While volunteering at the Huntington Library, I learned about the Stinky Plant. The entrance gates were wide open in the early morning of Tuesday which was different – When this well-known Corspe Flower blooms, it attracts many visitors. When I saw it it had not yet bloomed, but I heard that it will within the next couple days! Very soon!! One of my fellow volunteers told me that the Corpse Flower weighs 10lbs. without it’s flower; 30lbs. with it’s flower! That should give a perspective in how large it really is! Track it’s blooming status here.

During my time volunteering, I pruned back huge rose bushes in the Rose Garden located adjacent to the Tea Room and Herb Garden.  The taller roses needed some serious pruning and dead heading!  Me and Kathy, another volunteer, had to really get intimate with these rose bushes; we had to get up close to the taller shrubs to prune back the branches that held dead roses at the very top, and their thorns caught our clothes at every corner.  Randomly we would shout out “OUCH!”  I found myself saying, “Let me go!!” constantly.  These plants were pretty difficult to work with at first, but after going through an entire row of these tall rose varieties, we were pretty “comfortable” with them and overall we were proud of how hard we worked in 2-3 hours.