New Fellows Gardens director gains experience on Costa Rica trip

YOUNGSTOWN

Poisonous snakes, cloud forests, and orchids that blossom 40 feet above the ground.

These are just a few of the sights Mill Creek MetroParks Gardens Director Andrew Pratt experienced during a recent trip to Costa Rica.

Pratt, who took over leadership of Fellows Riverside Gardens in February, went on the 10-day excursion in July as field work for the graduate degree in biology that he’s pursuing. The Garden Club of America’s Katharine M. Grosscup Scholarship in Horticulture, for which Pratt went through a rigorous application process, covered the cost.

The trip was an immersive learning experience for Pratt, and one that he believes will inform his direction of the Gardens, particularly the annual orchid exhibit.

“It was amazing,” he said. “The one thing that struck me about the country and my experience there, is the diversity. The complexity of the forest there. I can’t even formulate it in words. Everywhere you turn, there’s a new species, a new plant, a new animal, a new orchid.”

Read more about his experiences in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.