Week 5: Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf

Monday morning started off by walking the two courses at Fantasia gardens miniature golf. While walking the course large weeds weeds were removed along with branches and other debris. Then, Lance showed us how to use some of the power equipment. First, we had the opportunity to try out the edger along  a flowerbed and along the sidewalk. Then, we were able to use the reciprocator pictured to the right to take down torpedo grass which had been killed with a weed killer. Next, we had the opportunity to use the tiller in an area. After break, we did some weeding around the tennis courts and watered plants in the holding area. 

Tuesday morning started off once again by walking the courses. First, I rode around the parking lot with Ira looking for any noticeable weeds or other debris. Then, we walked the gardens course backwards. I found 5 golf balls today in addition to the 7 that I picked up yesterday. After walking the course, I raked mulch out of a bed and we pulled the azaleas out. The pictures to the left show the bed after it had been raked and the azaleas were pulled but not yet tossed out they are in piles in the pictures. After removing the debris, we began to till the bed Ira did some of it while I also did a portion of it. Unfortunately by 10am we were only halfway done with tilling but the golf course opens at 10am so we had to stop. We cleaned up the mess on the sidewalk (sweeping/washing down) and put pine straw down 2 ft. wide where the bed and sidewalk meet so that if someone were to step on it they will not be tracking mud onto the sidewalk. After break, Ira showed me how to trim palm trees using the pole saw. First we trimmed off some fronds which had been damaged the last time the arborists were trimming them and had now started to droop down. Then, we removed a dead frond from the Queen palms. After that, we trimmed some fronds off of one of the Sabal palms which had been affected by skeletonizer. Finally, we went to dump the Toro and empty it of the tools.

Wednesday Lance and I first put out hoses and walked the courses while Ira finished tilling the bed. Then, after he was done I helped to rake the bed flat. Next, we grabbed the new azaleas which were a different cultivar that will hopefully survive better in the area. Ira then set them out as Lance and I drove the Toro to get more and some that were wider. Then, Ira started to plant while I walked ahead of him removing the pots so he could quickly plant them and then I followed with the rake to cover up the footprints. Then, we started to put down mulch but ran out of time. The picture to the right shows the bed after it had been planted and before it was mulched. After putting down the mulch we had to clean up. After break, I went out into the parking lot to pick up hoses and pulled some weeds and picked up branches. Today I found a total of 7 golf balls.

Class this week was on Wednesday instead of Thursday. We had the opportunity to meet with the landscape architects. Surprisingly there are only four landscape architects on the team and two seasonal interns. They do facilities projects including re-purposing existing locations, working on the integrated facilities plan, other projects when horticulture managers come to them and the flower and garden festival as well as community relations projects, ADA improvements, mapping of the irrigation zones on the entire property which can be found on the hub. Irrigation is run on a central computer system known as maxicom which can tell what area a leak or issue might be located. The landscape architects also work on playground design throughout the parks. The architects showed us simple demonstrations of the technology that they use including SketchUp, AutoCad, and Revit. We also had the opportunity to visit the sticks which is where the drawings are archived.

Thursday morning while Ira finished with putting down mulch Lance and I walked the two courses. Then, I went with Ira out front by the sign and helped to trim some hedges with the hedge trimmer. After that, I worked on helping with some weeding and picking up of branches in the shade. I ended up finding a total of 20 golf balls today.

Friday morning I helped Ira to fertilize the palms first and then the flowerbeds and some of the grass throughout the gardens and fairways garden courses. Then, I ended my day by pulling out Virginia creeper which was climbing around the viburnum. I only found one golf ball today.

Plant of the week:
The plant of the week is Azalea Rhododendron hybrids. It is native to the Mediterranean region to Japan and grows to be 2-12ft. The shrub is upright, vase shaped, well-branched to the ground, dense, wider than high, and covered with blooms in the spring. Foliage is alternate 1.5" long crowded toward the end of the branches and dull green beneath with both sides being hairy. Flowers are funnel form white, or pink to purple, usually alone, and 3" wide. Maximum color in Florida is from January through March. This information is from the Plant Identification Manual given to all horticulture and pest management interns here at Disney. In talking to Ira one day I mentioned that I knew what azaleas look like because we had some in Minnesota. I told him that there were in fact some cold hardy cultivars they just bloom a few months later in Minnesota as we still have snow on the ground when they would bloom here. For more information visit http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/flowers/azaleas-rhododendrons-for-minnesota/.

