Before I tell you about my field trip to the gardens at Farmingdale State College, I want to tell you a bit about the guest lecturer and tour guide the class had at its disposal for six wonderful hours yesterday.
Richard Iversen, Ph.D. is a celebrated professor of ornamental horticulture at the school. He was awarded the Excellence in Teaching award at the college in 2006, and spent many years in Barbados, lecturing at the University of the West Indies and serving as director of Andromeda Botanic Gardens there. When he returned to the states, he brought with him unparalleled expertise in tropical horticulture.
At Farmingdale, he put that expertise straight to work, incorporating a tropical plant theme into much of the outdoor gardens there. While digging up those tender plants every year and moving them to the greenhouse to overwinter is quite a chore (some of those plants have 30-inch root balls!), his students reap some uncommon educational rewards -- and do most of the heavy lifting. Where else in New York can one learn first-hand the process of balling and burlapping a six foot tree fern?
After a classroom lecture on annuals, biennials and perennials (did you know impatiens aren’t annuals, but rather they’re treated as annuals in our area because they aren’t winter hardy? I didn’t), beds vs. borders and inflorescence, Dr. Iversen led the class out to the gardens.
There’s a secret gem hidden behind the wrought iron gates of Farmingdale State College on Route 110. 
The teaching gardens there rival many public botanic gardens I’ve visited, and they’re all maintained by students of the horticulture program for which Farmindale is renowned. (Graduates of the program include Vincent Simeone, director of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, and Maria Cinque, a lawn and garden expert and author who was one of the first female agricultural extension agents in the United States.) There are annual beds, mixed shrub borders, an ornamental grass garden, a beech hedge garden, a rose garden, herb garden, conservatory garden, and of course, a tropical garden, all maintained under the ever-watchful eye of Dr. Iversen, who strikes me as quite a stickler for perfection (and neatness, and efficiency.)
Dr. Iversen spoke enthusiastically about his gardens -- he has none at home but puts all his energy into the ones at the school – as he led the class on a grand tour. The man knew every single common name, genus, variety, cultivar, hybrid and epithet for every plant in every bed, every border, every garden. He could not be stumped. He spoke lovingly about Alternanthera ficoidea ‘Red Threads’, Tagetes patula ‘Disco Red’, Zinnia ‘Profusion Fire,’ and many of the other hundreds of varieties in the gardens, all the while instructing us – off the top of his head – on the origin, sun requirement, pest susceptibility, propagation method and growing cycle of each.
There was too much information to absorb in one day, to be sure, but what an eye-opening and entertaining journey.
While we Master Gardener trainees were fortunate to have an expertly guided tour, the gardens at Farmingdale are open to the public every day. Check it out while the weather is still nice. Or take a virtual tour right now -- http://www.farmingdale.edu/campuspages.business.horticulture/index.html.
