Monday, November 26, 2012

Horticulture at Smith College

My daughter, Kady, decided to take a course in Horticulture at college this semester and is learning quite alot.   As soon as she decided to take such a course or when she told me about it, instead of being negative which is always possible for me(I could have focused on how much I am paying for something I could have taught her for free),  it made me so happy that one of my children was interested in my passion and career.  She got a part time job at the nursery where I work, she worked for me, and she was open to my pedantic side.  The day after Thanksgiving, we walked around looking at woody plants: she knew oaks, maples, cherries, white pines, Rosa multiflora, bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, poison ivy. m Ishowed her various other species and explained somewhat how to identify them in the winter which is not as easy as when they have leaves.

On the way back from North Stonington, CT where my wife's sister and her husband live and run Wytchwood Farm (turkeys), I stopped at the Conservatory at Smith in Northampton, Mass.  They still have their annual Chysanthemum show so I looked at some of those amazing, huge greenhouse Chrysanthemums, cascading ones and the rest of the greenhouses.  I had a long chat with the volunteer on duty at the conservatory, Dan Fitzgerald,  mostly about black currants which are a passion of mine.

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