Week 4: Hollywood Studios and the Nursery/Tree Farm

I'm back at Hollywood Studios due to illness with the gardener working at Fantasia gardens.

Monday I waited for the gardener at Fantasia gardens to show up but later found out that the gardener was sick and was brought over to Hollywood Studios. It was a busy morning starting off by removing plants which were in a pot near star tours which was used for pictures during star wars weekends which is now over. The area was then pine strawed. After that, two dead arborvitae trees were removed and replaced along with a hole from a tree that had previously been removed located in the beginning of the backlot tour. Then, shrubs were removed and replaced with Viburnum in a bed near the lights, camera, action stunt show. Finally, some bird-of-paradise was picked up from one of the resorts and a meeting was attended. Multiple trips to the dump were also made throughout the day. Overall, the day was busy.

Chair on left is pictured
http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&
guid=97ad23b8-6a1b-477f-b961-5e43b9176cc9

Tuesday I had the opportunity to work at the nursery/tree farm. First, I went out to help with the Alice in Wonderland topiaries by putting in new Ficus pumila Creeping Fig or Climbing Fig to replace any dead or missing areas. A dibble is used to create the holes I worked on the two chairs on the left and right sides of the Alice in Wonderland topiaries.

Image from: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-
g34515-d85986-i61061885-Disney_s_Contemporary_Resort-Orlando_Florida.html

Then, we headed over to Contemporary resort to replace Alternanthera located in the bottom front and back of the Mickey topiary as pictured to the right. Then. I went with Joe the foreman on the job to pick up some paint while the other workers repainted the hands of Mickey. After finishing the Mickey topiary we headed back to the nursery where I cut back Ficus pumila found on the Eeyore topiary used for the flower and garden festival. This topiary will not be used again until the festival so it was cut back rather drastically. After that, I had the opportunity to help Rosie with putting together hanging baskets. Baskets begin with a 16" spaghnum moss hanging basket liner which is then filled with pre-moistened soil. I was planning two different colors of Vinca Catharanthus roseus in the hanging baskets. There are three places for the hooks to attach the chains for hanging. Between these hooks three plants are planted along the edge of the basket by using index finger to make hole and angling the plant towards the outside of the basket to ensure that the plant grows outwards. Three plants are also planted in the middle of the basket making for a total of 12 plants per hanging basket. The baskets will then be grown out for 3 months at which time they will go to a designated area within the park. A tag is put on the chain designating the location where the hanging baskets are to be put and what day they will be ready. Chains are then clipped to the hanging baskets. I also helped with watering and clean-up. Overall, I would say that working in the nursery was very interesting and gave me a different perspective on horticulture at Disney. Just a quick note all of the plants that I used today were grown in plugs and purchased. Disney buys almost all of the plants used from growers in the area rather than producing them at the nursery.

I also had the opportunity to discuss my project today. Instead of creating a plant ID app I will be coming up with ideas to improve the butterfly garden at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival and activities to engage people within the garden particularly children. The activities need to be easy to do as there is not a lot of people available to help out with activities.

Wednesday morning I helped Mariana to water her hanging baskets while she went off to get her annual hearing test. After I finished watering, I went with Todd and helped weed an area backstage as well as remove old mulch and put down new mulch which is a different color.

Thursday was a shorter day today because we went on a field trip for class so we had to be on the bus by 11am and thus left work when break is set to begin at 10am. I ended up weeding the entire time from 4:30 until 10am. We weeded one small area in the park and then around the parking garage backstage. There was a lot of wandering jew in the bushes which is what I was pulling in the picture to the right.

