Fanshawe Greenhouse                                                                                                        Student Blog of December 2^nd to 4^th Weekend

Out with the old and sold and in with the new

This weekend has been calm like the silvery grey clouds that loomed overhead all weekend, keeping the air outside and even the temperature inside a little cool. 21 degrees Celsius has hopefully not disappeared forever but winter approaches swiftly as seen by the beauty of death in the gardens. Withering golds and reds reveal the deepest colors of life as we await Christmas and the rebirth of a warm long day in the sunshine.

On December 2^nd some students conquered outdoor duties while operations were explained and prepared inside. The very last of our blackout curtains was taken down, to reveal the glorious sky once more.  The popular and now dwindling Poinsettia sale crop was watered and re positioned to look their best. Our most vibrant cultivars sold out early but we have over 100 lovelies left. There is Christmas Day Red, red every day like Christmas Feelings Merlot. The feeling comes from the depth of the red in the foliage, a noticeable darker difference. Our Christmas Aurora Red cultivar has a potent vibrancy as well. Candlelight White is our yellowy creamy cultivar which I can only say is one of the best saved for last, much like the confidently variegated Christmas Marble whose gold yellow variegation surrounding soft pink coloring on the leaves creates an image of a new holiday standard for your traditions. If I forgot to tell you about the stunning Red minis then… this wouldn’t be much of a blog at all. Standard Plants are $8.85 and those minis are $4.42

Saturday was more of a maintenance day for the greenhouse crew. On the main table we were building our custom Squirrel-proof planter lids for the campus. It would seem that it may have become survival of the cutest as the fluffy little black Squirrels with beady little eyes have been allowed to ravage our garden beds and have eaten many cents if not dollars’ worth of Tulip Bulbs. In the greenhouse we removed the emitters from table 8, 6, and 5 to be deep cleaned, disinfected and ready for the next crop. Our Kalanchoe crop has produced over 7 trays of leaf cuttings and almost 2 trays of tip cuttings. Kalanchoe is a marvelous grower. A short while after care and effort you may awake to find roots shooting out of stems and leaves just begging to find nutrient rich soil where in it can propagate more beautiful plant stalk.

Sunday we finished up as many of the weekends chores as we could and stiffened our upper lips after a day without a single Poinsettia sale. Five full trays of Green Castor Bean Seed Pods were separated and put into their labelled jars, ready for Fanshawe experimentation and garden design. The word is that eating 4 – 6 may kill you, Students love this fun fact. The cleaned emitters were installed back under the benches and the lines were flushed in preparation for the next crop and of course as our general practice requires. A clean and pest free greenhouse produces the healthiest crops and learning environment.