Water garden curator Joe Tomocik plants waterlilies with the interns

It is no secret in horticulture and gardening that plants need water and who knows this better than  Joe Tomocik, curator of water gardens, whose waterlilies hardly spend a day out of it.

Once the threat of frost subsided, the empty water beds throughout the garden beg for some flair, and Joe knows just the trick. Calling upon the intern staff to help him out early one morning, he layed in front of us a large bag of waterlilies, some containers of varying sizes (from which we must choose wisely), a pile of clay soil, and told us to have at it.

The interns, ready to go. 

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For the birds

One quiet afternoon recently, I took a walk in the garden and discovered how popular it was with the local birds.  Many rested in high branches but others accepted my presence at roughly eye level.  It doesn’t mean they posed for the camera. I certainly needed the practice try to catch moving targets.

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