For class today we visited Leu gardens which is located just minutes from downtown Orlando. The city gives 1.5 million to the gardens every year to help with its operation. Within the garden we were able to go through the home demonstration gardens, walk through some of the trial gardens that various breeders use, the vegetable garden, rose garden, and the palm/cycad area.

 Some interesting facts I learned while there include that the garden opened in 1961. 60% of their visitors are from outside of Florida. They host over 300 weddings a year with sometimes 2-3 per day. 97% of caladiums found in the world are grown in Florida. They have rare plants including the stinking cedar which one of 123 genotypes that they learned how to propagate. A fungus has wiped out many of the plants but in their natural wiregrass habitat (so named as it easily ignites with lightning) smoke will wipe out the fungus. Within the vegetable garden, they have problems with the squash being aborted and not getting to a mature size due to it not being pollinated so they put agastache around it to attract bees. All produce is donated to local homeless shelters. Finally, the rose garden is the only garden in which preventative maintenance is done which occurs every 7-10 days depending upon the weather.

The image above and the one to the right are pictures of the benches for the enabling garden which is used in horticulture therapy. Recently, I have become interested in horticultural therapy especially after writing a research paper about it for one of my classes. This fall semester I will be taking a class on therapeutic horticulture taught by Jean Larson who is in charge of horticultural therapy at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Horticulture Therapy at Leu Gardens started in 1992 to encourage motor skills related to individuals with disabilities.The program at Leu gardens allows assisted living facilities to bring in clients for a period of 6-8 weeks every Wednesday and do a variety of nature related activities. This program is free.  (http://www.leugardens.org/classes/horticulture_therapy.htm)

In walking through the enabling garden where horticulture the raised benches allow for people in wheelchairs to garden and as you can see in the image to the right above the benches allow for wheelchairs to get under the bench. They can fit one on each side of the bench. There is also an area of raised grass as can be seen in the image to the left which allows for people in wheelchairs to easily scoot out of the chair and read or lay in the grass which is something that would ordinarily take a lot of effort but is easier because of the height.



Leu gardens also does conifer trials to determine what conifers can handle the heat of Florida. One conifer that they know for sure can handle the heat is Podocarpus. The area pictured to the right is relatively new as it is located within the palm/cycad area where trees were damaged during hurricane Charlie. Our tour guide told us that on 9/13/04 (which was Friday the 13th) a tornado came through the garden and damaged over 200 trees that had to be removed and were mostly laurel oaks. This has opened up many areas that used to be heavily shaded and is causing damage to plants that were used to the shade.

To the left is a picture of the butterfly garden which we walked through while visiting the garden.

Here is a picture of the horticulture and pest management interns as we visited Leu gardens. I really enjoyed the trip and getting to see another public garden. As many of you know I am hoping to work at a public garden when I graduate.







Friday morning started the same as Thursday ended. Emmi and I were weeding for the first four and a half hours. Then, we helped one of the teams to remove mulch. After break, we watered the yard, Emmi watered the back and the greenhouse while I watered in front of the trailer where the shrubs are found. To end the day we helped cut back Catharanthus roseus found in the yard which was starting to get leggy.

Plant of the week:

podocarpus-macrophyllus-podocarpus-japanese-
Dino_Turf_Nursery_South_Florida_Miami
_Dade_Broward_Palm_Beach_8

Podocarpus macophyllus or Japanese Yew is the plant of the week. Its native habitat is central and southwest Japan. Japanese yew is a slow, upright grower that is narrow, columnar, compact and densely leaved. It can grow to be 50 feet in height. The fruit is a drupe-like green which is ovoid and 1/2" in diameter that grows above a purple edible aril. Foliage is flat, linear leaves that grow to be 2-3" long with a prominent mid-rib and are lighter green beneath. Flowers are inconspicuous. Podocarpus is used throughout the landscape at Disney as a hedge.

