Symposium, queens tears, Valentine’s Day succulents and problems

Sara and Nicole – February 9-11, 2018

To begin this weekend, on Friday Nicole and I attended the Plant Symposium. We got to stay for 2 presentations. The first one was given by the head gardener of the Toronto Botanical Garden. The topic of his presentation was pollinators, and how we can incorporate more native plants/how we can create our gardens to better suit them. Something interesting about his speech was that he does not care for aesthetics, he cares about the creatures that are present in the garden. He has a different opinion on gardening practices, for example he is against deadheading flower heads so that birds may come and collect the seeds. Additionally, his front and back yard are covered in plant material, because he believes that turf is the worst monoculture today and we should use the space that we have wisely. The second presentation was about edible native plants. We learned a lot a lot of new plant material, such as Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis), Hickory (Carya), Wild Leek (Allium tricoccum), and Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium). The Fireweed is particularly interesting because it grows in places where a fire has occurred, amending the soil. This plant is important for pollinators, and the young shoots and leaves can be substituted for asparagus. Overall, the Symposium was enjoyable and an interesting learning experience. We returned to the greenhouse at 1:00 to commence our duties.

Our first task was creating Valentine’s Day planters in heart shaped containers using succulents, decorative gravel, Pro-mix HP and moss. Some of the succulents used were Echeveria, Aloe, and Kalanchoe varieties. We planted them in groupings of 3, each with different textures/colours to make them pop. These will be sold in the greenhouse throughout the course of the week.

Matt M. brought in a beautiful plant to be taken care of. Queen’s Tears (Billbergia nutans) is an epiphytic plant meaning that in its native environment it grows on trees without any soil. This is also the growing habit of orchids and air plants. This plant is part of the Bromeliaceae family, which is a family we are familiar with from Tropical Plant Identification. It grows similar to a spider plant, the leaves are dark green, glossy and have jagged teeth along the margin which is why we had to wear gloves and long sleeves when we divided it. The root system is very fibrous and strong. We had to use knives to be able to penetrate through. Queen’s Tears is native to Brazil, and its flowers are stunning. Protected by bright pink sepals, the flowers dangle from the plant in a panicle of 3 petaled flowers, with a purple margin and bright green in the middle. This plant can survive heavy neglect, as Matt said he hadn’t watered it in 3 months. Bright indirect light is recommended to keep this plant happy.

Over the course of the weekend, we experienced a few issues in the greenhouse. On Saturday, it was very cold outside, but the interior of the greenhouse was warm, so the vents opened. Unfortunately, what happened was once they opened during the day it slowly froze and the vent was unable to close because of the ice. Jeff visited the greenhouse and chipped the ice off so that they could close. If this problem hadn’t been resolved, the entire crop could have been compromised. Another issue we had was that the water would not run from the hoses at all, just from the sink. We realized that the lever on the Dosatron hadn’t been turned completely and then the issue was resolved. An incident in the bay occurred, a mouse had been caught in the trap and I had to remove it so that the trap could be re used. This was unanticipated and gross but we got it done.

Overall the weekend went smoothly, it turned out to be very educational.