Plant Inventory Finished and Records Labels Arrive!

During the past month, I have been working on completing a thorough inventory of all the plants we have on the grounds.  As a museum with living collections, a botanic garden needs to not only record information about a plant upon its arrival but also continually evaluate the plant over time.  This is valuable not only because it allows us to know the current state of any of the plants in our collections, but also because we develop a history for each plant.  To give you an idea about what inventory entails, here is an example of a (completed) sheet I carry around with me to record information.  These sheets are created directly from our plant records database, BG-Base:

Once all the information is collected, I need to enter it into BG-Base, primarily into the "Plants" table of BG-Base.  Below are examples of some of the screens I work with when completing data entry:

^Location, number of plants, condition, flowering/fruiting stage and other notes go into this window of the Plants table.

^How complex the BG-Base window can get if I'm making edits across tables and performing queries, and yes, it's running on a Mac : )

BG-Base is a "relational" database, which means that there are many tables tied together so that data from one table can be displayed in fields of another.  While this is cool, it sure makes for a lot of work in terms of data entry and making sure the integrity of all the connections between tables are maintained whenever edits are made.  A large computer screen is definitely a BIG help.


On a related note, our records labels have finally arrived!  Records labels are a great help when it comes to keeping accurate track of the plants in our collections.  Each plant or mass of plants is a unique entity with all its information in our database, so it is crucial to accurately maintain this link, which is similar to the link our social security numbers provide from ourselves to information about us.  In both cases, if that link gets broken, it's bad news - the former being clearly far more serious a matter.  Our records labels include each plant's scientific Latin name, source, and accession number + qualifier - its "social security number."  This number allows me to double-check that the plant I'm looking at is the plant on my sheet I want to inventory and also acts as a key to access all the data we have for a given plant.  The labels are primarily useful to our Gardens' staff but horticulturists, botanists, serious gardeners and curious guests will all find them useful if they want to know more about a specific plant.  Here are a couple pictures of the glimmering labels (563 in total).  You can see parts of the stakes the labels are attached to in the second photo; they resemble a key chain ring attached to the top of a 6-inch metal stake.

Awesome, right?  Our table in the office reminded me of a drug-bust table with the lines and lines of these records labels I have out to be placed.  If plant labels ever became illegal, the authorities would certainly be able to put together an impressive presentation of all the labels they find after busting our notorious botanic garden operation.  I'll have to work on my buffness, though, if I'm to play the part of the bad dude behind the table with armed guards on either side.  With hopes that plant labels maintain legal status for the foreseeable future, I will be placing these labels by their corresponding plants over the next couple weeks - another big milestone in progress for our Botanic Gardens.


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

2011 APGA Conference in Philadelphia

Last week Joe, Ronnie and I headed to Philadelphia, PA for the annual American Public Gardens Association (APGA) Conference.  It was my first time attending an APGA Conference and also my first time in Philadelphia.  With over 600 registrants from institutions all over the U.S., there were plenty of people to meet and network with.  There were also plenty of presentations to attend in multiple fields including: Education, Leadership & Innovation, Marketing & Guest Experience, Horticulture, Volunteer Programs and Donors & Members.  In addition to presentations, there were also a number of optional tours of gardens in Greater Philadelphia.  The theme of the conference was "More" and for me, it lived up to the theme as there was MORE than enough of interest to choose from to fill up each day.  If anything, the theme was too good as there seemed to be no end to the usage of that one word and puns that could be played with it in the weeks leading up to the Conference (see previous sentence).  Indeed, it was almost MORE than I could handle!  The conference not only served as a great introduction to many aspects of public gardens but provided the opportunity to go more in-depth into areas of particular interest.  Below is an example of one of the round-table presentations:

I attended sessions about collections interpretation, augmented reality, marketing, surviving financially in tough economic times, providing visitors with excellent service, implementing a landscape consulting program, managing a volunteer program and sustaining collections in the face of adversity and change.  I particularly appreciated the opportunity to learn more about areas in which I have not had extensive experience, as the management of a botanic garden requires knowledge in a number of diverse disciplines.  In addition to attending presentations, Joe, Ronnie and I toured Bartram's Garden and Chanticleer, the latter being an especially exceptional garden in my opinion.  While there, we were fortunate enough to see one of the most spectacular flowering plants in full bloom - the rare hot-air-balloon-flower plant:

