Going, Going, Gone.

~ Highlight of the Day: Getting to visit with the sister missionaries at the LDS Washington Temple Visitors Center ~

So my Longwood internship is over. I am really not very happy about leaving. If I wasn't headed off to Jerusalem I probably would have found a way to stay. But it's been a good three months.

I turned all my stuff in, even my garden pass and name tag. I'll probably be reaching for my scissors and pruners for another month or so. . .

I've found that I sigh a lot after leaving places and people I love. I've been sighing the whole way down to Virginia. . .

Big, deep, 3-months-is-just-too-short-and-4-months-will-seem-even-shorter sighs.

Packing

~ Highlight of the Day: Seeing my family! ~

It's been a lovely day. I slept in (as much as you can with a 5:40am habit and needing to use the restroom. . . ), sat on the porch while eating breakfast, packed to the Of Monsters and Men radio on Pandora, went on a field trip to a huge estate, gave away almost all my food, and showed my family the gardens.

I am always amazed at how much clothes weigh. As predicted, I'm totally pushing the 50 lb limit.

I took one last walk through the forest to the production greenhouses  (in all honesty I may walk this tomorrow, but I may not, so I'm playing it on the safe side).

My garden (now Maddie, Becca, and Sara's :) is still an overrun mess, but there are significantly less weeds then there used to be! It's still got a good month or two to spit out some veggies :)

We drove past all sorts of old ruins today - I want old ruins in my backyard. . .

All in all it's been a pretty good almost-last-day. I still have a few goodbyes to say tomorrow (sad ones . . . not that I've had any particularly happy goodbyes :), and after that we're off to Virginia!

Last Day of Work :'(

~Highlight of the Day: Discovering I forgot yesterday's barely eaten lunch at work after forgetting today's lunch at home! ~

My last day of work was today. . . very bittersweet. I could have stayed here a year, easy. I feel like I'm missing out on the most exciting times of the year - the Mum Festival and Christmas. Of course, the fact that I'm not here for it all this year practically guarantees I'm going to come back at some point. It may not be for several years, but I'll be back!

What's hardest about leaving is seeing all the potential in the relationships I've built up for the last 3 months, and knowing that that potential will never be fully realized. But then, that's a pretty accurate description of life, isn't it? We're always passing in and out of people's lives, and there's not much we can do but make the best of the time we've got.

Ug. Can't stand sentimental stuff.

 K. My family will be here in less than 24 hours, I've not really started packing yet, and I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning (at least a little bit :).

New York, New York

~ Highlight of the Day: Terrace pizza and chocolate mousse cake. ~

My family is not entirely plant minded. Everyone mows, to some extent, my mom weeds when she has time, and my sister likes plants but is convinced she kills them. I have no idea what my brothers think of it all, and my dad likes a good looking yard, but is allergic to stuff outside, like grass. So gardens have never really been on our lists-of-things-to-do-on-vacation, or even locally.

Being here at Longwood is totally different. We take all sorts of field trips to gardens, like they're the most important attraction around (because they are the most important attractions around :) and actually enjoy it all quite thoroughly. Today we drove to New York City, not to see the Statue of Liberty, or Time Square, or Broadway, but to see the High Line.

This is the place that has the odd cement planks for the floor, with the cool transition from path to flower bed. I've seen it on Pinterest so many times, but I didn't know it was taken here!

They had the coolest water feature - it was just a section of the path with grates on either side of it. On one side water came up to run across the path to the other grate, where it fell underneath and (I'm assuming) is pumped back up to the other side. How perfect for a hot summer day? It's just enough water to get your feet wet and splash around a bit in, but not enough to really cause any safety issues. You could walk across it with shoes on and stay dry. It's just brilliant. I loved it. Just look at that adorable little kid getting his feet wet!

Of Algae and Dark Tunnels

~Highlight of the Day: Wading with the tadpoles and lilies :) ~

 

 

I love algae cleanup. You get to put on waders (doesn't mean you stay dry. . . you just don't get soaking wet), catch frogs and tadpoles, and talk with a group of new faces. Today was particularly exciting due to a mysterious beast causing large disturbances in the water by the Love Temple. We were all in a fairly small, concentrated area of algae, skimming the lovely green stuff by the bucketful, when just to my right there was a large "shloup!" like something big had jumped in . . . or out. Everyone thought I was crazy until about twenty minutes later when the same something jumped out of the water towards the arborist guys, who were then just as freaked out as I was (for at least a split second :) I think we decided it was a fish, though the garbage compressor scene from Star Wars kept playing in the back of my mind. . .

I'd take pictures during algae cleanup. . . but my
poor camera's already been through True Blue.
I doubt it could survive an algae episode.

After work a few of us lucky people got to go on a tour of the tunnels that run under the whole conservatory. It was quite exciting, and did not lend itself well to pictures. It's so odd how perception of area differs depending on what's filling it. Some spaces in the tunnels seemed much more spacious than their elevated counterparts, though in general the low ceilings and big bulky pipes made things seem much smaller.

 

 

There were definitely some Indiana Jones moments. I think it's the last one, about the holy grail, when they're wading through rat infested sewers to find some ancient tomb. . . (though there were no rats, and the water we were wading through was only from watering)

Exclamation Points!

