Winter hardy cactus beds

My first task of the day was to join B... and Al... as we cleaned the outdoor cactus bed at the front door of the greenhouse. I began by removing and rolling the nylon netting, cleaning out the debris stuck in the netting, then carefully rolling up the netting for storage until next Fall. Under the netting, the bed was covered with long pine needles which protect the small cactus plants and yuccas. Many of the Opuntias (O. macrorhiza and O. fragilis) looked to be in fine shape, having survived the winter well. They looked green and healthy. I read that Opuntia fragilis is native to Minnesota. The task took about 3 hours for the three of us to pick away most of the pine needles from around the cacti, quite delicate, knee-bending, and back-stretching work.

I spent 20 minutes tending to the vine bench. There were several vines that had stolons stretching onto neighboring plants. These had to be removed or pruned to prevent the plants from becoming hopelessly entangled.

Finally, I was able to repot the Cotoneaster frigidus tree which I had intended to do last week. This week, Curator J... had sourced a plastic pot large enough for the root ball. Before potting the plant, I had to clean out the pot with the outdoor garden hose located between the buildings. I removed the old pot from the root ball, really ‘tho most of theold plastic pot shattered as I pulled on the edges. It was quite easy to expose the root ball. Once fully exposed, teased away the root fibers and cut off the lower 2 inches of the root ball. This will allow the new roots to find the

new potting soil.

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Thrip control: peppermint and clove

Here's a question: how many natural plant scents do you find repellent? The one that comes to the top of my mind is the scent of the newly blossomed corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum . It smells very much like the name implies. If I could produce a scratch-and-sniff blog post, I would be tempted. The odor is horrible to humans, but sweet to some flying insects which are also attracted to rotting flesh. But perhaps you cannot tolerate the scent of clove, or eucalyptus? Insect pests are like us in this respect. Pests in the garden and greenhouse Insects, arachnids, fungi, and viruses. Their numbers are legion. The battle is constant. The most effective weapon is vigilance. In addition to vigilance, there are biological controls made from natural compounds which are generally non-toxic to humans. Included in this category are essential oils. For example cinnamon, rosemary, sage, neem, clove, peppermint and many others. These oils are repellent, and even toxic, to many of the pests...

Nerding out in Japan, autumn of 2025

We celebrated a bit of good news in our household with a spontaneously planned trip to Japan in November. Completely unintended, the trip coincided with the full regalia of fall colors. Particularly notable were the popular Japanese maples of every size and variety with their brilliant reds, yellow, oranges, greens, and rusts. But happy accident, we learned a few things about the art of sculpting full-grown trees - niwaki - and how to protect plants from ice and snow over the winter - yukizuri . Winter is coming The fall colors were still in full swing with crowds of adoring leaf-peepers - like me - filling the famous gardens and parks. Despite the crowds, there was already serious preparations for the coming winter. Fancifully pruned trees - the tree-sculpting art of niwaki similar to bonsai - were being trussed with ropes and propped up on long poles . As newcomers, the preparations seemed extremely odd, as if some hurricane was about to shred the life out of every branch an...

New roots for an old soul: extreme 30-foot plant cutting

A large contingent of students and staff was gathered when I arrived for my volunteer shift at the Conservatory Greenhouse at the University of Minnesota on the St. Paul campus. The crowd was on hand to help with the gentle felling of the largest plant in the greenhouse, decades old and 30+ feet tall. Native to the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, this fern -- S phaeropteris intermedia the largest of all tree ferns -- has been happily growing in the tropical room of the greenhouse for a number of years, to the point its fronds are brushing up against the glass ceiling panes of the roof. Tree fern fronds brushing against the roof of the U of M greenhouse Rather than cut the tree down and lose the specimen, the staff decided to try to save the tree. The process would involve cutting off the top half of the tree and reinserting it into a new space in the soil of the greenhouse floor. Months of planning and preparation A well-known technique was used, referred to as ai...

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