Sowing rare plants

From Steve, one of the propagation-nursery interns sponsored by the Friends:

My first month at the Jerusalem Botanic Garden has flown by. Now that I’ve got familiar with the day-to-day in the nursery, I’ve started to make progress with Almog, my Israeli co-worker in the Rare Plants Project. Together we have sown over two hundred rare or endangered plants of Israel. Now starts the big task of pricking out, potting up and waiting to collect seeds.

Photo:  S Zelno

I’ve also been given the opportunity to do some curatorial work with the Gardens’ Geophytes collection— a passion of mine that I expressed interest in working with. Together with the curators, I am working on creating new labels and indexing almost the entire collection— a great way to learn some new plants.

I’ve also joined the English-speaking garden club. Every Thursday morning we meet for a lecture, activity, or field trip. Last Thursday we traveled to the outskirts of Ein Kerem to see a traditionally-run orchard of heirloom fruit and olive trees on ancient terraces. It was great to step out of the garden and see millennial-old cultural landscapes still preserved.

Ein Kerem terraces.  Photo:  S. Zelno

Looking forward to what my second month brings.