Friday March 20, 2015

The day started off bright, sunny and feeling like spring! A great day to get everyone in the mood to purchase a Hydrangea. First we met with Jeff to discuss greenhouse protocol and training on the cash register to prepare us for our busy day ahead. We then worked on completing our greenhouse checklist, while enjoying our experience with customer’s purchasing Hydrangea plants. After completing the greenhouse checklist we started to sow seed with Jeff on the new state of the art seeder. While continuing to sell the Hydrangea’s that are in high demand around the college, we managed to organize the greenhouse to fit our newly sown seed on the benches by consolidating the Hydrangea’s and Begonia’s. While watching for customer’s we continued on our tasks by condensing the Canna bulbs into one rack of bulb crates then continued to clean and organize the tractor bay and disassembled the racks then placed them outback. While out there we moved the Pro-mix packages by the door for easier access and placed all bulb crates together and turned them upside down. Throughout the day we ensured that the tender seedlings were taken care of along with the rest of the greenhouse since it was bright and warmer the plants dried out quicker. At the end of the day we again completed our checklist. It was a great day in the greenhouse. We thoroughly enjoyed selling the Hydrangea’s to our wonderful customer’s. Our customer’s had excellent questions regarding the care of their Hydrangea and it was nice to guide them in the right direction.
















Saturday March 21, 2015

Saturday began as a gloomy day outside but beautiful in the greenhouse with all those wonderful pink blooms on the Hydrangea to brighten our day. We started our day off by completing the checklist, again ensuring the seedlings are well taken care of. After our morning ritual, we then moved on to applying Osmocote to the geraniums and the Pennisetum grasses that did not already have the Osmocote applied. Unfortunately, we ran out of Osmocote before applying it to all the necessary plants. Courtney had a great idea to post the Hydrangea sale on her Facebook page which resulted in our largest sale shortly after her post went up. She sure would be excellent at marketing. This led to us picking out and packaging all of these Hydrangeas for the large order. After those Hydrangeas went out the door we consolidated the Hydrangea plants onto 2 and a half bench’s. Next, we moved onto dividing the Cyperus papyrus percamentus ‘King Tut’ (Little Giant Papyrus). After dividing the plant we ensured that they were placed in a tray of water and organized on the bench. It was then onto moving decorative pots out of the tractor bay to the greenhouse compound, they were surprisingly heavy since they had water and gravel in them. We then were able to get to the great duty of choosing great smelling herbs to do cuttings of. We chose Salvia elegans (Fruity Sage), Mentha mojito (Mint), and Thymus citriodorus (Golden Lemon Thyme). Fruity Sage was our favorite when it comes to smell. Unfortunately, there were no cuttings ready to be transplanted and placed in the greenhouse so space was limited in the propagation chamber. We then moved onto the amazing task of cleaning many pots, trays, and miscellaneous items. It was then time to complete the checklist for the end of the day and we were lucky enough to receive sunlight at this time. Overall it was a productive, enjoyable day in the greenhouse.














Sunday March 22, 2015

On this cold sunny day we started our day by completing the checklist and much to our surprise our seed that we sowed on Friday had germinated! We were very excited and pleased that our attention to them paid off. Next it was on to dividing the largest Cyperus papyrus percamentus ‘King Tut’ (Little Giant Papyrus). This was no easy task as the plant was very well established and was in 2 pots inside each other. We were able to get 14 plants from the original plant. We then went on a hunt for leaf debris and weeds to remove from the greenhouse plants. Our next exciting task was using the brand new pH and EC tester. We took a sample of 5 random Geraniums and tested them for EC and pH. We did this by watering them with clear water one hour prior to testing followed by pouring distilled water through the media to collect 50 ml for testing. The rest of the day was filled with sanitizing and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. This included the greenhouse proper, greenhouse production room, and the tractor bay; all from top to bottom. This was followed by completing the end of the day checklist. We worked very well together which added to us having a great weekend. Overall, it was a great experience and very exciting to be able to care for the seedlings as well as mature plants. It was also great to be able to interact with the customers this weekend and pass on our knowledge and see all the smiling faces which reassured us that all of our hard work affects our customers in a positive way.