Spring Is In the Air
Fanshawe College Greenhouse Weekend Duty
February 22-24, 2019
Carlee H. and Felix C.

            Despite all of the freezing rain and ice covering the city, spring is poking its head around the corner. The Fanshawe greenhouse has been hard at work preparing for the incoming warmer seasons. If you happen to come into the greenhouse for a visit you’ll notice that we’re getting pretty full with a nice variety of different plants, almost all of our benches have something interesting to see.

Spring is a busy time for us here at the greenhouse and it takes a lot of preparation. Now is when we start watering our overwintering plants such as our Cannas and Alocasias that had been cut back and stored in the late fall seasons, starting the watering now will have them ready for transplanting into outdoor planters around the school in the spring and summer months. We have also started to see some orders come in from some of our contract customers, such as the Western Fair. For this, students have been busy crafting hanging baskets of Petunias and Dichondra that will look beautiful as they start to fill in more, currently in their baby stages they admittedly look a little bit silly. 

            The cuttings that we took from parent plants such as different species of Coleus, Geranium, Begonia, etc. back in the fall are filling out nicely and a lot of them have been transplanted in groups of threes into larger hanging baskets where they will continue filling out in preparation for the Summer.

            Our hydrangeas are now at the stage where their flowers are beginning to show colour and it has been an incredible experience to watch this develop, the amount of colour from one day to the next can be quite a drastic difference throughout some of the plants. Interestingly, our pink variety of hydrangeas is developing its colour faster than our blue varieties, we have yet to see any of the blue colouring on our plants at this point in time but it should be popping out soon, we are waiting patiently and full of anticipation. 

            Along with all of the beautiful, ornamental plants mentioned above, we also have a variety of vegetable and bean seedlings being germinated and grown in the greenhouse at the moment. Beans are incredibly quick to sprout and grow, they can make great beginner plant projects for children and adults alike. Over this past weekend we transplanted our cucumber seedlings into larger pots as most have produced their first “true leaf” and will require more space for their root development. Fun fact: The roots of cucumber plants smell like their delicious fruit.
            There is so much greenery and life inside the greenhouse at the moment, the air is beautiful. It is a refreshing break from all of the harsh cold (or extreme rain) we’ve still been experiencing outside. We encourage students, staff and surrounding communities to stop in, stroll through and enjoy all of the exciting colours with us. Though the hydrangeas aren’t at the stage which they’re available for purchase just yet we’re working hard to get them there for you. While you wait, we do still have a variety of interesting succulents available for purchase, or if you’d like more than one we’d be happy to assemble a custom succulent planter for you, stop by we may even have on pre-made that captures your heart. Whether a single succulent or one of our custom multi-succulent planters, both will spruce up your desk or coffee table and add a little spring to your space.