Kyle Haskett/Felton Greenhouse Practical September 6th- 8th Friday: Today we promptly showed up to the greenhouse at a staggering 7:40 am. We rushed over to the security office to sign out the greenhouse key only to discover this task required very little effort. Triumphant and on schedule we headed to the greenhouse with spirit and vigour in our hearts, we would feed the crop of poinsettias even if it meant being late for the Hortfest bus! (However let’s face it Kyle and I know what we’re doing). We unlocked the greenhouse and analyzed the poinsettia crop. Desperatly needing a good drink, Kyle and I turned on the dosetron to feed them their much needed minerals. While tending to our crop we re-organized the plant benches and tried to create order from chaos. After the crop was successfully watered and our quest for today was completed we promptly locked up and headed for the bus and off to Hortfest! (GO ULMUS) After a successful day at Hortfest with the First years we returned back to our much needed positions to water the dwindling chrysanthemums. After helping Jeff carry in some new recruits from cuddies into quarantine pending sterilization we set out to water. With the brilliant advice of Jeff Rowley and Kyle using the only available watering hose, I was left with the dreadful task of “hand watering!” We left the greenhouse at 6 P.M. for some much needed sleep.

Saturday: It was day two of our weekend practical and we had high expectations for what we needed to accomplish today. We planned to deal with “Pot Mountain” and perform the 2nd pinch on the “Valentine” poinsettias. Just as we were about to embark on our noble journey we encountered a friendly face! It was J RO! Here to do her Interiorscape duties, “have fun watering” we jested as we began our day. Kyle and I started to wash each pot carefully disinfecting and eliminating all bacteria and pathogens. Kyle and I did not rest until every pathogen was destroyed mercilessly! We then moved the quarantined material to their new home on the silver shelf. Feeling quite successful with our work we sat down for a pleasant 5 minute break. The shear act of sitting was a much needed wakeup call for the weary Kyle. Our next mission had begun, pinching the “Valentine” poinsettias to ensure Pascoe’s desired height and vigour. Moving slower than a snail we carefully double checked our efforts to ensure they were up to Pascoe’s professional expectations. (A standard we all agree should be upheld) Queue lunch time, we set off to Ginos pizza with J RO after barricading the greenhouse from intruders. With pizza in our bellys and a mountain of plants on our mind we began to condense the massive amounts of plant material sitting on our class bench. Collecting and organizing the plants by genus, we commenced our upgrading. Removing the infernal 3 inch nursery pots we combined the plants into stunning 6 inch specimens. With non-stop pot washing and organizing to do! We began to clean up. Meticulously washing and sanitizing the floors to again be-rid the pathogen menace, we obtained a Mr.Clean shine. Finally locking up the greenhouse for the night we embarked on our own journeys home.

Sunday: With our final day upon us we arrived at the security office to reclaim the greenhouse key from the “KEY WARDEN” we set forth to the greenhouse for some epic re-potting operations. With techno rushing through the air (at a reasonable volume) we embarked on complete and total greenhouse order. Organizing the plants into proper pots, and trays we condensed the behemoth into a manageable monster. Clearing off our class bench would allow us to bring in our own experiments (after proper disinfecting) and have a space of our own. By maximizing our plants/sq. Ft we can in turn bring more money into the greenhouse, this will very much appease the great Pascoe. I for one am in favour of keeping the money we make within the program. With lunchtime upon us we set off to (you guessed it) Ginos pizza for another of their deliciously priced pizzas. After our feast of pizza and water, we headed back into the jungle to organize the fields of pothos! Lastly we were left with one more good sanitizing to do. The battle against pathogens was again successful; however, the war has just begun. We set off to face the “KEY WARDEN” one last time and conclude our epic quest into the jungles of the greenhouse.

