The New York Botanical Garden Hosts 'Hortie Hoopla' Premiere for Green Industry Interns

It’s A “Hortie Hoopla!”

NYBG Hosts 1^st Annual Field Day for NYC-area Green Industry Interns

100 Anticipated Interns Show Horticulture is a Young and Growing Field

It     It doesn't seem all that long ago that my dear friend and "Hortie Hero,"  Charles Yurgalevitch, Director, School of Professional Horticulture at The New York Botanical Garden passionately discussed with me his desire to produce an event that would showcase Horticulture as an enduring career that excites and compels enthusiasm -- especially for youth. 

Silicon Valley does not have a monopoly on young, creative, and enterprising career candidates!  

We see this generation of farmers at the Greenmarkets.  We learn from them while they work the gardens at the parks and botanic gardens.   

Charles' vision as I remember it, was to engage some Hort thought leaders to speak to the interns -- Ken Druse's name readily came up first. Ken had recently written a great article about the Next Generation of Horticulturists and it was inspiring on so many levels.   

http://www.organicgardening.com/living/the-new-generation

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S    Charles also expressed a point of view that to help nurture these budding green industry celebrities, they needed a community - an event to share their hort knowledge and passions and issues and their visions -- and so his "Hortie Hoopla" was seeded. And what better place than the New York Botanical Garden to host this premiere horticultural event? 

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      So in less time than it takes to design a seasonal garden display, Charles had his vision approved, a template for the day's agenda that came out almost fully formed: an all-star Hort expert lineup of presenters and lecturers, NYBG curator-led tours of the collections and gardens - including the Forest, Native Plant Garden, Azalea Garden, Conservatory and so on; followed by food and drinks (he was thinking BBQ or sub sandwiches in the farm setting that is the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.  Nice homegrown comfort food. No stuffy social event here! 

      And as you can see from the final agenda below that is the media alert, it all came together as he envisioned. Even the food and drink made it to gathering, generously provided by Organic Gardening Magazine, Town and Country Gardens and Landcraft Environments.  Cheers to the sponsors.

      

      The metro area Hort network provided Charles with the metrics of approximately how many green industry interns there are working in our green spaces including The High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park, The Battery Park Conservancy and Central Park, to name a few.   

      

      And just like that, it all came together.  Everything was finalized before Charles left on a study and research trip to the UK's Royal Botanic Garden Kew, Royal Horticultural Society  and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.  Here he was working to produce an exchange program for his NYBG School of Professional Horticulture students in the near future. 

     

      Surely, Charles is the next generation's green industry garden angel!  

Charles Yurgalevitch Director of SoPH, NYBG 

      

      If you, or someone you know is a green industry intern, please let them know about Wednesday's event. Details below.  

      

      Make Green History and attend the Hortie Hoopla Premiere. 

     

  
    News from the Botanical Garden:

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The New York Botanical Garden will host the first-ever New York metro area “Hortie Hoopla!”- a field day for “green industry” interns on July 24, 2013. Nearly 100 interns working at parks and gardens across the NYC-area this summer will meet up at the Garden for this day of learning, camaraderie, professional development, and a bit of fun. Professionals working at the many parks, gardens and horticultural institutions in the NYC area will also be on hand to share ideas and experiences about their summers in horticulture. The Garden’s own curators and horticultural experts will offer tours of NYBG’s magnificent 250-acre grounds and offer interns insights about careers in this important profession.

WHEN:                        Wednesday, July 24, 2013, 2–7:30 p.m.

WHO AND WHAT:      

2 pm     Opening remarks in the Ross Lecture Hall by:

·       Charles Yurgalevitch, Director, School of Professional Horticulture

·       Ken Druse, author, lecturer and radio host

·       Emma Seniuk, cut flower and vegetable gardener, Chanticleer Garden

·       Ethne Clarke, Editor-in-Chief, Organic Gardening magazine

3 pm     
Curator and Staff Tours of NYBG gardens & Plant ID contest:

·       Azalea Garden – Deanna Curtis, Curator of Woody Plants

·       Composting in the Family Garden - Jodie Colón, Compost Educator and Project Manager

·       E.A.H. Conservatory – Francisca Coelho, Vivian and Edward Merrin VP for Glasshouses &

Exhibitions

·       Native Plant Garden – Brian Sullivan, VP for Landscape, Outdoor Collections and Gardens

·       Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden Rose Garden, Kristin Schleiter, Associate V P for Outdoor Gardens

·       Thain Family Forest – Jessica Schuler, Director of the Thain Family Forest

5:30 pm - BBQ at the Edible Academy hosted by:

·       Toby Adams, Director, Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden

·       Annie Novak, Manager of the Edible Academy in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden

7 pm     Announce the winner(s) of the Plant ID contest.

