This past weekend was an awesome opportunity to work with my fellow classmates and weekend practical crew; I had Darcy and Emily working together on their maintenance practical and Zach with Kyle F. on their weekend practical on a different part of the campus. I was working with Jessica G. for my greenhouse practical. Our list was as follows: transplant Viola x wittrockiana into cell packs and place on transplant bench: remove excess soil from the greenhouse garden beds and rake smooth: interiorscape: pot washing: I forget what else was on his list.

Jessica and I started with the transplanting of the violas, we gave the seed popper a try but it just wasn’t consistent enough, I made the executive decision to do it the good ‘ole fashion way, use the blunt end of a pencil through the bottom of the plug, perfect fit.

 

 

I was sure to set time aside while walking the crop to gather up dead, dying, decomposing leaves from the plants in the greenhouse. I also removed dead, dying, decomposing cuttings that were still around, I spot watered here and there, as well as pruned off lingering stems, stubs or dying leaves from the stock plant/parents plant/mother plant, call them what you will. I found it easier to check the plants on the upper shelf of the production bench with the step ladder rather than drag the entire tray across the harsh metal and risk damaging the trays.

Saturday afternoon brought along with it Mr. Pascoe with a former graduate of the program who was seeing the greenhouse and the succulent collection for the first time.  With this visit came additional tasks to complete, these included: taking cuttings from the Mandevilla and placing them in the mist chamber on bottom heat: Remove the rooted Coleus cuttings from the mist chamber, pot them up and place them on the production bench with their friends: Transplant Echeveria ‘Topsy Turvy’ as well as another succulent into a larger clay pot and label them accordingly.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day and when paired with the greenhouse, it was practically a summer’s day! The hydrangeas are coming along nicely, some of them are obviously further ahead than others but it’s really amazing to see how incredibly vibrant the pink is.

 

Along with the beautiful weather it also meant that all the plants were at risk of drying out a lot quicker than the previous two overcast days. During my morning checklist I watered the seed trays and then covered gently with the frost cloth to protect them from the direct sunlight. Instead of the normal morning, noon and closing ‘bench walks’ I was required to check on the plants for spot watering every 30 to 40 minutes throughout the day. All and all it was an incredibly productive weekend with a great crew to spend my breaks and lunch with. Needless to say working with Darcy, Emily, Kyle and Zach brought on a camaraderie that I look forward to finding this summer with my future co-workers, suffice it to say, I think I’m going to kind of miss this place when I’m gone.