Greenhouse Weekend Blog - Rachel and Brian- April 3-5, 2015

This morning was a cool and very foggy one, but truly had the fresh smell of spring outside. Much of the rest of the day was cloudy with the sun peeking out on odd occasion. Lots of tasks were completed during the nice weather of this day.

The Crotons from the college interiorscape were pruned, groomed, and then washed off of dust build up to open up leaf stomata and hence giving the plants a boost. The Cannas were sorted for inventory.

 

And the large “basket” pots were planted for arrangements. These large pots are early preparations for the planters throughout the college, so that the botanical decorations will be fuller and more established far earlier in the college. Among the plants there were Sweet Potato vine, Millet grass, and Pelargoniums, and Canna were implemented in the planted arrangements, making an excellent summer Thriller/Filler/Spiller combination!

1 Canna iridiflora, 29 Robinia pseudoacacia, 10 Catalpa speciosa, and 12 Strobilanthes attenuata seedlings were potted up into their own 1 gallon pot spaces to give them plenty of space so that they would no longer be competing against their siblings within their seedling pans.

During the entire day the seedlings were frequently inspected and watered as the peeking sunlight dried odd cells in the seedling flats. Overall it was a satisfying day.

Ice puddles crunched underfoot outside this nippy cold morning.

As the misting chambers were cleaned of algae, the rooted cuttings of Cape Ivy (Senecio mikanioides), Plectranthus cilatrus, Ruby Leaf (Altermanthera brasiliana ‘Purple Knight’), Iresine herbstii, and Begonia ‘Dragon Wings’, were taken out and potted up to be placed inside of the greenhouse. It was interesting to learn and see how easily Cape Ivy can root from individual leaves and not just the succulent stems.

To fill the emptied spaces we placed fresh Purple Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus), Thymus pulegodes, and several coleus cultivars (Solenstemon ‘Pineapple Beauty’, S.  spp., and S. ‘Electric Limon’) cuttings into the misting chamber.

Outside of the greenhouse, over half of the one annual gardenbed was cleaned of excess soil. To make sure that the excess didn’t go to waste, the soil was moved to some of the poorly draining lawn areas on the Fanshawe property to improve the poor draining/running wet areas of turf grass.

While inspecting the plants within the greenhouse there were plenty of Marigold seedlings sprouting out from the planted trays. While the sun peeked out of the cloud cover in the midday and afternoon, but was replaced with a cloudy sprinkle of snow at the end of the day.

March 5^th 2015

This morning has been particularly cold, with the snow powdering the landscape with a plain grey misery.

The dry cacti and succulents were given a good deep drink as a wake up call for the coming spring.

The hanging baskets were also watered, and after that the greenhouse was thoroughly cleaned between checking on the seedlings.

Except for the sunny end, most of the day was cloudy, rainy and grey.