Horticulture Education and Training
Former Interns...Where are they now?
Jason Delaney
Senior Outdoor Horticulturist - Bulb Expert
11 years at Missouri Botanical Garden
MBG Hort Intern - Summer of 1995
As an intern I was exposed to and partook of a wide array of work and responsiblities which are absolutely vital to maintaining such an institution. The hands-on approach to learning was, for me, the most beneficial and educational tool utilized within the internship program.
The most invaluable asset of my internship was exposure to a kaleidoscope of fellow plant-o-philes, colorful and eclectic individuals who not only shared my love for plants but also abounded with tips, secrets, and general rules for how to become a great plantsman, as well as a well-rounded Saint Louisan.
Those people, fellow employees, teachers and mentors, have become some of the greatest friends one could ask for. Those friends comprise the most 'highlighted' memory of my internship. (Especially my fellow 'alumns'. What a summer, indeed!)
Now, eleven years later, as Senior Outdoor Horticulturist at the Missouri Botanical Garden, I am responsible for collections in the daylily, iris, rock, dwarf conifer, bulb, and (new) Ottoman gardens. I also supervise twenty-five volunteers representing four local and national plant societies.
I frequently travel, including past missions to the Republic of Georgia, England, Canada, Taiwan, and China representing the Garden through plant collecting expeditions, lecturing, and symposia. I've been featured in Reader's Digest, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Midwest Living, Country Living, American Home Style and Garden, and Rebecca's Garden magazines, and in Ortho Guides, Timber Press, and HGTV publications for professional work with bulbs. I am frequently featured in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch and have twice been a guest on Show-Me Saint Louis.
Outside the Garden, yet still within the horticultural realm, I served for two terms on the Board of Directors of the American Daffodil Society, having served as Regional Director for two years, and as Chairman for the 51st annual national convention held in Saint Louis in April of 2005. I am a past two-term President of the Greater Saint Louis Daffodil Society, past two-term Vice President of the West County Daylily Society, and former board member of the Mid-American Regional Lily Society.
I operate PHS, a small company specializing in estate garden design and maintenance, as well as plant breeding and evaluation, and maintain a personal collection of two and one-half acres of over two thousand cultivars of daffodils, primarily for breeding, evaluation, and commercial production.
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