Fajita's plant fact of the day: Vanilla flavoring comes from the pod of an orchid, Vanilla Planifolia. Though the pods are called vanilla beans, they're more closely related to corn than green beans.
Fajita's plant fact of the day: Vanilla flavoring comes from the pod of an orchid, Vanilla Planifolia. Though the pods are called vanilla beans, they're more closely related to corn than green beans.
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While working in the Hort department as an intern who's time is split between office and field work I am more often than not left to accomplish tasks independently. While completing office work, especially invoices for the Plant Trader, I found myself asking my lead to check my formatting and unit pricing. I often lend a hand and format and write invoices for my dad's business, so I am no stranger to it. But when writing the plant order invoice, I just wanted to make sure that I executed my task correctly the first time around, so I could use that as a model for future invoices. My lead was more than happy to answer any questions I had and even gave me access to an excel sheet that had information like plant genus, species, unit price, and plant care; so needless to say I am now a pro at writing invoices for horticulturists and general contractors.
Also, I would just like to give a thank you and shoutout to the management of the Hort department so graciously providing me with a jacket. The management knows the struggle of riding in a golf cart at full speed at 6 in the morning and the importance of warmth for a small person like me. Self advocacy for warmth and comfort for the win!! As an intern it is quite intimidating going into a new, unfamiliar environment, but with individuals like the ones in the Hort department it can be smooth transition from a school to work environment. Everyone in the Hort department has been so welcoming and so kind to us that I find it so hard not getting to know everyone. I try to make an effort everyday to greet everyone in the department and build relationships with the individuals that I will be working with day in and day out for the next 3 weeks. I find it quite easy to talk to the crew and get to know them on a personal level; I often ask how long they've been at the park for and that questions usually leads to conversations that describes my co-workers interest and countless stories about their adventures in and outside the Safari Park. Fajita's plant fact of the day: “Fruit” is a botanical term and “vegetable” is a culinary term, so certain vegetation such as tomatoes, green beans, eggplants, and cucumbers could be called either fruits or vegetables. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been going through the Hort department's plant orders and inputting that information into a plant database and as of yesterday (Monday 5/23) I have successfully inputted each Acacia tree into the plant record database. Now that each Acacia has been cataloged and correctly labeled with it's genus, species, and family I have moved onto the mapping portion of my project. Using GIS program and the individual accession numbers, I am now out in the field logging the location of each individual Acacia. I expect to finish the field location logging by next week, once this portion is done I will be going out into the field once more to physically tag each Acacia. The overall final product of my internship project will include a detailed Acacia tree catalog and that will be implemented into the Safari Park's official horticulture plant collection. I believe the Thorntree/Acacia collection will be the third installment in the park's official plant species collection;the other include the Bamboo and the Old World Baja. Alongside plant collection work I am also refining my propagation skills. Just in these past two days, I have propagated over 250 succulents. Using the cuttings from parent succulents the offsets and plantlets can also be separated from their parent plant and grown on in their own pot. Haworthia limifolia ("Fairies Washboard") is a good introduction to propagating plants via their offsets, as a little baby haworthia grows from the root out to the side. This type of propagation is quite simple and rewarding, but time consuming. . Fajita's plant fact of the day: Succulents, often called “fat plants” derive their name from the Latin, Sucus meaning juice. Mentor Interview
Keith Thomas - Lead Horticulturists (Village 1 Team) My mentor grew up in England and is known to be one of the hardest workers in the Horticulture department. Not only does he work excruciatingly hard but he pushes his team members to work hard as well.
Commuting to and from my internship is no different from the commute I make everyday to school, but the hours are still taking some adjusting to. For school I usual set the alarm for 5:45, but don't actually roll out of bed until 6. For this internship I set the alarm for 4:15 and roll out of bed by no later than 4:20 and then leave the house no later than 5:10 to make to the Safari Park by 5:50. By today (4th day of internship) I feel like I have successfully reset my circadian rhythm! Most of daily tasks at the horticulture department are good balance between office paperwork and manual garden labor. Most of the office work I am doing has actually come up in my Biology class; the Bio Blitz of Discovery Lake is almost identical to the plant database I am finishing up. One of the projects that I will be completing throughout these four weeks is plant record keeping; I am inputting current and past plant orders (some dating back to 2008) into a data base and from there separating each order into individual genus and species category. Once I have inputted all the plant orders into the database I will be spending quite sometime out in the field GPS tracking each individual plant and making them with metal rods and name plates. The data base input of information is quite simple, but still very tedious, nevertheless I am learning so much about the biodiversity of the park. Apart from record keeping, I as an individual will be in charge of the plant orders for the Plant Trader shop in the park. As a way for the Horticulture department to self fund programs within the department, we propagate a variety of succulents, cacti, and other "trendy" plants to be sold. I will be in charge of communicating back in forth with the Plant Trader shop, plant invoices, propagation, and delivery; this is one of my favorite projects so far I get to spend a lot of quality time within the nursery and I get to get my hands dirty! Funny Mentor Story My mentor earlier this week lost his radio and could not remember where he had last left it, so as we were retracing our steps trying to find his radio he told me that a while back he had lost his radio and few days had gone by without any sign of it showing up. But luckily he had heard it ringing and he had pinpointed it's location, only to find out it was in the green waste bins. Keep in mind the park's green waste bins are about the size of cargo shipping containers and they are filled with tons of plant material (as well as other "organic" material). So once he had realized where his radio was he decided to start digging, he spent an entire day using the skip loader and individual checking each load of green waste until successfully retrieving his radio. Day 1The start of my first day was a bit rough, with a 4:15 am wake up call anyone would be a bit on edge and out of it. Once I got to my department I was greeted by many smiles and warm welcomes.
The office space of the horticulture department is as a office like as one would expect, but the nursery and shade box are outstanding. The vast amount of plants is mind blowing, I don't think I've ever seen so many varieties of plant species in one place. The amount of passion and knowledge my colleagues have is amazing, the Safari Park Horticulture department has many dedicated and plant passionate individuals. The whole department was very welcoming on my first day and open to any questions I have. They all took the time to stop by and introduce themselves, which made me feel more at ease on my first day. I am happy to find a great level of diversity in the tasks at hand; throughout these next few weeks I will be assisting a majority of colleagues in their daily tasks. The work that lies ahead for me includes everything from weeding, irrigation, plant inventory, mulching, and plant propagation. Pre-InternshipI will be interning in the Horticulture department of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The Safari Park one of the top wildlife breeding and conservation facilities in the world, it is also a world-renowned botanical garden. According to my research, the Safari Park’s horticulture department cares for 1,750,000 plant specimens spanning 1,800 acres.
Alongside my mentors Kate Ostrander and Keith, I will be logging plant identifications and locations onto a computer database as well as working on plant propagation throughout the park. Minor internship duties include green house work, plant shade room upkeep, plant delivery and plant inventory. My days will be balanced between in-office horticulture work as well was in field landscaping/irrigation. Horticulturists apply their knowledge, skills, and technologies used to grow intensively produced plants for human food and non-food uses and for personal or social needs. Their work involves plant propagation and cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses.So I am excited to take the skills I learn in the four weeks that I'll be interning and applying them to my own life and projects. As one would be, I am nervous to step into a completely different working environment than that of one that I am accustomed to. I hope to possibly see some familiar faces while I am at the park, I think that in itself would bring down my nerves, but either way I am very excited to start my internship and learn as much as I can in those four weeks. |