Horticulturists beautify USC's campus during the spring season
A stroll down the Horseshoe and high temperatures prove it's spring in Columbia and with plants in full bloom with vibrant buds of all shades — except for orange, of course — the Horseshoe is a place where students spend their free time.
Horticulturists Charlie Ryan, Britney Ellisor and Ginger Adams have all been enticed back to the university by the opportunity of maintaining the flora on the Horseshoe.
"I've been in my current position for about a year and a half, but I actually worked here 18 years ago," Ryan said while planting red and white impatiens in the flower beds in front of the President's House. "I left to work at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden, and later I worked at Moore Farms for Darla Moore, as well as at some retail nurseries. Then I came back here. It will be 30 years since I first started working here on May 15."
Ellisor, a Columbia native, first left the area for Spartanburg Community College to pursue her associate degree in horticulture.
"I came back because I was homesick, and I found the horticulture program at Midlands Tech because, unfortunately, USC doesn't have any horticulture programs," Ellisor said. "I had worked with Charlie before, and when he told me there was an opening at USC, I took it immediately."
Like Ryan, Adams had also been a part of the USC landscaping team earlier, before retiring.
"I came back after about a year. Retirement just wasn't for me," Adams said.
Adams had previously worked for USC and the Statehouse, where she propagated plants and planted the grounds.
The trio, all of whom named the Horseshoe as one of their favorite places to work, were replanting the flower beds in front of the President's House on Wednesday. Ryan tries to incorporate either traditional or more innovative styles depending upon which parts of the house's grounds are being landscaped.
"We try to keep things more traditional at the front of the house to match the architecture and the period of the Horseshoe, but in the back I'm trying to do things a little more outstanding as far as foliage and different colors," Ryan said. He has also helped with First Lady Patricia Moore-Pastides' vegetable garden.
At all spots on the house's grounds, Ryan has to abide by one rule, however.
"One big thing we cannot do is use any orange flowers here at the house," Ryan said with a laugh. "Mrs. Moore-Pastides is very adamant about having no orange, so I don't even wear anything orange when I go to work, because I did go to Clemson."
While they enjoy working on the Horseshoe, Ryan and his co-workers look to
bring color to all ends of campus within the next few years.
"Our idea was to spread out from here and go out around campus with more color," Ryan said. "When you go over to where Bates is, there's no color at all, so eventually I'd like to get over that way and incorporate some of our plantings over there."
They have already spread down to central campus, planting daffodil bulbs around the Honors Residence Hall.
"We're just taking little areas one piece at a time and trying to make them look better," Ryan said.
Ryan, Ellisor and Adams are looking forward to brightening up all corners of USC's campus.
"I enjoy the university; it's a wonderful place," Adams said. "Anything that I can do to liven it up is great."