A Day to Honor Russ

Saturday we met Russ at 11 a.m. at the Petroleum Club in Lafayette for a meeting of the Louisiana Society for Horticultural Research (LSHR).  They were honoring their scholarship winners and Russ happened to be one of the two deserving recipients.  We were invited to a luncheon and to see him get recognized. Russ is a senior at LSU and will be graduating on May 12th.

His mother and I are proud of the hard-work and diligence he's exhibited.  I never even thought about applying for scholarships once I was already in college, but Russ did.  Each semester he would seek out scholarship opportunities, applying for them - and winning them.  He's worked for LSU's Dairy department, milking 80 Holstein cows to provide milk for the residence hall cafeterias as well as for sale to Borden's.  For the past several years, he's worked with a professor at LSU tending to sweet potato trial plots in Louisiana and many neighboring states, seeking to develop a new variety of sweet potato to help the sweet potato industry.

Seated at the far right of the head table below, is the guest speaker for the luncheon, Mr. Robert E. "Buddy" Lee.

Mr. Lee is from Independence, Louisiana and is one of the most respected plant breeders in North America.  He developed Encore Azaleas, the world's best-selling multi-season azaleas.  They bloom in spring, summer, and fall. You can learn more about them by clicking HERE.  Mr. Lee gave a fantastic talk, showing pictures of early work in the nursery, compared to today.  His speech was both informative and funny and really kept your interest. As you may be aware, I like growing things that you can eat!  Flowers and ornamental plants are things I don't have a lot of experience with, but it was interesting to listen to Mr. Lee talk with great passion about what he does.

At one point, he stated that everyone always wants to see his "research facility."  He showed a picture of what appeared to be a 16' x 8' greenhouse with trays of seed pots with simple shop lights hanging over them.  He stated that he likes to keep things small since he can effectively manage and control everything.  You can't argue with his success.  It was an inspiring story from a pioneer in the industry..

Russ was called to the podium and gave a short speech thanking the group for believing in him and awarding him the scholarship.  He was very well received by the horticulture professionals in attendance as well as the LSU professors.  They all had great things to say about him.

So obviously, we're Russ' parents and are very proud of him (and biased), but we know he's going to do great things in his field.  He's not even sure what exactly he's going to do upon graduation.  He hopes to find a job as a plant breeder or researcher for one of the nurseries in Forest Hill, Louisiana or for a landscape company in the Lake Charles or Lafayette area.  If Russ can find something that he is happy doing and looks forward to getting up each morning and pouring his energies into, the rest will take care of itself.  With his work ethic and smarts, he'll set the world on fire.  I just know it.