Gardens seed horticultural skills

KENNETT SQUARE, Pennsylvania - Growing the "thousand bloom mum" - a showstopper at Longwood Gardens' fall Chrysanthemum Festival - takes 18 months and thousands of worker hours. In the week before the annual event, at least six people work full time to prep the plant.

But with fewer young people choosing careers in horticulture, Longwood is working to ensure that the effort and expertise that goes into growing this Japanese specialty plant is preserved for future generations. Three college students are documenting how to successfully raise a thousand bloom mum by creating a video archive that can be used to teach future generations of horticulturists and also spark interest in the field.

"The younger generation can't see the reward of doing this," says Jim Harbage, floriculture leader at the 405-hectare garden and education center in Kennett Square, about 56 kilometers west of Philadelphia. "It's not enough to have a sense of pride. It's not something that pays a lot of money."