The Exhibits Hall at the Conference was a highlight for me; it allowed us to see some of the latest products/services being offered, try out these products first-hand and meet the people behind the products.  We have been looking into making our collections information available to our guests on their mobile devices, so we were especially interested in booths by Guide by Cell, GuideOne and BG-Map, each of which has something to offer in this arena.  ESRI also had an exciting program called the Public Garden Data Model on display, which bridges the gap between ESRI's mapping software and BG-Base, providing a much-desired connection between the two.  A parade of clearly lost festively-clad musicians accidentally found its way into the Exhibit Hall and livened up the atmosphere before being redirected to the annual Festively-clad Parading Musicians Conference, which was next door:

Overall, it was an excellent experience that has given us many ideas, valuable networking and helpful advice as we continue to lay the groundwork for the Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai during its first official year.


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director
(Photo Credits - APGA)

A Wonderful Week

From Monday to Thursday of this past week, we were fortunate enough to have Mike O'Neal, the Director of BG-Base, Inc., here at Kona Kai.  He helped us tailor the BG-Base database (which will hold all the records relating to the plants in our collections) to our Gardens and also went over everything we wanted to know about the program and how we can use it both today and looking towards the future.  I learned a great deal and it was fantastic to finally be able to meet and hang out with Mike, who is a great guy, extremely knowledgeable, a lot of fun to be around, and an excellent table tennis player.

In other news, Joe, Ronnie, Veronika, Tracey, and I went up to The Kampong yesterday for an ethnobotanical symposium focusing on Rumphius' Ambonese Herbal (17th century) and its recently-completed translation by the late Dr. Monty Beekman.  Rumphius' Herbal is an incredible 6-volume work, a good part of which he had to re-do because of a fire that occurred while he was doing his research on Ambon Island.  Now, I think it's the end of the world if I lose work that has taken me even only a day to do; I cannot imagine losing years and years of work in a single day, then having the perseverance to re-do it all.  Did I mention he was blind when he lost his work to the fire?  Wow, talk about dedication.  Even despite his blindness, he completed his Herbal in the end, and we have it with us today as an incredible ethnobotanical resource.

To relate my experience at the conference to a current event, I felt much like a big-time NFL fan would feel if he/she was given the opportunity to be down on the sidelines during the Super Bowl.  I was able to shake hands and talk with individuals in the fields of Ethnobotany, Horticulture, Botany, and Anthropology whose work, knowledge, and accomplishments I greatly respect and admire, such as Peter Raven, Paul Cox, Patrick Griffith, Paul Groff, David Jones, Brad Bennett, and Michael Dove...and these were only the people I was able to meet.  There were many other reputable individuals there whom I would have loved to have interacted with, but unfortunately, there just wasn't enough time.  Oh well, we might just have to look into organizing a few ethnobotanical "Super Bowls" at Kona Kai so I can do just that.

Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

A Bizarre Dream

Not to say that installing BG-Base isn’t totally awesome and full of action/adventure in real life, but in my dream last night it was a huge ordeal involving representatives (some good, some evil) from a variety of organizations, many miles of traveling (in cars, planes, and helicopters) to get BG-Base to its destination, and no shortage of action and suspense in doing so.  New movie idea?  Title ideas welcome...

Rick Hederstrom

Associate Director

A Great Start

Still getting settled in here at Kona Kai.  We loaded BG-Base on my new 27” iMac using Parallels and Windows 7 Pro and some phone assistance from Mike O’Neal of BG-Base.  It’s pretty awesome running BG-Base on the iMac…you really can have your cake and eat it, too!

For lunch Joe and I went to Ballyhoo’s (a restaurant right across the street) for their Tuesday special – homemade meatloaf with green beans and mashed potatoes - which was great; reminded me of good meals back home in Ohio.  For dessert, I sampled their Key lime pie, which was fantastic.  It was the first time I had a real piece of Key lime pie, so it was quite an occasion!


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director