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Weeks July 29th - August 9th by Dylan Howlett With the vacating absence of our fearless leader, Jeff Rowley, the horticulture technician summer work crew had a week to crack down and be responsible for completing our large list of duties free of his watchful eye. Visits from Mr. Pascoe and Lucas kept us on track, but all in all, the group did well on its own, collaborating good team work and friendly dispositions. It was nice to have Jeff return the following week. This week began with a slightly groggy Tuesday morning, having recently come back from a wonderfully long civic holiday weekend. By lunchtime we were roaring to go again!

             A Flowering Castor Bean Plant!There is a beautiful contrast between the deep green-purple foliage.

This past weekend’s duties went to J-Dawg (Jess Shields) and DMC (Dylan Mcleod). Amongst the list of tasks they were to complete, pinching of the Poinsettia crop was of utmost importance! Five plants of each cultivar we separated from the group and distinguished by blue tags. We are allowing these plants to grow very large, similar to their true size in their native habitat.

Our group had the pleasure of attaching spaghetti driplines to the table, allowing for a much easier and equally distributed watering and fertilizing of our Poinsettia crop.

Courtney and Hilary had a blast removing a portion of greenhouse shade cloth. No ladder was too big or heights too high for these girls. Safety first - three points of contact ladies!

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

Friday June 7^th, 2013 –

Courtney Preszcator:

Well folks, after wrapping up our hard core week of prep for our A.M. MAC Cuddy Gardens Open House we finally made it to the big weekend! With over 600 people (ranging from all ages!) coming through for garden tours as well as our phenomenal plant sale we considered the weekend to be a GREAT success! Thank you all for coming out and supporting The Cuddy Gardens as well as the Horticulture Technician Program at Fanshawe College!

What does the end of prep for the Cuddy Gardens Open House mean? Time for us to all head back to the main Fanshawe Campus to work on our final touches before Grad! We are literally in the home stretch now. Time to beef up the plant beds and planters with some radical colour from our annuals grown here in the Spriet Family Greenhouse by our very own co-horts! (Other Hort Techs).

DMC and I headed up removing the Tulips from the Flagpole Plant Bed at the front of F Building just in front of the President’s Office and installed a new design which incorporated Elephant Ears (Colocasia), Coleus “The Line” (Solenostemon), Orange Marigolds (Colendula), and a pop of some White Gazanias....Hope you enjoy the view Dr. Rundle!

If you remember back to one of our very first weeks of work here at Fanshawe College we received a truckload full of 130 yards of mulch! That’s right, 130 yards of mulch! Well, we still needed more to freshen up the final garden beds around K Building, The Conifer Garden, The Woodland Garden, and around The Residences on campus. That meant another truckload of mulch (130 more yards!).

It’s been a very mentally and physically draining two weeks but the Cuddy Gardens Open House was well worth it and seeing all of the smiling faces on the Grads taking their family photos in front of our well-groomed gardens is the cherry on top of that “draining cake”!

On a side-note it was one of our awesome team members birthday, Eric “Arms” Abrams birthday! (He wore his present immediately!)

May 24, 2013 - Jaimi Uram

As this cold, wet week comes to an end, so too does our once gigantic mulch pile.  The team has been working hard in preparation for graduation, which is just three weeks away.  Weed, edge, mulch; Weed, edge, mulch.  And what do we get in reward for racing through the gigantic mulch pile?  Another gigantic mulch pile next week.  There is no time to slow down as we have completed just over half of the mulching to be done.

Some of the planters around the college were also completed this week.  Filled with soil on Tuesday, the annuals were planted on Wednesday and Thursday.  While most of the planters stuck to the red and white theme of Fanshawe, we did get to go wild with coloured annuals in a select few.

With the may long weekend and any sign of frost behind us, annual planting has begun.  The greenhouse is slowly emptying as the few companies, such as Clintar and The Western Fair, pick up their annual flower crop that Fanshawe supplies.  With the outgoing orders comes clean up and a lot of empty pots to be washed!   

We also got the pleasure of welcoming back our program coordinator and professor, Michael Pascoe, from his trip to Kenya and Dubai.  He brought along his famous dog BD to say hello.