Week 3: Hollywood Studios, Fantasia Gardens and Fairways Miniature Golf, and Blizzard Beach

This week I finish my time at Disney's Hollywood Studios and begin in a new area waterparks/mini golf (the Animal Kingdom crew takes care of Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, and Fantasia Mini Golf)

Monday was a really busy day. Because a few of the full time staff were off and the other intern was sick, I was in charge of watering the area of two people. While this seemed like a lot to water I managed to get everything but Indiana Jones done before the park opened and finished Indiana Jones shortly after the park had opened. After that, Paula had me change out some more pots. The pots were located as part of the backstage tour. Geraniums were removed and replaced with torenia, caladiums, and coleus. I was showed where the pots were located and was told to put whatever was available in them. Because this area is considered to be on-stage I was unable to take a picture of my work, but perhaps if I visit later in the summer I can see if they have been changed or not. My day ended by getting rid of some old hanging baskets that were in the greenhouse.

Tuesday was my last official day at Hollywood Studios. To begin the day I watered and removed old leaves inside of ABC Commissary. During this time, the palms inside were washed down with soapy water. I then helped with the cleanup. Then, I watered some of the hanging baskets. After that the Toro was dumped. One of the restaurants opened at 7:30 this morning for breakfast. Around 7:30 I took the Toro to a nearby gate and did weeding for about an hour and a half. One of the beds has a Redbud (Cercis canadensis) and a large number of seedlings were popping up throughout the bed. After weeding, Paula showed Michael and I where we would be moving to as of tomorrow. I will be at Fantasia mini golf as well as the waterparks (Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon) working with one of the other interns. To end the day Michael and I watered the containers and azaleas over by the bungalows.

Wednesday is my first day in my new area. Today I worked in Fantasia Gardens and Fairways Miniature Golf. There are two 18-hole mini golf courses one that is a putting course and one that resembles a traditional golf course on a miniature scale. The day began by walking the courses and pulling weeds such as Cyperus esculentus Yellow Nutsedge and Hydrocoyle umbellata Dollarweed, picking up any debris which may have fallen overnight such as branches, cutting back any limbs too low or shrubs over the sidewalk, and pruning shrubs that look bad. During the walk through Lance and Ira are also looking for larger projects such as replacement of plants or more in depth pruning that will take longer and cannot be done when guests are present for example there was some Plumbago auriculata Plumbago which needs to be replaced because the shrub crew pruned it back to far and the spacing is off. Then Ira showed us how to trim up the topiaries. There are four near the front entrance and four near the end of the putting course which the other intern and me helped trim. While doing the walk through, we kept an eye out for and picked up any golf balls, successfully identified and avoided poison ivy, and Ira pointed out many of the plants we needed to know such as Ilex cornuta 'Bufordii' Burford Holly, Loropetalum chinensis var rubrum Chinese Fringe-Bush, Rhapiolepis indica Indian Hawthorn, Viburnum odoratissimum Sweet Viburnum, Camellia japonica Camellia, Pittosporum tobira Pittosporum, Rhododendron hybrids Azalea, Rosa hybrids Rose, Quercus viginiana Live Oaks, Lagerstroemia indica Crape Myrtle, Dianella tasmaica 'Variegata' 'Variegated Flax Lily', Liriope muscari 'Evergreen Giant' 'Evergreen Giant Liriope'. Then Mike the manager for Fantasia gardens showed me again how to get to blizzard beach as that is where I will be working for the next week and a half. To end the day, I went with Lance to turn in the golf balls that had been collected (they bring them to the entrance staff about once a month) and pruned Philodendron selloum Selloum by removing any leaves which were on the ground and removing flower buds as they would take energy from the plant.

Thursday I started working at blizzard beach. The morning began by simply driving around and picking up any branches that had fallen. We found that the wash down crew had broken one of the stingers (where they hook up to the control valve for water) which created a leak near runoff rapids so we called that into the manager who then called it into irrigation. While riding around we saw a rat snake on the concrete. We also cut down branches that were low throughout the park and miniature golf course on site. Then we did a walk through and pulled weeds as well as picking up branches which we may not have seen in the morning.

