Seeds : Newsletter for Alumni of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech : 2012

Greetings all alumni and friends! As always, it has been a very busy year around Saunders Hall. A whirlwind tour of this past year begins with our seventh annual Garden Gala festival at the Hahn Horticulture Garden last June. The “Lucky Seven” theme was very popular and everyone had a great time playing the Las Vegas-style games of chance. This year’s Garden Gala is June 9 and the theme is “Key West.” Last summer, Donna Long retired from her administrative assistant position after a career of making a real difference in the lives of our students. Maura Wood moved into the position vacated by Donna and Ashley Wills was hired to fill Maura’s former position. Fall semester began with a first-ever (at least in recent memory) meeting of all undergraduate students, where we explained our new curriculum and our overall departmental culture of service and scholarship. All students were given a horticulture T-shirt and a drawing was held for a new iPad, generously donated by Steve and Juanita Grigg of Grigg Designs in Manassas. The fall highlight was the trip led by Robert McDuffie to garden centers and botanical gardens in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. The group even attended a Broadway musical! In October, we celebrated the life of our first department head, William Bradford Alwood.