City Gardener

I always feel happy to be back in the greenhouse. Today I was offered a wide range of duties, and said "yes" to all of them. But, there was no way there would be enough time to get them all done in my 3+ hour volunteer shift. We decided what the priorities were, and I started the list from the top: - repositioned an electric fan cord so that it dangled more securely against a metal I-beam - repositioned several cables which support climbing vines. Some plants had none, some had too many - I used bricks to stabilize the base of a wood trellis, and moved a new vine plant onto it - I used bamboo stakes to form a teepee trellis for a small vine attempting to block an aisle  While I worked on the tasks at hand, I stopped to admire an orchid hybrid called "x-wilsonara". I also noted a lovely gloxinia plant (Sinningia helleri) sporting a hugely fat stem with crinkled crusty bark flowing out of its tiny orange pot. The stem stores carbohydrate for this epiphytic plant from ...

 Sizing up the day Today I returned to a project started last week at the Conservatory of the University of Minnesota (St. Paul Campus), tending a small group of oak saplings. They are all different species in the genus Quercus (oaks). As I mentioned in last week's post, there are 16 different species of oaks in this small collection. They all have suffered a bit of neglect over the past year, and staining from an accidental spray of white wash. My project has been to clean up the damage as best I can. Today I was able to clean, prune, and stake 6 of the 16 oaks. They are mostly all evergreen oaks native to Mexico and California. Their Latin names are Quercus agrifolia, Q. oleoides, Q. champmanii, Q. wislizeni, Q. texana, and Q. acutifolia. I've included the photos of three of these in the post below. Plants new to me After my work with the oaks I took a bit of time to walk around the Conservatory. It is springtime in the greenhouse, so many plants are blooming. There are so ma...

Making the rounds Before starting my shift as a volunteer at the University of Minnesota Conservatory Greenhouse I enjoy walking around to see what plants are in bloom, and I also check on my prior projects to see how they have progressed over time. Today I noted the corpse plant was in full bloom. It is a sure sign of spring when the corpse flowers are blooming (Amorphophallus titanum). From the tropical forests of Indonesia, it has one of the largest flowers in nature. When it blooms, the large red and green "flower" spathe may measure up to a meter in diameter. It has a scent similar to rotting flesh, the color is dark red like meat, and the central flower spike (spadix) heats up to body temperature. All of these features are helpful to attract insect pollinators. Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) Oaks There are several species of oak trees (Quercus) in the Conservatory's collection. For a long time 16 of them have been used as part of a research project. Located ...

I often feel guilty after my trips to the CBS (College of Biological Sciences) Conservatory at the University of Minnesota. They are supposed to be earnest volunteering events. But really, it feels like recess or playtime. The best part is that there is almost no stress: there are world class experts to consult if I have a questions, and the best part is I have no deadlines, peer reviews, compliance courses, diagnosis or billing codes to muddy the experience. I feel a bit sheepish for getting so much joy with almost none of the responsibility other than arriving on-time at 10:00 a.m. - a very civilized hour of the morning. Today I learned so much. My task today was hanging bromeliad plants. This is a project I started last week but couldn't complete due to lack of time and materials. On the way, I passed these two interesting orchid plants. They were just sitting at my elbow as I worked to hang the bromeliads. Cymbidium orchid A tiny orchid meant to look like a lady bee, to attract...