November 24-26 Greenhouse Weekend Blog
This weekend, the Poinsettia Sale is in full swing, with many beautiful cultivars flying out the door as quickly as we can package them up! Friday morning we arrived to get set up for our weekend, and receive detailed instructions for our tasks from Jeff. The greenhouse had received poinsettia orders for the Office of the President of Fanshawe, as well as K building. Our first mission was to gather and package these orders. After we all helped skillfully wrap them in festive and protective paper sleeves, Josh and Will very carefully delivered them via the rolling cart.
After making sure all of the checklist items were completed for the morning and distributing advertising flyers for the Poinsettia Sale, the next item on the agenda was to re-pot the succulent arrangements that were in plain black plastic pots, into much nicer, patterned ceramic pots. It was a fun opportunity to be creative.
Friday afternoon was very busy for sales, and we spent a lot of time wrapping up customers’ plants and pulling poinsettias from the back of the benches to re-stock the fronts and keep them looking full for the public.
Saturday November 25
On Saturday, after checking temperatures, opening the blackout curtains, and getting set up for the day, we (very carefully) took cuttings of the large Opuntia cactus to callous over before they are propagated, perhaps next weekend. We also began checking the stock plant inventory, counting all hanging baskets, 4” pots, and cuttings against the numbers recorded on the computer. This is an important task that ensures there are enough cuttings of each stock plant, and lets us at the greenhouse keep track of how many of each specific variety of plant we have currently.
When we were about halfway through, we had a rush of customers in to buy poinsettias and some succulent arrangements! After everyone left happily with their new plants, we took a much deserved morning break before returning to complete updating the stock plant inventory. In the afternoon, Will and Josh took over interiorscape duties while Taylor took EC and pH readings of each poinsettia cultivar in the greenhouse, and recorded them for our weekend report. The weekend hort maintenance crew was helpful removing compost for us throughout the day!
Sunday, November 26
On the last day of our weekend greenhouse duty, we spent some time in the morning cleaning the greenhouse floor thoroughly, as well as again pulling all poinsettias to the fronts of the benches for our customers’ viewing enjoyment. Then, we checked the insect traps we had set out earlier in the weekend for pest monitoring purposes, and interpreted the results for our class’s IPM discussion board. We also took the opportunity to spend some time with the microscope, examining some tiny bugs.
After continuing our cleaning into the potting room, hallway, and tractor bay, we helped the final customers of the weekend find the perfect poinsettias, and watched them walk merrily off into the sunset with their new festive botanical friends.