Today was also class day. For class, we had the opportunity to do a backstage tour of The Land which is located within Epcot. The Land consists of greenhouses which exhibit technology for the future in food production. During our tour we had the opportunity to see the pest management lab and learn about the leaf miner fly and how parasitic wasps are used as a biological control. Then, we had the opportunity to see through a window the tissue culture lab and heard about a project they have for the USDA which is looking for plant tissue that is resistant to plum pox virus which affects stone fruit crops. After that we had the opportunity to see the greenhouses where they have different methods of hydroponics and aeroponics. In aeroponics water + nutrients is sprayed on the root as can be seen in the first two images. I thought this was a very interesting system.







We also heard about vertigrow and verticrop systems. A fun fact that I didn't know before is that as cucumbers develop they will take the shape of their container so when the cucumbers are first developing they put a plastic cover which is in the shape of mickey mouse.

Within the land they have a tomato tree growing as can be seen in the image to the left. Instead of taking the main stalk and pinching off any offshoots they tie up as many of the offshoots they can as possible. In the past, they have grown a tomato tree and set a record for the most square footage and most harvested from a single plant. They use an indeterminate plant which does not stop growing upon fruit set. They have also made a cucumber tree and have set the same records.



Another technique mentioned was the nutrient film technique. Other information about the greenhouses include that for every 200mL of water 1mL of nutrients is supplied. They use blue booties when walking in the sand because of nematodes which can be found on the bottom of your shoes. In The Land they have aquaculture with American eel, shrimp, American alligator, tilapia, bass, catfish, and sturgeon. All of the produce goes to local restaurants. The image to the right is of winter melon and the one below is part of the tropical garden.

Friday consisted of driving and walking around the waterpark looking for any down branches, weeds, or other landscape debris which needed to be removed. I also walked through the minigolf located at blizzard beach looking for debris and weeds that needed to be removed.








Featured plant:
The plant I am featuring this week is one that I was told about when working at fantasia gardens known as Liriope muscari 'Evergreen Giant'. Evergreen Giant Liriope is native to Japan and China. Foliage is dark green, flat, strap-like and arches to 24" long and 3/4" wide. Its habit is 18-24" tall with spreading, clump forming habit that is rhizomatus or stoloniferous. Flowers are a raceme, terminal, and dense. Some say the flowers are like that of a hyacinth and maximum color can be seen from June to November. All of the information about Liriope comes from the plant identification booklet that all of the professional interns received.

Week 2: Hollywood Studios

Another week as a Disney intern has come and gone. It's crazy how fast time flies while you're having fun.

Monday consisted of watering outside, putting down pine straw, planting of pots with caladium and coleus, removing old mulch, and moving plants which had been delivered. Pine straw is used by speeder bike is where cast photos are sometimes taken. For example, during star wars weekend pictures with Chewbacca can be taken here so it is very important to have pine straw to cover exposed soil so it is checked daily to see if any needs to be added. Old mulch is being removed and replaced with a different color which from my understanding is something that they do seasonally. The current color is golden and the new color is cocoa. In moving plants we loaded up carts for a crew which was to come in overnight and do some changing of annuals as well as preparing for what our crew was to do the following day. Empty carts were moved outside the gate so they could be picked back up by the company that they came from.

Tuesday morning consisted of watering interiors in commissary and removing dead leaves. Then, I helped with planting of caladium in the area they call tots which is by the Beauty and the Beast show. After that I helped add some interiors plants, moved plants in the yard, got rid of old pots, and dumped the Toro.

Wednesday started off as the rest of this week did with watering. Then, I helped Paula remove some plants she had put in pots backstage and add some caladiums and coleus. I then removed begonias and added an interior plant in a shady area. Then, I removed crown of thorn from pots over by the bungalows backstage and added Canna lilies (red, yellow, and pink) as well as some Torenia fournieri 'Clown Blue on Blue' and Pentas lanceolata 'Graffiti White'. Images of these flowers can be found below Torenia on the left, canna lilies in the middle, and Pentas on the right. The pots by the bungalows I did myself with only direction as to what plants to put in there and a general layout with the canna lilies in the middle and the Torenia and Pentas on the outer edge. I did not get a chance to take a picture of the final product but if I water over there early next week I will try to remember to take a picture.

