July 25th, 2013 - Our 13th week

Our first full week taking care of the poinsettia crop began this Monday, with the finicky desert plants needing some extra care to ensure they stay in the goldilocks zone: not too much water (which risks crown rot), and not too little or else the small fellows will quickly dry out and perish. This meant going through and spot-watering each morning to make sure they all dried at roughly the same rate. Finally on Thursday the crop was in a consistent state and we were able to completely soak them again. The mums growing pot-in-pot received their final pinch and a dose of slow-release fertilizer this week.

Hilary adds tags to the new crop

Teucrium chamaedrys 'Summer Sunshine' beginning to bloom in the dwarf conifer garden

There was a lot of work to be done outside this week, as two soccer fields required new soil, seed, and sod, and the Carolinian garden and berm of the North parking lot required removal of several stumps, dead trees, and a large number of interfering branches and woody weeds. The pickaxe, chainsaw, and hand saws were all in use at various points; none could stand in the path of the mighty hort techs!

Darcy and DMC: 1. Dead cedar: 0

With the paucity of rain the past few weeks the water tanker has proved a life-saver for many of the trees and planters on campus and we have it out every day possible; but, as with every new piece of equipment, it too has its quirks. Sometimes it seems like a bit of a trickster, with a mysterious problem cropping up only to disappear moments later. Hopefully it will warm up to us soon and start taking it easy on us poor gardeners.

Good luck DMC!

That's all from us this time as we head into the final week of July and our final four weeks as summer gardeners! The summer is flying by and in too short a time it will be autumn again. We'll all miss the blooms, but probably not the bugs.

-Eric Abram

Courtney's Blog for July 15-19

July 19^th, 2013:

Courtney Preszcator-

It is a hot one this week!! I hope all of you have been staying safe and cool, here at the College we’ve been attempting to hide in the shade as much as possible! Work needs to be done though so we toughed it out! First things first, we received our Poinsettia crop on Monday and boy were we excited. This year we’re working on 1000 Poinsettia’s from 9 different cultivars: Christmas Beauty Nostalgia, Christmas Feeling Marble, Christmas Season Marble, Classic Red, Polar Bear, Pollys Pink, Prestige Maroon, Prestige Red, and last but not least Valentine. As soon as you receive any shipment you must ALWAYS check your product. You should make sure everything is accounted for and that no plant is damaged. We also like to check the roots to make sure they are a nice healthy white colour.



Look at that healthy root system!

The next process on Tuesday was for half of us to pot up 500 Poinsettia’s in the morning and for the other half of us to pot up the remaining 500 in the afternoon (in this heat the greenhouse temperature is ranging from 35-40 degrees!). Challenge accepted Jeff!

We started by filling up the pots with our media and then watering all of them down before placing the Poinsettia’s in their new homes.

Then we started placing the Poinsettia’s! Always trying to keep production moving swiftly (haha) we developed a good routine and pace for potting.

And the finished product looks great. We’re aiming for one of the best crops of Poinsettia’s to date (Go us!).

(Dylan "Darcy" Howlett and Hilary are heading up the Poinsettia crop and clearly they love their Poinsettia's!)

We like to keep all of you following us on our Blog in the loop with what we tackle on a weekly basis here on the main campus so I feel I should mention our groundhog family that has hunkered down on campus. You may drive past and see one briefly run back into their hole or maybe you have been lucky enough to witness one of them sunbathing (yes, they like to keep tanned as well!). As cute as they are they tend to make a lot of work for us! It often brings back memories of the movie Caddy Shack! There I go again getting off track! Back to business Courtney...

We have gorgeous specimens of Wisteria vines as well as a grafted Wisteria tree here on main campus and seeing as it is July it is time to prune them back! The rule of thumb is that you should prune Wisteria in March and then again in July/August. For our July pruning we took some of the longer growth, traced them back to old growth, then counted 10 buds down the new growth and made our cut. The first and most important rule to pruning is to Know What You Are Pruning! (That way you know when to prune as well as how to prune!) Majority of the team took part in this task.

(Darcy up in the Wisteria in the Woodland Garden)

(Eric Stacey and Dylan "DMC" Mcleod helping out with pruning the Wisteria Vine)

(The Wisteria vine after being pruned)

(The Wisteria tree after being pruned)

After this brutally hot week at Fanshawe we are ALL glad to be going into the weekend. The heat wave has worn us out! Make sure you’re covered in sunscreen for the weekend and if it’s cool enough take a walk to enjoy all of the beautiful plants in bloom! Oh, and for any of you wondering how our Mum crop is doing...they’re filling out nicely and seem to be happy. The roots are even starting to grow through the bottom of the pots which is always a sign of a happy plant with a very happy root system!

Almost forgot! A very Happy Birthday goes out to one of our co-workers, Eric Stacey.

(Eric opening his gift from the team!)



Fanshawe Blog for July 8-12

With Jeff on vacation this week, we at Fanshawe have been assigned various tasks to complete in his absence. We took the challenge on full force as we divided and conquered the grounds.

Courtney and Jess S. limbed up some trees along Fanshawe College blvd..

 Courtney out on Fanshawe College Blvd.

Jess Shields (J-Dawg) out on Fanshawe College Blvd.

Eric A. spent some time in the conifer garden removing stumps, transplanting a few trees and pulling the usual weeds that love to pop up.

Eric "Arms" Abram

On Wednesday, Lucas joined us on main campus from Cuddy’s to do a “rip and tear” at the front of the school. Dylan H, Jaimi, Jess R and I, Hilary, all took part in the clearing of the area. Don’t fret, all will grow back. For security reasons on campus all areas must have an easy visual.

Dylan, Jess Rowland and Jaimi posing with the Fanshawe College sign by
Saffrons. Taken before the "rip and tear"

The picture taken after the "rip and tear".


The Horticulture Technician program also has a new “toy”. We finally have received our water tanker and have put it to full use filling all of the Treegator bags as well as watering all of the planters and plant beds around the campus.

Dylan Mcleod on the new Water Tanker