City Gardener

  Today, June 8th, was a relatively simple day at the greenhouse. I spent the first hour watering plants in room C1. I captured the images above from some of the many flowering plants in that “cloud forest” room. The two stacked photos are, of course, orchids. The other is a rhododendron, very fragrant. Since it is summer, and quite warm outside, many of the plants can use extra water, I was generous with it. The second part of the 3-hour shift was spent helping B... and Curator J... to clean the water-plant trays and tanks in room C3. I have cleaned these two tanks in the past, and the job is quite a chore. The reservoir tanks below the table trays are quite heavy, and they do not have drain holes. So, they must be pulled out and emptied of 100-200 gallons (or so). B and I slid one of the reservoirs full of water just enough so I could tip it up a bit to drain the old dirty water. In the process of helping me, B injured the skin on two of her fingers (requiring bandages to stop th...

I rode my bicycle to the greenhouse today. The plan is to continue this practice until it gets too cold in the Fall to be comfortable on a bike. On arrival I could see several of the outdoor native cacti had already bloomed. Several more were starting to bud out with flowers. There was only one small native cactus with an active yellow blossom.  I began the day watering the plants in room C1. This is the “cloud forest” room, with quite a wide variety of plants including the Hawaiian Brighamia and several species of cymbidium plants, and a few cool-hardy cacti too. My favorite flower of the day was an impatiens plant with dark rusty red leaves and a blossom that looked like a small white lady slipper. Next, Curator J..., B... and I walked over to the Cargill Building to place the large Agave americana into a plastic saucer. We  had to coax the plant pot off of the small wooden dolly into the saucer sitting on the floor. Luckily, we got it placed into the saucer with a minimum o...