ear Clients and Friends,

 

Recently, my friend Mike Smith gave me a DVD set of the first season of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ to watch while I ride my stationary bike. So, I’ve started watching 30 minutes at a time as I ride. In one of the early episodes, an intern is looking at the babies in the hospital’s nursery and notices one is turning blue. When alerted, another intern—whose “territory” was the nursery—got upset and said there was nothing wrong with the baby. The outside intern pursued treatment of the baby, following her instincts (and over the nursery intern’s head, of course) and it turned out the baby did have hidden, serious health issues, which were treated. I began to notice that this same “instinct” was essential in the emergency room where unconscious adult patients, like babies, couldn’t verbalize what was wrong with them.

This all got me to thinking, of course, about how similar it is for horticulturists. After all, we are the plant “doctors”, and our “patients” cannot speak to us. After practically a lifetime loving and observing plants, I’m getting there—yet sometimes, I still feel like there is so much more to know. With globalization and hybridization ever speeding up, it seems like practically every time I go to a nursery, or public garden, I see a new plant or variety. It’s one of the things I love about what I do—that practically every day I learn something new. On the other hand, it can be really hard to keep up, identify plants and properly diagnose plant problems. How do new plants take to our climate? What diseases, pests, and environmental challenges will they face? Why does the same plant do so well across the yard and keep dying on the other side of the house? How can my neighbor have an exotic that I just can’t seem to grow? Micro-climates, soil differences, wind tunnels, sunlight, toughness, deer—I wish plants could talk! And I bet that’s what doctors think, so often, when their patients can’t communicate with them. The process of elimination and instinct are so important to my craft, too.

It does make work challenging, rewarding and fun. And I do think that proficiency in horticulture is truly a lifetime quest. Some days, I feel like it will take me ten lifetimes to learn all I need to know. Other days, I feel like I know a lot more than I thought I did. In this business, it does take years to become an expert. There is so much to learn and know.

Next story> Serendipity in the Garden