~ Highlight of the Day: A nice, cloudy, breezy, cool morning ~

Title note: I seem to have been using exclamation points a lot in my post titles. . . for a while it was these, ". . . ", but now it's exclamation points. I may need to put a conscious effort into breaking this habit, so if they start getting on your nerves, don't worry, it's being worked on! :)

I love how different gardens have different styles. We visited Chanticleer today, and I thought it was absolutely amazing. Just to sum it up nicely I'd say it's somewhat of a cross between Longwood and Scott Arboretum. It's much more formal than Scott, but not as dependant on annuals and constant display changes like Longwood.

The ruins were such a lovely contrast of stark, structural architecture  and natural, whimsical plantings. I wonder how hard would it be to build some ruins in the backyard. . .

I Woke Up Thursday Morning. . .

~Highlight of the Day: Seeing the brand new air conditioner that's going to be installed in the dining room tomorrow - it was indeed love at first sight. ~

Just look at this beauty! It brings tears to my eyes!

Today our weekly intern field trip took us to the Ambler campus of Temple University (about an hour away) for a lovely tour of  their beautiful gardens. It was a small but well landscaped, altogether an enjoyable place :)

 I will someday (when I have the space and time and money) have one of these in my garden:

And to top off an already good day, I used chives out of my garden for dinner!

I think I might be sad my internship is ending soon, now that I can come home to an air conditioned home. . . :)

Mum's the Word

~ Highlight of the Day: Finding out I didn't miss beekeeping for overtime because beekeeping got moved to tomorrow! Couldn't have planned it better :) ~

Um. . . Mums. That's all I did today. Woke up after hitting snooze (that is a funny word. . . ) three or four times, made it to work on time (barely), took cuttings of mums for 3 hours, ate lunch, and potted mums for 5 hours.

This is what I look at all day - a potting bench, soil, fiber pots, and mums. This variety pictured here is called Honey Glow, I believe. I only remember because it was a cool neon green instead of the plain regular green. We went through something like 4 or 5 yards of soil mix too (not yard as in 3'X3', yard as in how much of something it takes to fill the back of your pickup truck to nearly overflowing). It was a lot of soil, for a lot of mums.

After looking at mums all day I was excited to do something different - I got to help take some of one of Bruce Monroe's exhibits out. All of the pieces we're showcasing here are centered around light, and all but one of them are nighttime exhibits. The only daytime one is a whole lot of 'lily pads' set afloat in the large lake. They are essentially neoprene discs covered in Cd's, and when the sun shines on them you get a rainbow of reflection across the lake. It is way cool. They've been out there all summer though, and time has taken it's toll. Today we removed the most damaged ones. It was hot, and sticky, and stinky, but it was not mums, and I was happy :)

Checking Out Our Government's Greenhouses!

~Highlight of the Day: Finding my presumed long lost black ear-thingy for my skull candy earphones (it was the last medium sized one. . . only the medium ones fit my ears!) ~

So I could write a ton of juicy details on the operations of the Smithsonian greenhouses and the U.S. Botanical Garden greenhouses, and then go on to list off a bunch of Latin names and what not. Or. . . I could just post a few pictures, only explain the really interesting ones, and get to bed at a semi-decent time :)  

Gotta be green - the yellow flats are made of corn,
and the pots are made out of wheat. I guess
 if anybody gets hungry before lunch they're set :)

spiderweb begonia!

How great is this? I thought it odd that Longwood has random topiary animals stashed away in dusty corners (like the life sized elephants in the barn at the nursery. . . ) but apparently it's something everybody does!

Now can you imagine my surprise when I, who just yesterday was
wondering about this flower, found it casually hanging out next to
 some cold frames back behind the US Botanic Garden greenhouses,
with a label!

I've decided I really like cacti and succulents. I think I may have to start a collection when I stop moving every three or four months :)

Look at this! We totally used to have one of these
when I was little! I may have
been more excited about this than the plants. . .
maybe :)

Um. . . dreadlocks. That's all I can think of when I look at this.

Variegated Ginkgo biloba!?! How awesome is that?! I want one. . .

Ok, so I still ended up talking way too much and spouting off Latin names. . . but much less than I would have, let me assure you! Also, must Downton Abbey be sooooo incredibly sad and emotionally draining? I'm having some issues here. 

Swimmin' with the fishes

It was so hot today I couldn't resist a dip in the Lily Pools. . .

I did get a little more than I bargained for though, since my waders leaked. A lot. When I took them off it was like I didn't even use waders. . . the boots were actually filled with water and I had to pour them out. But it was worth it, because I got to see/smell/touch all of this:

Cool things about water gardens:

• They add black dye to the water. It hides mechanics, and lessens the algae.
• To keep down the mosquitoes they apply some sort of bacterial control at the start of the season, and then they have cute little fish that eat what's left for the rest of it.
• There are two main types of water lilies: tropical and hardy. Hardy water lilies only bloom from 9am-5pm. So if you work regular hours and want to see them, don't bother planting these at home :) 
• The huge spiky lily pads are Victoria cruziana and Victoria Longwood Hybrid. They get to be big enough by the fall that they can hold the weight of a person. They flower at night for two nights: the flower opens white on the first night, and purple/pink on the second night. The flower also emits heat when it first opens to better spread its fragrance.

Getting totally soaked was totally worth it. We also got to go on the roof, so we could see the pools from above.

 

 Well I am sold. I must have a water garden some day.