A week in the garden.

People assume photojournalists only crave spot news and sports assignments.  My past week, was mostly garden related and it was quite delightful, especially when there was a brutal day at a homicide trial. 

Monday started off with the “Leashes at Lauritzen” an after-hours event at the Lauritzen Botanical Gardens in Omaha that encourages people to bring their dogs to walk their grounds.  

Christine Cruwe leads Packer through Lauritzen Gardens on Monday. 

In the classes I teach at Creighton, I often emphasize taking that are “wide, medium and tight.”  For this assignment wasn’t just about adorable dogs, but the fact they were in a place that they usually are not allowed.  So I needed a wide photo that placed the dogs at the gardens.  If you have never been, let me tell you that place is gorgeous and I felt the pressure of trying to show the beauty with the dogs all in one photo. I’ll be honest I wasn’t thrilled with my results, with my best opportunity being ruined by an empty tram that cut through the background.  Maybe it was because it was a Monday, but the whole day I felt a step late and 1/100th of a second short.

Thursday there was another all-call to the staff to photograph garden bugs for a story.  They were specifically seeking gnats, chiggers, June bugs, and painted lady butterflies.  The butterflies were everywhere, but I am not well versed in Entomology, and I had realized that some of the butterflies I had made beautiful images of might be the wrong kind.  A journalist’s reputation is staked on his or her accuracy, and that day, my livelihood depended on butterfly identification.  I can now tell the difference between a red admiral and a painted lady.

I can tell the difference between the red admiral and painted lady butterflies, can you?

Also on Thursday, I visited with Kent Pavelka, a name, and voice familiar to most Nebraskans.  Known mainly for his radio broadcasts of Husker sports, he has recently built a wonderful shade garden.  On a hot summer day, it was a great place to do a photo shoot.  

Kent Pavelka’s shade garden is built under a pine tree that died.

One thing that was in the back of my mind the whole week was the titan arum, aka the corpse flower, aka the Amazing Stinko.  These flowers bloom every 17 years and smell like rotting flesh.  This particular one bloomed two years ago, much to the garden’s surprise started to bloom again.  

This is only the second time this flower has blossomed in the state of Nebraska.  I had told the Lauritzen that I wanted to take the photos and after days of waiting, I got a text before 7 am on Sunday that it has started to open.   One thing about I love about my job is to bear witness to history, even if it is plant history.  When I started walking to the conservatory, I could smell the flower outside. It is truly amazing to see; it is taller than me.  They let me touch it; it was generating heat and was very warm to the touch.  Also, that smell….everyone has their own description, but marketing at the gardens said it would eventually smell like a house full of dead mice.


I am curious how she knows what that smells like.