Sep 2, 2005

HRI Awards Bigelow ScholarshipSource: ANLA

The Horticultural Research Institute (HRI), the research division of the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA), has awarded the 2005 Timothy Bigelow and Palmer W. Bigelow, Jr. Scholarship in the amount of $2,500 to Meghan Gallagher.

Meghan Gallagher is a senior at the University of Rhode Island – Kingston, R.I., where she is majoring in environmental horticulture. She learned the fundamentals of running a nursery while working with Susan Gordon of Kinney Azalea Garden in Kingston, R.I. Gallagher worked as a Coastal Fellow in URI Botanical Gardens, part of the URI Cooperative Extension Center.

The fellowship brought her attention to alternative methods for pesticide use and sustainable landscapes. Gallagher’s goal as a horticulturist is to organically grow herbs and produce for the local consumer. Along with her studies, she holds three part-time jobs to put herself through school. She hopes to study abroad in New Zealand at Massey University in the spring of 2006.

The Bigelow Scholarship was created in 1988 by the Palmer W. Bigelow family of Bigelow Nurseries in Northboro, Mass., to aid students from New England who seek a career in horticulture. The scholarship is dedicated to one of the family’s children, the late Timothy Bigelow and to Palmer W. “Bill” Bigelow, who died in 1997. The Bigelow family considers student scholarships the most important commitment that the horticultural industry can make to ensure the growth and development of the nursery and landscape industry.

Scholarship applicants must be enrolled full time in a horticulture or related program and must be residents of New England. Those interested in applying should visit the HRI website at www.anla.org/research.