First Week at the Polly Hill Arboretum and Martha's Vineyard

Despite the definite slow pace of Martha's Vineyard, the week has gone by in a blur. The island has no stop lights, the speed limits rarely go over 35, and many store owners are just now opening their shops for the coming season. Life is different at island-speed, but it is definitely a speed I don't mind abiding by.

The Polly Hill Arboretum is such a gem and is quiet as the spring slowly makes its way north. My first week as the new collections management intern has been a crash course in BGBase, the database program used to track all of the plants in the collection, and BGMaps, the mapping software used to electronically map the plantings. I also started a phenology chart for the Magnolias in the collection, meaning I monitoring which Magnolias are in flower and what stage they are at.

I've spent the time trying learn the plants in the collection, as well as familiarize myself with the native plants. Thankfully the flora of North Carolina's Coastal Plain is similar to Martha's Vineyard's sand plains area, and I learned some of them when I took my Local Flora class at N.C. State (and just to prove how small of a world it is, Bruce Sorrie, who is currently a famous botanist at the N.C. Natural Heritage Program also worked on the flora of Martha's Vineyard before he went to N.C.!).

It's really dark at night, so much so that you have to turn on your high beams to navigate the winding back roads (and avoid hitting the skunks). But, the lack of light pollution has allowed me to be able to see so many more stars than I've ever seen in my life.

About one third of the island is permanently conserved land, most of which is accessible to the public for walking and recreation. I can explore to my heart's content, whether it is going a few miles to a beach on the south side of the island, or out of the back door down a trail through The Nature Conservancy's property to see the young ospreys fly. In the eternal words of Devon, my roommate, "Life is good."

Finally at Martha's Vineyard!

It has been a long wait, but I have finally made it to Martha's Vineyard, MA, all safe and sound and ready to start my nine-month internship at the Polly Hill Arboretum. It was a two-day drive, covering more than 900 miles in my loaded-down Lumina. My mother and I took the mountain way, and I got a chance to see the sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

New England proved to be an interesting place, right from the start. The houses are different, the air is colder and things are just a tad more expensive. But it is beautiful, especially on Martha's Vineyard (Land Bank map). About one third of the land is permanently conserved on the island, so it has remained quite rural.

Below are my photos of my journey to the island and my first day on it:

Magnolia macrophylla 'Julian Hill'