Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum opens its stone and wrought-iron front gate for the season at 10 a.m. this Saturday, March 30, welcoming visitors for the first time this year. Though the …
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Dan Christina manages the menagerie at Green Animals.
Julie Zack
Newport Life
The old adage “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is an unattainable dream for most people. To Dan Christina, chief horticulturist at Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, it’s a reality.
“For a long time, I haven’t really thought of this as work,” he says. “I’m getting to create, I’m getting to cultivate a wide variety of plants and life. And that’s pretty exciting.”
Christina, a Bristol native, began his botanical journey as a child by pulling weeds in neighbors’ yards, then followed that with a degree in urban horticulture and turf management from the University of Rhode Island. He went on to serve as the assistant groundskeeper at Blithewold in Bristol for 10 years before settling in at Green Animals six years ago.