I Lost on Jeopardy

The Opening Reception at the conference is always a great time. Seeing many friends that I haven't seen in a year is always a real treat. The requisite food and drink is a bonus.

This year the Opening Reception sees the return of Plant Jeopardy. Teams from each of the host committee institutions will defend the honor of their respective garden. And with Scot Medbury playing the role of Alex Trebek, it should be a quick moving, enjoyable game.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that the team from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden will trounce the competition. Bart O'Brien and Lucinda McDade make up team RSABG, and should easily dispatch the teams from Descanso Gardens, LA County Arboretum, and The Huntington Botanical Gardens.

The contest is always a good time. Be sure to stick around for the fun and competition before hitting downtown Pasadena for dinner.

The Curtain Goes Up

The planning is all done. Workshops and tours took off today. Everyone else arrives tomorrow. APGA 2008--The Big Picture is FINALLY here! Hopefully your travels to Pasadena were safe and uneventful. I look forward to catching up with so many of you, and connecting with those of you I have yet to meet.

Welcome to Southern California.

Traffic Troubles

The last time APGA (then AABGA) was held in Southern California, one celebrity really messed things up, causing massive traffic jams and making conference tours late. To relive the nightmare if you were there, or just experience it as you did the first time it happened, check out the video.




We can't guarantee that a celebrity is not going to mess things up again--this is Hollywood after all. But it looks like it's going to be a great conference no matter what happens.

It's Getting Hot Out Here!

If you're reading this post today (6/20) and you glance over to the weather gadget, you'll notice that on Saturday it's supposed to be 105! That's right, 105 degrees F! It doesn't matter how dry a heat that is, it's still HOT. And for Pasadena, which normally has slightly more moderate temperatures than the valleys or further inland, it's really hot. Thankfully, we should be seeing temperatures drop into the mid-80s by Monday...just in time for the kick-off of the conference. As many of the meals, and certainly the host garden tours are going to be outside, make sure to pack your wide-brimmed hat and plenty of sunscreen so you will remain comfortable. See you in a couple days!

Across the Universe

I hope you had a chance to go though the latest issue of Public Garden magazine--the Green Leadership issue. There's a terrific interview with the keynote speaker for the conference, Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In the interview Dr. Elachi says

We make heroes of sports and entertainment personalities. Yet I have heard that more people go to museums each year than sporting events. We need to showcase the positive things that scientists and botanists do. We need to make the plants the star of the show. I used to take my daughters to Huntington Botanical Gardens to see how amazing it is to watch a flower bloom, and understand why it is pink or any other color. The media should cover the discovery of new plants species like they do the World Series.

I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Elachi. I can't help but think, with all of the media attention that NASA is getting with the Phoenix Mars lander, how different the NASA budget would be if they hadn't started focusing on PR and marketing to get the American people interested in what they were doing. I wonder how different the world would be, our gardens would be, the global climate change discussion would be, if indeed the description of new plants species were to garner even a small amount of media attention that sporting events, NASA, and misbehaving celebrities get these days.

I'm really looking forward to Dr. Elachi's talk.