Games in the garden: Hospital horticulturalists compete to sharpen their skills
An annual competition at Pennsylvania Hospital helps the Grounds team strengthen their skills and refresh their horticultural knowledge.
The Grounds Team at Pennsylvania Hospital has a mission to “put smiles on faces” through their work beautifying and maintaining the 12.5 acres of greenery surrounding the nation’s oldest hospital. To ensure they are providing the best possible care for the hospital’s 10 gardens with 25 unique types of flowers and 45 tree species—some more than a century old—the team holds an annual competition called the Captain Grounds Tournament to strengthen their skills and refresh their horticultural knowledge.
“Although we go over this information while we work, and when we attend seminars, I find the best way for the team to retain and reinforce the information is through games,” said lead horticulturalist Dan Bangert. Throughout the day, when a team member lost a point for incorrectly answering a question, a common response would follow: “Now I’ll never forget that!”