City Gardener

Coordinator A... retrieved several plastic plant crates, I estimate around 30 of them, from a local commercial greenhouse. He intends to use them as plant risers in Collection Room 2, the ancient rainforest biome. The plants in that room grow especially well and often crowd each other out of light and space. His thought is to lift some of the plants up on risers to create layers of plants. This will allow some of the smaller plants access to air and light. My task for the day was to clean the plastic plant crates. They had been sitting outdoors, collecting grit and leaves. Many of them had paper labels glued to them, which looked a bit unsightly for an academic greenhouse collection. The labels had to go too. A... brought me to the special room for cleaning and sterilizing plant pots. The room has industrial sinks and hoses as well as large oven-like sterilizer machines. I used the sinks and hoses to clean the crates, then dunk them into an antiseptic soap solution, then finally rinse ...

Curator J... assigned the first task of the day to be adding additional support to one of the tall plants in the Display Room 2, The Ancient Rainforest biome. The tree, a syzygium, had grown pencil-thin and quite tall such that the very top 3 feet had drooped over on itself, threatening to break the trunk. I found a ladder and re-tied the top of the tree so that it couldn't droop.  Next, Coordinator A... asked to have the windows in Display Room 2 to be cleaned. Some of the panes had become caked with sooty mold where the trees had rubbed their sooty leaves on the glass. The trees have now been pruned back to allow better air circulation. But now the sooty window panes are visible to guests. I found a large ladder to prop up against frame work around the windows. I used soapy water, a cap full of bleach, and a rag to clean the panes. Finally, I used a hose and spray nozzle to rinse the glass. Finally, I used the same long ladder to reach up into one of the ficus trees to clean the ...

The beginning of the day was typical for November -- windy, with overcast fast-moving clouds. But, by the afternoon the sun was out, the wind was calming, and the temps were in the mid-50s. It was nice to walk back to my car in the parking lot across campus from the greenhouse. My first task was to use some of the new hardware J... had purchased to use as support for the vine plants. Specifically I used one of the new carabiner hooks to replace and open hook holding up one of the vines in room C3. I only took a few minutes. It is good to know the new hardware should last them a year or two of vine maintenance. Coordinator A... then asked me to hard-prune 4 of the vine plants in room C2. They were a bit overgrown, leggy, and infested with scale insects. The infestation was especially heavy at the top of the plants, near the overhead support cable. I took down all 4 of the vines, cutting them back to naked stems 6 inches above the soil. I cut across the stems about an inch above a node, ...

When I arrived, Curator J... and Coordinator A... were both in meetings. J was meeting online, seated in the workroom with his computer open. As I learned later, Coordinator A was meeting in person with the building consultant who originally designed the greenhouse several years ago. He was discussing the design features he had built into the greenhouse, some which might not be fully in use. Since they were both occupied with their meetings, I had to find something to do with my time. I selected a plant sticky with "honeydew" from scale insect infestation and began to clean the honeydew and sooty mold off from plant leaves and stems. I selected the plant in room 1C because "A" has planned to focus on this room while the weather is still mild, and it is warm enough to work in the room comfortably. I chose the plant Podocarpus matudae (I'm fairly sure I cleaned this very plant a few weeks ago...):  Podocarpus matudae Coordinator A finished his meeting with the gre...