As part of the Fellows Program, our 2019–20 Fellows spent time at individual field placement sites around the globe. Here, they reflect on their time spent at their host organizations, and their lessons learned along the way

After patients expressed a desire to view local scenes during treatment, ChristianaCare hired NAPCO Video of Philadelphia to capture footage at Longwood Gardens to show to patients via VR while receiving chemotherapy.

Chris Thorogood invites you to engage with plants that have long captured his imagination, inspired his art, and shaped his career.

Now in its seventh year, a rousing discussion has always been a defining feature of our Community Read. But this year marks a few firsts, including our first science fiction selection by debut novelist Sue Burke.

For more than five years, Longwood Gardens has offered fun, interactive, free virtual programming to public and private schools around the world via our Virtual Field Trip program, improving science knowledge and introducing 10,000 students per year to the exciting possibilities of a career in horticulture.

The public garden community readily encourages their communities to engage with plants and the green spaces around them … the desire for this engagement is ever-present in our work.

At both Chanticleer and Barnes, there are no labels; there are no rules of how to experience or understand the subject, whether they are plant combinations in an artful landscape, paintings, or sculpture. There are no right or wrong interpretations.

For our latest salon, we traveled to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles … and host of professional and college football games, blockbuster stadium concerts, monster truck rallies, and more.

From Singapore to California and Shanghai to Arizona, hear from the Fellows as they detail the time spent at their host organizations, sharing lessons learned and memories made.

I had the absolute honor of sharing my thoughts on beauty and its role in protecting nature—our global garden—as a TEDxWilmington speaker.

PHS President Matt Rader, who has been in his role for three years now, led an inspiring salon focused on entering an organization as a new leader and discussed the importance of new leaders knowing their sector, assessing and understanding their organization, empowering their staff, and delivering outstanding quality to both the community and an organization’s supporters.

For the second-year Professional Horticulture students who have designed this year’s Student Exhibition Garden, inspiration comes in the form of seeds—their resiliency, their resulting dyes and textiles, their importance in food crops, and the symbolism of seeding and growing an interest in biological science.

For a librarian, managing images at Longwood Gardens is in the “dream job” category. Images are an essential tool for telling the Longwood story and sharing Longwood with the world. From beauty shots of seasonal displays to documentation of plumbers calibrating fountains to yearly Waterlily Display preparation, there is always something to photograph at Longwood. As Longwood’s digital resource manager, keeping up with the “fire hose” of images and delivering just the right images when they are needed is an exciting challenge … and every day is different!

Our tuition-free Professional Horticulture Program is as unique—and inspirational—as its students. Combining practical experience, coursework, hands-on projects, and study abroad travel, the two-year immersive program prepares students of varied interests and ages—high schoolers to career changers—for careers in horticulture through fun, active learning.

Dig into this year’s Community Read books, and you’ll unearth things you never knew about seeds. In Thor Hanson’s The Triumph of Seeds, you’ll learn about a date seed that sprouted after lying dormant for nearly 2,000 years; cotton seeds that traveled more than 500 miles by wind and wave to gain new ground in the Galapagos Islands; and wild primates who “shop the apothecary of the rainforest” for the healing powers of plants … and seeds.

During visits to regional gardens for salon-style discussions, the Longwood Fellows are given the opportunity to learn firsthand from experts in the field of public horticulture. Hosted by Delaware’s Mt. Cuba Center, this latest salon provided the Fellows with insight on human resources leadership and management.

This year at Longwood Gardens, it’s all about seeds. Few people have explored these marvels of form and function as closely—and as broadly—as Thor Hanson, award-winning author of our 2019 Community Read selection, The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History.

Chanticleer is a pleasure garden; its exuberant contemporary garden designs and architectural details created by skilled horticulturists and craftspeople delight the senses. During our recent Fellows salon, we learned that staff empowerment and engagement are the driving forces behind Chanticleer’s novel visitor experience.

The Fellows have enjoyed two salons in January; the first illustrating the importance of partnerships and the second focusing on the art of strategic planning.