Congratulations on your recent retirement! What are you looking forward to in this new life chapter?

I’ve just moved to a ‘new’ home 和 am busy working on it. Now that cooler temperatures are with us in Houston, 我一直在移动盆栽植物，并把旧花园中的植物分开来安置在我的新花园中. 现在我有更多的空间了, 所以我很高兴能清理草坪, 添加的花园床, 当我种植更多本地授粉植物时，用一些很棒的当地堆肥来改善土壤. 今年夏天, 作为一个志愿者, 我与安妮塔·蒂勒和美世植物中心(MBC)的实习生见面，去寻找种子 Asclepias冬青 在我附近的一个公园里. I just recorded my new garden as part of the Homegrown National Park, 该项目由Doug Tallamy教授设计，旨在展示家庭花园在支持植物和野生动物多样性方面对集体绿地的贡献.

When did you first fall in love with plants?

Growing up in Engl和, it is innate to feel connected to the outdoors 和 nature. We lived in a small town with plenty of green space, woods with bluebells 和 primroses in springtime, 还有树要爬. Some of the words I remember using as a child are 紫丁香 和 杜鹃, the botanical names for Lilac 和 Azalea. My Nana encouraged me to play in the garden 和 pick her tulips.

What was your career path to 美世植物园?

我以前是做会计的, then was laid off in one of the ‘leveraged buyouts’ that occurred during the 1980’s. 我看了看我的选择，知道我想做一些更有个人成就感的事情——我喜欢园艺. I started to volunteer at Mercer in the greenhouses on Saturdays, 在休斯敦社区大学园艺专业兼职，全职做两份工作. 我受雇于佩克伍德花园——现在的约翰·费尔雷花园是为了纪念它的创始人——约翰·费尔雷雇我做兼职，协助繁殖(主要是松柏类植物)和花园的种子分发项目. 我还在美世做志愿者, 哪一个离家更近, 和 I took a full-time position as gardener there in 1994. 在美世公司的27年里，我担任过温室经理、园艺师和志愿者协调员. When I retired, I enjoyed the position of botanical collections curator. 令人惊讶的是, my accounting background was very useful, 由于时间和数量是关键的温室操作，植物繁殖的种子.

在你的经验, 与德州稀有本土植物相关的迫切保护需求是什么?

Communication 和 education of the public is one pressing need, 因为德州大部分土地都是私有的. 开发人员的教育是另一个原因, since the population continues to exp和 dramatically in the Houston area. 我们在亚热带的泛滥平原, 我们欣赏的许多树木和自然区域仍在被清理和铺设. 让我抓狂的是，当我们有本地植物可供选择时，新的商业空间却被成排的女子菊灌木所包围.

Remove the word weed from so many common names of wild native plants! 我们需要更多有吸引力的术语来鼓励人们尝试在自家花园中种植本地植物作为观赏植物.

How did the effects of climate change impact your work at Mercer Botanical Gardens? What successes 和 challenges did you encounter?

With Mercer being adjacent to Cypress Creek, our challenges were definitely the floods. The winter of February 2021 was a shock to the system, but remarkably most plants came through strong! 极端总是一个问题. The successes are that we have become very well-prepared 和 resilient to the floods.

Better weather reporting contributes to MBC’s planning. 我们有一个完整的建筑发电机来保护稀有的冷藏/冷冻储存种子库. The MBC herbarium is housed on the second floor for safety, 和 the building is being secured with hurricane shutters.

美世最近获得了一笔赠款，将脆弱的保育苗圃从目前偏远的温室位置搬到MBC的“后院”, where plants will be easily accessible 和 above flooding potential. 2017年哈维飓风期间, 洪水将植物和苗圃漂浮在现有的苗圃区——尽管周围有10英尺的围栏! Most plants floated 和 settled to the ground when the water receded, 和 others were retrieved from the tree line further away. 幸运的是，我们没有失去一株植物.

在美世植物园工作期间，您最引以为豪的保护项目/行动是什么?

R.A. 藤本植物标本室是一个伟大的项目. Three staff with 20+ volunteers 和 interns moved a collection of ~50,2万份植物标本室标本. We boxed, froze, unboxed, filed, 和 refiled as names or families changed. 在两年多的时间里, we completed a basic digitized inventory of the collection for the first time. Hurricane Harvey made the project even more memorable. 我们不得不把我们的工作从被破坏的底层移到楼上，直到可以进行修复.

工作人员, 在我任职美世期间，志愿者和实习生完成了一些令人惊叹的工作，并将继续这样做. 最新的项目之一是与BRIT和全球菜园基因组计划(Global Genome Initiative for Gardens)合作, collecting living tissue 和 storing herbarium specimens at Mercer. Another is Mercer’s involvement with the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak. 就我个人而言, 我很高兴认识了25年多的志愿者，他们是工作之外的好朋友. The more folks we touch through gardening 和 nature, the word gets out to protect plants 和 biodiversity everywhere.

在2000年初, 安妮塔·蒂勒通过约翰逊瓢虫野花中心的迈克尔·伊森把千年种子银行(MSB)项目带给了美世公司. 迈克尔·伊森(Michael Eason)是《爱赢平台app》(Wildflowers of Texas)一书的作者，也是德克萨斯植物保护学家, 和圣安东尼奥植物园. 在那个时候, 作为一个志愿者, I 和 others accompanied Michael to East Texas for many seed collecting forays. 邱园的工作人员也加入了我们, 这给了我一个和珍妮特·特里在英国探亲度假时重新联系的绝佳机会. 我们在韦克赫斯特广场/邱园参观了MSB的幕后(或者应该说是地下), 一个真正的治疗!

What advice do you have for newcomers to the field of plant conservation?

I am excited by the enthusiastic young folks entering the field of plant conservation. 美世有一些很棒的实习生. 2020年COVID - 19大流行期间, 一位在家工作的实习生为HCP4草原黎明保护区设计了指示牌，并准备了一份草地指南. 与志趣相投的人、同事、志愿者、实习生和朋友一起工作是非常有益的. I love to to see that spark in someone new to plants, gardening 和 conservation.

和所有你能联系的人联系! 即使COVID, we attended fabulous online meetings to keep up to date on projects 和 meet new folks. 去年的回报之一就是看到更多的人带着他们的孩子回到户外学习园艺!

What has it meant to you to be a member of the CPC network? 中共如何支持你的工作?

能成为在同一领域工作的人们的网络中的一员，并看到他们的成功，这是令人兴奋的. CPC提供了分享爱赢平台繁殖的最佳实践和技术的机会.  Real-time information is increasingly available to everyone online, 和 we enjoy more collaboration among groups. 感谢中国共产党的参与和鼓励，以及MBC的其他项目, our needs have grown from one staff botanist to a full-time staff of four, with seasonal interns 和 over 20 volunteers.

你对想要了解如何拯救濒危植物物种的市民有什么建议?

我们需要介绍植物有多神奇，它们对地球上所有生命都至关重要. Plants provide the habitat that supports all the charismatic endangered wildlife. We are an integral part of nature, not just viewing it from the sidelines!

Get involved with local public gardens 和 look at their conservation programs. 在美世, 去濒危物种花园看看, 查阅爱赢平台app的指示标志和教育小册子.

In your home gardens, save some space for the wild to sneak in. 保持原生树木, 沟草坪, 保存叶, 学习植物, 植物的传粉者, 喂鸟, 并在近处拥抱荒野.