Missouri Botanical Garden

Horticulture Education and Training


Former Interns...Where are they now?

Brian Wrather

Horticulturist II
6 years at Missouri Botanical Garden
before moving on

MBG Hort Intern - Summer of 1997

While working towards my B.S. degree in Horticulture at Southwest Missouri State University, one requirement I had to fulfill was to take part in an internship. Many other students worked at nurseries, golf courses, or garden centers. I applied and was accepted to participate in the horticulture summer internship program at MBG. I felt the Garden encompassed all of the other fields into one. The Garden offers such a wealth of diversity, professional expertise, and displays the newest and best plant material for our climate. The internship was an opportunity I couldn't afford to pass up.

As an intern I worked along side the horticulture staff on a 1-2 week rotation that enabled me to gain experience with different garden concepts. With each garden came new plants such as the bulb garden with spring, summer and fall bulbs, the English Woodland Garden with plants that thrive in shady places, the Kemper Center with great home gardening ideas such as containers, baskets, and fruits and vegetable gardening, the Rose Gardens offered every type and color of rose and have won many awards over the years. The Japanese Garden has many types of flowering trees and shrubs and the Production Greenhouse is where all the sowing and transplanting takes place. As an intern I got a chance to work in the conservatories too, the Linnean House, the Temperate House, and the Climatron, all featuring plants from Asia, the Mediterranean and the world's rainforests.

All the interns went on field trips during the program. We visited other botanical gardens, arboretums, and flower trials. We attended horticulture staff meetings and Garden-wide staff meetings. We were each assigned a project to develop and complete for MBG before we went back to school. This is just a small glimpse of the kind of education, training, and other opportunities available to interns here, not to mention the great staff I got to meet and work with that made my internship an excellent experience. After completing the certified internship program here in 1997, I was hired in 1998 to work in Horticulture as a Gardener on the turf crew. My next step was as a Horticulturist level I at the Kemper Center for Home Gardening for a few years. My last position was as Horticulturist level II, maintaining areas in the north part of the Garden. Plant the green side up!

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