you walk in on both sides there are laboratories where

the public can look into and see what the scientists are researching. There are plaques by each

lab which tell the visitors what the different labs are researching i.e. soil science, pollen,

geology. When there is excessive rain parts of the garden flood the science block is on stilts

to prevent it from being flooded

Chicago Botanics is an unusual garden it is group of islands connected together by bridges

making the garden very unique.

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I was very kindly invited to a

Garden Club of America meeting

and there I went around a private

garden on Lake Geneva and the

tennis court garden (deer

protection) was in full bloom.

I was very kindly taken to the

Indiana sand dunes this is an

amazing ecosystem the sand

dunes play host to an array of

flora from oak tree to Prickly-

Pear Cactus. We also visited

Warren sand dunes in Michigan

where some of the sand dunes are

as tall as 240 feet.

Millennium Park Chicago is a

beautiful five acre urban

garden in the heart of the city

designed by Gustafson

Guthrie Nichol Ltd and Piet

Oudolf. The planting flows

majestically with the city as

the back drop it’s a wonderful

urban space which has been

utilised extremely well for the

city benefit.

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Morton arboretum is a 1,700

acre because it’s so big it’s a

drive-through you drive around

stopping at vantage points, one

vantage point is Schulenburg

prairie as seen in the photo

where you can get out and walk

around. There are also bike

trails around the arboretum and

a children garden with many

different activities for them to

play on like tree houses.

Wolf road prairie is a small

area on the outskirts of the

Chicago but one of the last

fragments of the prairie left in

the city.

Conclusion

I have been so privileged to have had

the opportunity of working at one of

the greatest gardens in the world.

Working in so many different areas

has been a delight and has given me a

far better understanding of how a

large garden functions and how all the

elements of a garden of this size come

together. Working on such a large

scale has been an amazing

experience. Being part of a team

planting 100,000 bulbs on the Flower

Garden Walk in a day and a half was

just incredible. The rotations have 100,000 bulbs being planted on the brick walk

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been a brilliant learning experience and working so closely with so many trained experts in so

many different fields has been a delight. Working in department like IPM going around and

looking for pests and learning about pest and disease or learning to weld in the metal shop

would only be offered at Longwood and I am very grateful for having this opportunity.

I have had the opportunity to travel around America I have travelled to 15 different states

from the West coast, the mid-west, the South West and the North east. I saw a huge range of

garden across the country. I have had great fun meeting so many brilliant horticulturist and

friend I will stay in contact with for life. I also had the opportunity to network at events like

the APGA in Miami which was a great experience to network and I got to talk to many

experts to the field of horticulture. I enjoyed having the opportunity to work in the

Conservatory with many new exotic plant species I have not worked with before. Going to

Desert Botanic Garden and the garden in LA was first time in my life to see cactus in the wild

and in some of these garden it was great learning a little bit about a flora I novice in before.

Many thanks

It’s been an amazing year and I would like to thank all the staff at Longwood Gardens and a

special thank you to Douglas Needham and Brian Trader for supporting me throughout the

year. I would also like to thank the Royal Horticultural Society and in particular Rowena

Wilson and a huge thank you to the fantastic Garden Club of America who have been

instrumental in making my time in America one of the best years of my life. All the Garden

Clubs I have had the pleasure of visiting made me feel very much at home in America and I

was touched by their kindness and warmth towards me. Many thanks to Celine Lillie who

very kindly hosted me in Chicago and was a great help to me through the year.