WHERE:          The New York Botanical Garden

                        Bronx River Parkway (Exit 7W) at Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 

You Won!

What are just about the two sweetest words in the English language? 

“You Won.”

The subject line on the email did indeed read, “You Won.”  As I know the sender, Irene Varig, I didn’t fret that the winning notice might’ve been some snarky come-on from a third-world mambo jambo nation offering bazzilions of dollars for a mere small $$ investment…Ha.

No, Irene is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, she is now the East Coast head of the Garden Writer’s Association, she is the gardening columnist for Newsday, she and her talented and wise husband, Harvey, teach journalism at Stony Brook and she produces her own excellent Garden Party blog (I am a Follower).  Whew – she’s busy – and successful!

All good. J

When I read she had extended the deadline for the photo contest, I quick grabbed my trusty Luminex (love this camera) and took some shots to submit…  The idea for the contest is fun and smart and sustainable.  Kudos, Irene – and thank you so much!

And special thanks, also, to Nancy Thomas, owner of “In the Garden,” Highlands, in the Garden State. (www.inthegardennj.com) 

As I mentioned previously, Nancy and her team keep track of my annual holiday decorating greens so when I place the order, we can readily discuss.  Some of the flowers and plants that I add to the items from my garden I like to repeat from year to year. 
At the same time, I like to make the plant ensemble sparkle with new fashions every season. 

This year it was the hypericum berries – in the lime green and red colors that sparked both the Gotham and Garden state floral designs. 

In the Garden just moved to a new locale in the Highlands and as much as I thought nothing could top their original space, (they had great side yards for the annuals and perennials, which is where I purchase a lot of plants for my garden design clients.)

But when I saw the new digs ^:^, I was immediately smitten.

I love it!  It’s bright and big and right across from the town park that hosts a variety of events, especially the Farmer’s Market.  Nancy is a graduate of The New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture (SOPH) www.nybg.org/edu/soph/

    

SOPH’s Director, Charles Yurgalevitch, Ph.D, is a friend (smooch from your Coco, Charles!)  

He has done an amazing job of not only raising the profile of the school and its mission to “educate motivated individuals to become horticulturists of the highest caliber” and to teach the students “about utilizing art and science to beautify our surroundings so that others may and enjoy and live a better life.”  Well said, Charles.  He also worked very hard in early in his tenure at NYBG to garner accreditation for the school – which is a boon for the students – and the school.

Back to Green Decorating
I picked up my green décor “wardrobe” on Friday the 18^th of December in order to complete the “look book” for this year’s holiday decorations in time for a family party that night.

All was in place when I read Irene’s blog about the Unplug contest. I emailed the images to her blog.

And then this week and for the second time this holiday season, it does indeed appear that I truly am

A WINNER! 

I know, I know. There are those who will recall I just wrote that I have two kinds of luck: NO and BAD and so now probably want to shout, “You Lie.”

But it’s true – outside of that atlas booty from the card party, there was nothing. Ever. Nada. 

Perhaps ushering in the new decade it might be a complete course change when it comes to my luck. 

(Just to make certain, I’m not stepping on any sidewalk cracks, nor walking under any ladders or…)

Here is the winner’s page from Irene’s blog announcing the winners of this year’s “Unplug the Holiday’s contest:

And the link to her terrific blog.  Sign on to become a Follower, too!)

http://tinyurl.com/yeb8wt7

Irene Virag's Garden Party

I'm Irene Virag -- a writer, a gardener, a cancer survivor. I think ideas are like plants. They need nurturing to grow. And gardeners share both. So welcome to my blog. It’s all about what’s happening in my garden and beyond.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 02, 2010

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .

Thanks to everyone who entered my "Unplug the Holidays" contest this year. Here are my winners:

First Prize to Leeann Lavin of New Jersey,

who tweaked the holiday color scheme with lime green hypericum berries nestled among rich red roses and carnations.

 go to blog to see the images :)

Leeann also hung her stockings on the arms of silver plant cups filled with roses, carnations and seeded eucalyptus.

But she forgot to take pictures of the table designs she created with kumquats, Peruvian lilies and more hypericum berries surrounded with angel beeswax candles. I would have loved to have seen those.

And the outdoor displays Leeann designed from evergreens, birch branches and pine cones gathered from her yard were buried beneath the snow. You can't get any more natural than that.