First Timer Meets Old Friends and Makes New Ones
BY JOHN BOGGAN
Why GWA? I’ ve asked myself that question several times since joining two years ago, even as I prepared to travel to the GWA conference in Atlanta. I’ m not a happy traveler and unless it’ s a family emergency, there has to be something pretty special to lure me away from home. The chance to tour great gardens and meet up with fellow gardeners seemed pretty special, so I overcame my aversion to travel and made arrangements to attend my first GWA conference.
I arrived in Atlanta with two goals: Meet people and have fun. The conference delivered well on both. In many ways, it was like a family gathering. One of the first people I ran into was Larry Hodgson, who I first met at the Gesneriad Society almost 30 years ago. I knew many other people from GWA regional gatherings, which made it easier to mingle and meet new people. There were also people I only knew from social media. One evening at dinner, I discovered that two of the women I was chatting with were Carol Michel and Dee Nash, bloggers I admired and respected. During the trade show and reception I met David Calle, a blogger who was one of the Gold Medal Award winners. When I checked out his blog, it put my own to shame. I found myself occasionally asking,“ Who am I? Why am I here?”
WRITING IS HARD WORK
One reason I joined GWA is that I’ m starting to think about retirement. I hope to“ retire” into a second career that’ s more horticulture-related than my current one, although I’ m not entirely certain what it might be. One tentative step in that direction has been my garden blog, DC Tropics. I happened to meet Kirk Ryan Brown at MANTS in Baltimore a couple of years ago, and when he heard I was a garden blogger, he told me I belonged in GWA. I asked him to sell me on it; Kirk is an awfully good salesman for the organization.
Blogging taught me that writing is hard work. Blogging can also be very solitary work. GWA has introduced me not just to fellow garden bloggers but also to professional writers. It reminded me that people are making a career of something that has been entirely a hobby for me— so far. I found myself telling others at the conference that I hadn’ t quit my day job. It was both inspiring and encouraging meeting people whose day job is garden writing.
The conference wasn’ t without its hitches,
GWA National Director Ken Brown( left), first-timer John Boggan and former GWA President Larry Hodgson chat about the conference.
but isn’ t this when you really get to know the people you’ re with? I was on the bus that got stuck, forcing us to miss the one garden I really wanted to see. We arrived at Gibbs Gardens too late to see anything of it, and just in time for more rain. Being both hungry and dehydrated, it took just two glasses of wine to become that guy who gets drunk at a party and starts spouting taxonomy. I was in fine form during the bus ride back to the hotel, and I can only hope my bus mates found my rants about classification and nomenclature entertaining!
FUN TRADITION Despite the hitches, I enjoyed myself with that family gathering feeling always just below the surface. Monday night, the awards dinner was followed by a party with karaoke. Karaoke? This is apparently a GWA tradition, and despite my low expectations, I found that several members can actually sing. But more than that, it was fun, and it was a great way to wrap up the conference.
And then it was Tuesday. Where had the rest of the conference gone? Weren’ t there seminars in there somewhere, receptions, garden tours? Wasn’ t there a trade show? How did all these plants end up in my hotel room? I suddenly had a new crapemyrtle cultivar with nearly black leaves and several plugs of a new and supposedly hardy gardenia cultivar from Mike Dirr. Wait, Mike Dirr? And it’ s Tuesday?( Tuesday was the hottest day, and I was a bit exhausted and overheated by then.)
Riding back to the hotel, chatting with somebody who had come all the way from Australia, it hit me: This is what I want to do. I didn’ t want to go back to work, not just because I was having a fun vacation, but because these people loved what they were doing, were passionate about their work, and I wanted to be one of these people. I think I want to quit my day job.
That’ s where GWA comes in, I hope. Retirement will start a new chapter in my life, much like college graduation, and the possibilities ahead of me are endless. Where do I go from here? I hope GWA will help show me the way.
John Boggan is a botanist, plant breeder and garden blogger( DC Tropics) in Washington, DC. He grows and writes about hardy palms, bananas, begonias, gesneriads and other plants that are tropical, exotic or unusual. Currently he is working on breeding hardy begonias.
PHOTO BY CAITLIN NORTON
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