Part of the victory garden a week and a half
after planting

Thursday was another morning of watering. Then, I changed out a pot backstage near the yard which is frequently forgotten about. I removed crown of thorn and put in Catharanthus roseus 'Cora Deep Lavender'. I ended the day working in the victory garden and then spreading out some plants in the yard. In the victory garden which is over by Rosie's All American and is modeled after the victory gardens of world war II. In the garden, we removed herbs which had been in barrels for over 3 years. In the barrels we planted sweet basil, red basil, and sage. We also planted some okra in the bed of the victory garden. Around the plants within the bed of the victory garden we put straw to not only help hold moisture but to act as a deterrent to keep guests from walking into the garden which happens even though there is a white fence around it. I wasn't able to take a picture of the garden because there were guests around, but if I get the chance sometime during the summer I will try to post it here.

Graph from a resistograph

Thursday afternoon the interns once again had a class. Class this week was all about arboriculture. We met the Urban Forester Scott Schultz. For the first hour, we were outside at two stations. At the first station Scott talked to us a little bit about what his job entails and how they determine whether a tree needs to be removed or not. The three things his job focuses on are tree health, tree risk, and best practices. He told us that the most important is tree risk because a tree falling in the park on guests would be extremely bad. In going out and looking at trees which don't look good the first test they do is to pound on the tree with a mallet to determine if a hollow exists. If a hollow is inside the tree then it will sound like a drum. However a tree can survive even if it has a hollow therefore they use a resistograph which is a tool that drills a very small hole through the tree and determines how hard wood is by creating a graph that shows the resistance throughout the tree as can be seen in the image above. Another thing he showed us was a pump up pressure chamber which can be used to determine the water potential within a leaf or small stem which will help determine if a tree needs more water. The best time to use this is before daybreak or between the hours of 1 and 3pm. The other outdoor demonstration showed different ways that the arborists climb trees and the equipment which they use. Then, for the second hour of class we talked about palm trees. We discussed some differences between palm trees and other trees. Palm trees only have one growing point, trunks do not increase in diameter, holes in palm trees never heal over, and palm trees are less likely to up-heave sidewalks. We then talked about three things which are used in identification of palm trees. They look at whether there is a single or multiple trunks, the types of fronds (palmate, costapalmate, pinnate, or bipinnate), and interesting characteristics of palms (such as boots (leaf base remaining on the trunk), scurf, reins, petticoat, and crownshaft). In talking about the care of palms the fertilizer used is 8-2-12-4 (N-P-K-Mg) however now the phosphorus is being removed. For pruning this occurs once a year after flowering and seedling which for most palms is May 15th but for the Sabal palm which is the state tree of Florida this is as late as July 15th. Palms are pruned no more that 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock while disney does 8 o'clock and 4 o'clock. We also briefly talked about diseases such as the palm leaf skeletonizer and fusarium (which is affecting Washingtonia palms).

Friday morning once again consisted of mostly watering because a number of the full time staff are out on vacation. Then, palms were counted. The palms in every park are being counted so that they know how many of each kind and where they are planted (by location and if it is a grate, concrete, landscape, or flexi-pave). This will help them to monitor for disease as well as being used in preparation for fertilizing which they will be doing soon. Michael and I counted the palms in the parking lot and by the main entrance which are all Washingtonia robusta Mexican Fan Palm besides two of them which are Sabal palmetto Cabbage Palm.

Plant of the week:
The featured plant this week is Washingtonia robusta Mexican Fan Palm. This palm is native to Mexico and can grow to be more than 80 feet tall. It has a single trunk that is slender and straight tapering up:often covered in old leaves or old leaf bases. Foliage is palmate; medium green in color with many gray threads. Flowers are long, spadices among the leaves that are longer than the foliage mass. Because palms are evergreen foliage remain green year-round. (Information from Plant Identification book given to all Horticulture Interns).