Watering the cloud forest room

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 of scratched and bloodied arms. The plant sports razor-sharp spines along the edges of its leaves!

I helped B and Curator J remove part of the metal grid holding most of the Tillandsia plants. The cork panels are held in place by thin wires which are now rusting through. We took down the grid and removed the cork panels and rusting wires. Tomorrow Curator J and B will begin to catalog the plants and identify the name of those that have lost their labels. Then, they will reattach the panel using stronger, rust resistant wire. There were a few Tillandsias that were in flower, with lovely purple/lavender bracts.

Finally, I spent the remainder of my time there picking up leaves and trimming overgrown plants in room D2 and D3.

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