Last Tuesday I walked into the Henry Hicks Learning Center, sharpened pencils in tow, for my first day of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County's Master Gardener program. I slapped on a name tag and looked around at the diverse group of smiling students entering the room. They ranged in age from what appeared to be their mid-30s to their 70s. Mostly women, but there were a handful of men among the forty or so enrollees as well.
After a nice welcome address from Ralph Tuthill, extension educator and director of the program -- who made me nervous with his assertion that the Nassau County program is the most difficult in the state -- we each were introduced by our assigned mentors, who phoned us over the summer to learn a bit about us. It was a nice touch, certainly preferable to having to introduce oneself.
Next, we were told what was expected of us: Attendance at weekly classes and field trips, completion of weekly homework assignments, weekly tests and a final exam at the end of the semester. In addition, optional extra credit assignments will be given as well.
With the formalities out of the way and coffee served (a first-day-only indulgence,) Gene Lanzaro, a retired school superintendent and a master gardener since 1999, began our first lesson, a lecture on the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. We learned some Latin, and some Greek, and how words are put together to give plants their scientific names. That's important because while common plant names may vary from country to country, region to region and even from person to person, botanical names are consistent internationally.
With my head spinning from trying to differentiate -oides from -aceae, I bid my classmates goodbye and headed home, being sure to grab that extra credit assignment on the way out.
