Horticultural interns will receive practical, hands-on experience in all phases of ground maintenance, landscape design, plant identification, and invasive species removal. General duties will include planting, pruning, and watering, weeding, mulching, collections management and garden renovation. This is a paid internship. 

Responsibilities/Duties:

• Perform planting, transplanting, watering, fertilizing, spraying, pruning, and trimming of valuable, rare, or specialized trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers.
• Identifying, supervising, or otherwise handling the removal of invasive species.
• Inspecting the operating area to identify potential safety hazards, needs for skilled maintenance, landscaping requirements, litter control, refuse removal, etc.
• Curating outdoor herbaceous and woody plant collections; identifying plant growth, nutritional, insect and disease problems; taking appropriate corrective and remedial action; consulting as needed with supervisors
• Selectively pruning plants to correct structural defects, thinning excessive growth within the plant's framework, and removing portions of the plant damaged by disease, storm, or insects to retain or restore the natural form of the plant.
• Performing the appropriate soil preparation and planting of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees; performing seasonal landscaping work including planting, pruning, clean-up, bulb planting, dividing, transplanting, and leaf removal.
• Operating and maintaining hand and portable power tools and motorized equipment such as mowers, tractors, sprayers, saws, tillers, etc.
• Supervising volunteers in the care of plant materials; providing for materials and supplies in support of this work
• Answering questions for park visitors about horticulture, history, design, and general park information
• Operating motor vehicles as required in the performance of duties.
• Loading and unloading materials, tools and equipment of varying weights and sizes, as needed, in the performance of duties assigned.
• Performing routine manual maintenance tasks required to develop, maintain, and repair associated plantings, buildings and equipment.
• Maintaining equipment and supplies properly and ensuring they are stored safely.
• Maintaining grounds and structures as needed.
• Performing other related duties as required.

Qualifications/Requirements: 

• Interest in plants and horticulture
• 18 years or older
• Valid drivers licence 
• Experience with or willingness to learn; power tool operation and park maintenance machinery such as ride on mowers