January 28, 2010

This Week In Horticulture

Like I do most years at this time, I spent the better part of the week at the Mid Atlantic Horticulture Short Course. I help out a little bit, attend a few classes, catch up with previous acquaintances as well as make new contacts. You may be able to imagine what it is like to be among hundreds of landscapers, growers, turf people, designers, arborists, retailers, academics, master gardeners, specialists, extension agents, etc... When you get this many plant people together, talking about what they love, the halls are not quiet.

The classes I took varied, and several of them I entered with low expectations thinking I would learn little new, only to be made wrong. Usually I enjoy classes the most that take me places I'll likely never see. In particular I enjoyed the flora of the Capetown area of South Africa as presented by Marcia Stefani of Virginia Tech, and Mark Weathington's (of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum) tales of adventures with Tony Avent plant hunting in China and Japan. Keeping in the exotic frame of mind, I attended a talk given by Sam McCoy whose company Ozbreed Plants sells drought tolerant Australian plants to American growers. He had some way cool stuff, but I reserve judgement until I see how they handle our cold and our rains. The lushest photos I saw were shown by landscape designer and author Scott Calhoun of Zona Gardens. Perhaps the highlight of my week was seeing images of my own garden on the giant screen at the end of the room. Helen Yoest of Garden With Confidence taught several classes and included some shots of my garden taken this past summer. It was quite flattering and only added to a very satisfying week - one that always makes me want to come home and get my hands dirty.

Now for some completely unrelated, but recently taken photos.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blue Bird'

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blue Bird'

Euphorbia fulgens

Euphorbia fulgens

Agave americana

Agave americana

Ruellia macrantha

Ruellia macrantha

Euonymus japonicus 'Chollipo'

Euonymus japonicus 'Chollipo'

Just a reminder that if would like to put your name in the hat for my blogging anniversary prize and haven't done so, you still have until the 31st. Also, it goes without saying that my usual disclaimer applies to this post in that I have received no compensation for mentioning any of the above people or entities, but am as always open to persuasion.

14 comments:

  1. You are fortunate to be in a place that has this kind of opportunity. We must always travel far and wide and although it is always worth the trip, the day job makes it increasingly difficult to do so. I appreciate having the info and names you dropped. Looks like a few good ones for our lectures here in Charleston.

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  2. Sounds like a great conference. I'm planning on going to Lewis Ginter's Winter Symposium next week. I'm surprised to the ruellia blooming. I'll have to learn more about that plant.

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  3. Hi Les! You will want to check your third comment asap ... most inappropriate. So much for word identification! This is yet another beautiful post! Informative too ... thanks for all the links. Sounds like you had a great week! ;>)

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  4. Jim,
    If you click on the link you can download the program and at the back are contacts for the lecturers.

    Pam,
    Thank you!

    Phillip,
    The Ruellia is a greenhouse plant and so is the Euphorbia.

    Carol,
    Thanks for the heads up. I have noticed lots more of this type of thing on many people's blog. I have dispatched the comment.

    Les

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  5. Wow that sounds like a simply wonderful time! Sexy photo's too! I had to immediately do a search on Euphorbia fulgens...what dramatic colors!

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  6. How nice that Helen presented pictures of your garden. Sounds like a great meeting.

    Beautiful images. I love the Euphorbia and Agave.

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  7. Sounds much more enjoyable than the farmer group for the pesticide certification. I should look into going to some of the classes at the Arboretum again. Hob nobbing and rubbing elbows can be a good thing.

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  8. How fun, Les, and hooray for Helen! It sounds delightful, learning new stuff and talking about gardening. Helps pass the time until spring finally arrives. We are under ice and snow at the moment, most in ten years they say. We have lived here ten years and were fooled into thinking we were in the tropics for a while. Reality has set in.

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  9. Danger,
    See, you are not the only one with a thing for Agaves.

    Sweet Bay,
    That was indeed nice.

    Christopher,
    I will have to sit through pestacide re-cert at the end of the year. It is the most boring event EVER.

    Frances,
    We are experiencing the same reality you are. Crazy amounts of snow.

    Les

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  10. Hey Les, it was so good to see you this week! And oh, your garden ROCKS!!!!

    H.

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  11. How nice to have your garden included in the photo array from Helen. I always think about going to this as a moderator....oh well.. glad you had some good speakers.

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  12. I love your shot of Agave americana--very different! It's hard to take an image of it that doesn't look like 1000 others.

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  13. Helen,
    It was good to see you too.

    Janet,
    I imagine you will be somewhere else next year when the conference rolls around.

    Lynn,
    I was quite proud of that photo myself.

    Les

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