Cleaning sooty mold from a Podocarpus plant, and splitting a Hippeastrum

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 greenhouse designer, then found me to assign my next task: to clean and repot 4 of the small plants in room 3C. They are either overgrown, or infested with mealybugs, or both conditions for one of the plants. The plants were: Zephyranthes minuta, Scilla peruviana, Cyrtanthus sanguineus, and Hippeastrum species:

Hippeastrum species

Zephyranthes minuta, Scilla peruviana, Cyrtanthus sanguineus

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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

Frankincense and Myrtle: Fragrant Treasures

If you were raised in the Christian religion, you've probably heard of frankincense and myrrh. But, do you know much about them, beyond being fragrant commodities as precious as gold? Until today, I could not have described frankincense, myrrh, or citronella. But, by the time I was finished with my volunteer shift at the U of M Conservatory greenhouse I knew more about them. However, I will have to wait for another time to actually see a myrrh tree. I'm not sure if the Conservatory has a myrrh tree. I do know myrrh is in the Burseraceae family, the same family as the frankincense tree. They are not in the myrtle family as the name would suggest. The myrtles (or Myrtaceae) are the gum trees of the Australasia, one which gives us citronella (see below). Maintenance of small trees The day's duties assigned to me were to provide general light maintenance to a group of small trees located in the desert and subtropical rooms of the greenhouse. Maintenance included pruning and mak

Infection control in the Conservatory, from mundane to amazing

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