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Botanical gardens guided tours, education: youtube.com/watch?v=dsakd63u-lo
Photo by Monica Moriak | Video by Michele Walfred
September 14, 2021
Students study and maintain UD Botanic Gardens
If you want to get your hands dirty and study, the University of Delaware Botanical Gardens (UDBG) is the place for you. Over the summer, six UD students braved the heat, humidity and armies of Brood-X cicadas and discovered lantern flies in order to develop practical horticulture skills in the nicest outdoor classroom on campus.
On 15 acres and three greenhouses on the main UD campus in Newark, UDBG maintains a diverse collection of live plants of more than 3,000 species and varieties of perennials, shrubs and trees. Designing and maintaining this great collection is a matter close to the heart of the UDBG staff and they are happy to share their knowledge and work with student interns.
For some of the students it is their first chance in this field. As Valann Budischak explained, academic prowess in the classroom does not automatically translate into a committed work ethic in the gardens.
“Students take what they learned in class and bring it to the field that is a different animal,” said Budischak, who is the UDBG’s interim director and volunteer and education coordinator.
Learning and running the UDBG’s summer plans develops students’ skills in landscape management, garden valuation, and daily maintenance. The students take on tasks such as planting, pruning, bedding, weeding, edging and gardening management. They also help with the UDBG’s volunteer gardening sessions and learn to use all of the strength machines.
Josh McDevitt, major in landscape architecture, is lecturer on a membership and donor tour of the University of Delaware Botanic Gardens.
The group’s camaraderie and pride could be seen throughout the summer.
“Every Wednesday we work as a group in the herb garden. It looks so much better when we started, “said Austin duPlanti, a landscape architecture major in the 2022 class.” It’s a sense of achievement to see that goal achieved. “
The staff is always aware of telling students not only what to do, but why the skill, method or project is important.
“We could, for example, break down how a more aggressive plant conquers a certain area and why we have to give other plants the opportunity to shine,” said Budischak.
UD is located in a region of the country that is rich in botanical gardens and landscape architecture, so students also go on field trips. They visit places like the Mt. Cuba Center to compare the goals of their respective experimental gardens and Nemours Estate to learn about the management strategy of a larger public garden.
“Students really have a chance to improve their horticultural skills. You learn which combinations of plants work and which don’t, ”says Sue Barton, professor and expansion specialist for ornamental plants. “You learn to work in a team, which is very important because that will happen in your career.”
The internship experience has a deeper value than a typical vacation job, which makes a student’s coursework more relevant, especially for landscape architecture courses. The students who complete the internship for crediting have to do a lot of reflection – write weekly minutes, critical assessment papers and give presentations.
“The structure of the internship course forces them to go to work each day with an evaluative spirit rather than just going to work and doing their job,” said Barton.
Juliahna Mistretta, an intern at the University of Delaware Botanical Gardens, shares her summer accomplishments with guests including Interim Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Calvin Keeler.
Many students pursue careers in landscape architecture firms, landscape management firms, industrial nurseries, museums, resorts, research laboratories, and design studios.
While the vast majority of students come from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, a handful of students find the UD Botanic Gardens from seemingly unrelated disciplines. One of these scholars is Andrew Hill. Major in math classes split his time as a UDBG intern and summer scholar under Barton. He conducted a research project on pollinators and grass meadows in the cool season and collected data on the time it takes to remove unwanted species.
If you had told Hill a year ago that his next internship would be in the world of plant science, he would never believe you.
“I thought I was going to do something with math or college classes,” Hill said. “Then I took a course with Sue Barton. She told me to try it out. I learned more in a month than ever before. This experience will have a pretty big impact on my future career. “
A hibiscus flower blooms in the University of Delaware Botanical Gardens.
UDBG horticultural manager Andrew Adams (2017 class) was an intern at UDBG not so long ago. Now he’s a mentor to these students.
“They’re very hesitant at the beginning of summer,” said Adams. “Some of the students are new to plants, have never worked in a garden or have had the opportunity to apply their class knowledge outdoors.”
When Adams places an assignment at the end of the summer, they approach it with confidence. You must each master certain areas of the gardens, including the butterfly experiment, the worrilow hills and the hydrangea garden around the fisherman’s greenhouse.
“We all have ideas for our individual areas,” says Josh McDevitt, a landscape architect in class 2023. “It’s very open communication with Andrew and a lot of collaboration.”
To round off the summer experience, these Blue Hens showed their skills on a member and donor tour. UDBG interns became lecturers – a key role in public gardens – who walked guests around the garden, shared summer successes and the UDBG history of their respective areas.
If you want to admire the work of the students, the gardens are open to visitors daily from sunrise to sunset. Guided tours through the garden are offered for groups of ten people or more. Additional visit information is available on the UDBG website.
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