Activities of a greenhouse volunteer

I was assigned to volunteer on Thursdays, from 10 am to 1 pm. I have been able to take blocks of time off from the schedule for traveling, particularly during the winter season.

All year I’ve been working closely with a PhD candidate, and undergrad students, along with the greenhouse assistant director who formerly managed landscaping for a local municipality.

Generally, my duties have included weeding, repotting, sweeping, preparing potting mix, etc. I have been allowed to collect and plant seeds in trays, and to transfer small seedlings to larger containers.

On 9/1/2022 I transplanted a euphorbia in room D4 (Diverse Desert), and cleaned and pruned trees and shrubs in room D2 (Mediterranean Scrubland, Australia).

The assistant director has produced a handy list of duties which generally take 15 to 30 minutes to complete. If I'm at a loss for tasks, I can always go to the posted list and find something to do.

In the first year, highlight plants have been:

Cacti native to Minnesota (south east quad)
Cacti and other desert plants, repotting in room C4
Brighamia insignis, native to Hawaii (I pollinated the flowers, then collected the seeds, then transplanted the seedlings to a new plant tray)
Nesocodon mauritianus seedling transplantation
Corpse flower blooming
Vanilla vine, repositioning, blossoming

Comments

A Sensitive Plant and Common Weed

Mimosa pudica, also commonly called the sensitive plant was a popular houseplant when I was growing up in the 1970s. It was popular for its ability to quicky change shape by folding up its leaves to protect them from herbivore predators. At the slightest touch the plant is able to expell water from special cells in the leaves, changing the shape from frond-like to a stick-form. The plant creeps along the ground, never for than a foot or so in height. In tropical parts of the world this plant is considered and invasive weed. Today, as I was treating plants to remove pests I happened to touch the leaves of a Mimosa pudica , one with a pretty puff-like flower. Sure enough, the leaves all folded up to almost nothing. Mimosa pudica , the sensitive plant Other more routine chores during my four-hour shift at the U of M Conservatory included cleaning three plants of Hibiscus clayi, native to Hawaii. These three plants in particular have suffered repeated infestations with a variety of in...

Bog Monsters

As a layman of botany the idea of carnivorous plants has perplexed me. The capturing and eating of other creatures seems like it ought to be limited to animals, since animals are mobile and plants are not. Almost all plants survive and thrive in the world through photosynthesis. They do not need to feed on animals to survive. But, what about the group of plants that are carnivorous? As stationary plants, why and how do they eat critters? This topic was stimulated by my assignment today at the Conservatory Greenhouse of the University of Minnesota. My task was to clean several large tanks of water filled with aquatic plants. While cleaning the tanks I realized many of the plants were classified as carnivorous . What is it about the aquatic environment that causes plants to eat - in effect - other creatures? The short answer is carnivorous plants evolved in nutrient-poor settings such as pond water which is naturally low in the amount of nitrogen needed to synthesize proteins. To compens...

Rebuilding the support for vanilla vines

Raining in February The morning began with a walk in the rain from my car to the Conservatory greenhouses - in the month of February. According to the calendar, we should be in the depths of winter. The precipitation today should be snow not rain. The storm system that we're experiencing is probably related to drenching rains moving inland from the west coast. I met Coordinator A... at the door of the Conservatory. His office desk faces one of the main doors to the building. He cannot escape observing everyone who enters...poor guy, it must be distracting for him. Anyway, as soon as I entered the building we started to discuss his plan for my activity of the morning. He offered me the project of rebuilding the support for vanilla vines which have been suffering from overexposure to sunlight and dry air. A bit of background The vanilla plant (Vanilla planifolia) is in the orchid family. It is native to Central America and Mexico. The seed pods were used by the Aztecs to flavor coc...

City Gardener

Search This Blog