Education Spotlight Gardens Continues its Focus on Pollinators By Dr. Ann Fleener, Director of Education
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t the Gardens we are passionate about the natural world. One of the areas we’ve focused in recent years is pollinator conservation. In 2016 we added pollinator garden beds to our Children’s Garden and we installed our Oklahoma Prairie Garden. Both of these areas are huge attractants for wildlife. On any given summer day you can walk out to the Prairie Garden, stand among the abundance of grasses and flowers, and listen to the sounds of nature. Cicadas, crickets and many other beneficial insects are singing their summer songs and it is glorious. Among the many beneficial insects who flock to these spaces are pollinators: hummingbirds, bees, wasps, and butterflies, including the Monarch butterfly. We recently took the next step in focusing on pollinators, certifying these two spaces as Monarch Waystations through Monarch Watch. Monarch Watch is an organization focused on researching, conserving and educating the public
about the Monarch Butterfly. Certifying a space as a Monarch Waystation is fairly simple, and is open to organizations, homeowners, and public spaces. During the certification process you are asked a Ann Fleener series of questions ensuring your space provides the ingredients needed for a Monarch habitat: shelter, host and nectar plants and sustainable practices. The next step we will be taking is in tagging Monarchs as they come through on their fall flight. Tagging Monarchs helps with the gathering of data about the Monarch’s flight pattern, how weather influences them and possible contributions to the Monarch decline. In gathering this data, we increase our chances of reversing the decline. For more information on Monarch Watch visit their website monarchwatch.org.
OSU-OKC Floral Design Students Win Scholarship to Prestigious Floral Design School
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n May of this year the Myriad Gardens hosted the Art of Flowers, with one of our most fascinating speakers yet, Dundee Butcher, founder and owner of Russian River Flowers in Napa, CA. Dundee trained with some of the most celebrated floral schools and companies in London, including McQueen’s Flowers, Jane Packer Flowers and the Academy of Flowers in Covent Garden. During this time, Dundee arranged flowers for everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to the Queen. She did all this as a forty-something mother with a busy family life.
Photo by Doug Hoke
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worked with OSU-OKC’s school of horticulture and her own partner at Russian River School to underwrite costs for these students to attend a week-long Russian River floral design school.
Hilary, KJ & Chelsea attended the flower school at the end of September which was a special collaboration between Russian River School and McQueens Flower School in England. The week was an intensive introduction to traditional English floral design. Hilary Clark said that she was thrilled to When Dundee spoke in May, attend the school and finds Dundee’s creativity three floral design students and business acumen from OSU-OKC were in OSU-OKC floral design students Hilary Clark, KJ inspiring. Hilary is a attendance. Hilary Clark, KJ mother of young children, Kane and Chelsea Hughes were Kane and Chelsea Hughes with Dundee Butcher. just as Dundee was when thrilled to be invited to the Art of Flowers to hear from an inspiring leader in the she began her career, and she is honored that Dundee saw enough in each of them to offer floral design industry. Little did they know that them for this amazing learning opportunity. Dundee would see something in each of them that got her thinking. Following her talk, Dundee
