University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 26, April 10


              UD earns awards at Philadelphia Flower Show

     Jonathan Watkinson, a plant science major, was thinking
of his grandmother's house in Kent when he designed the
English cottage garden that took a first-place ribbon in
this year's Philadelphia Flower Show.  "I tried to give it a
quaint, homey feeling," recalled Watkinson, who created the
entryway design for the Friends of the UD Botanic Gardens
display. "I wanted to convey the welcoming feel of my
grandmother's cottage."
     Using a 12-foot-square space, the display featured a
garden pathway leading to an English tea shop run by the
fictional Mrs. Nimblewell in her tudor-style farmhouse. The
path to the tea shop was lined with exuberant purple and
pink roses, delphiniums, lupines, forget-me-nots, hosta and
hollyhock, and an herb garden of thyme, sage, catmint and
lavender. Beside the doorway stood a green wrought-iron
chair and table, set with a pot of tea and plates of
sandwiches, scones and cake that used herbs from the garden
and spices from the Orient.
     Watkinson's design was the starting point in a
cooperative effort overseen by Susan Foster, a greenhouse
technician majoring in plant sciences, and Karin Arentzen,
president of UDBG Friends. More than a dozen volunteers
contributed time and skills from June until March to create
the exhibit. They nurtured plants, built the farmhouse
backdrop, constructed the flowerbeds and attended to the
thousands of details that came up along the way.
     Growing all the plants in Fischer Greenhouse Laboratory
was an exacting process. Temperature, humidity and light
conditions had to be checked frequently, Watkinson said, and
growing conditions adjusted so the flowers would bloom at
just the right time. Using perennials rather than annuals
made the timing even trickier.
     "From around Christmas time until March, I was at the
greenhouse every day, checking on the plants and making
adjustments," Foster said.
     The months of planning and hard work paid off. The UDBG
Friends' exhibit won first place in the flower show's
Entryway Class, and it took the silver cup from the
Pennsylvania Nurserymen's Association for best use of plant
materials.
     The UDBG Friends was one of three groups representing
the University this year in the Philadelphia Flower Show,
which annually attracts more than 300,000 visitors. Two
groups of plant and soil sciences department staff and
volunteers also competed.
     Soil testing lab technicians Kate Murray and Cathy
Olsen coordinated the design and creation of a sunny Mexican
garden, which took third place in the Garden Class category.
Billed as an American family's escape from the Minnesota
winter, the 22-foot, square display featured the vibrant
colors of bouganvillea, poinsettia, canna lilies and
nasturtiums before a backdrop of adobe walls.
     An exhibit by soil testing lab coordinator Karen
Gartley and Yvonne Sallade, Delaware '91, '96M, won second
place in the Miniature Settings category. The tiny display,
which depicted the demands of career and motherhood,
featured the workroom of a mother's home-based business
overlooking a child-friendly backyard.
                                            -Valerie Baddorf