City Gardener Sandbox

If you were raised in the Christian religion, you've probably heard of frankincense and myrrh. But, do you know much about them, beyond being fragrant commodities as precious as gold? Until today, I could not have described frankincense, myrrh, or citronella. But, by the time I was finished with my volunteer shift at the U of M Conservatory greenhouse I knew more about them. However, I will have to wait for another time to actually see a myrrh tree. I'm not sure if the Conservatory has a myrrh tree. I do know myrrh is in the Burseraceae family, the same family as the frankincense tree. They are not in the myrtle family as the name would suggest. The myrtles (or Myrtaceae) are the gum trees of the Australasia, one which gives us citronella (see below). Maintenance of small trees The day's duties assigned to me were to provide general light maintenance to a group of small trees located in the desert and subtropical rooms of the greenhouse. Maintenance included pruning and mak...

 What scents do you find repellent? Here's a question: how many natural plant scents do you find repellent? The one that comes to the top of my mind is the scent of the newly blossomed corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum . It smells very much like the name implies. If I could produce a scratch-and-sniff blog post, I would be tempted. The odor is horrible to humans, but sweet to some flying insects which are also attracted to rotting flesh. But perhaps you cannot tolerate the scent of clove, or eucalyptus? Insect pests are like us in this respect. Pests in the garden and greenhouse Insects, arachnids, fungi, and viruses. Their numbers are legion. The battle is constant. The most effective weapon is vigilance. In addition to vigilance, there are biological controls made from natural compounds which are generally non-toxic to humans. Included in this category are essential oils. For example cinnamon, rosemary, sage, neem, clove, peppermint and many others. These oils are repellent, ...

I always feel happy to be back in the greenhouse. Today I was offered a wide range of duties, and said "yes" to all of them. But, there was no way there would be enough time to get them all done in my 3+ hour volunteer shift. We decided what the priorities were, and I started the list from the top: - repositioned an electric fan cord so that it dangled more securely against a metal I-beam - repositioned several cables which support climbing vines. Some plants had none, some had too many - I used bricks to stabilize the base of a wood trellis, and moved a new vine plant onto it - I used bamboo stakes to form a teepee trellis for a small vine attempting to block an aisle  While I worked on the tasks at hand, I stopped to admire an orchid hybrid called "x-wilsonara". I also noted a lovely gloxinia plant (Sinningia helleri) sporting a hugely fat stem with crinkled crusty bark flowing out of its tiny orange pot. The stem stores carbohydrate for this epiphytic plant from ...

 Sizing up the day Today I returned to a project started last week at the Conservatory of the University of Minnesota (St. Paul Campus), tending a small group of oak saplings. They are all different species in the genus Quercus (oaks). As I mentioned in last week's post, there are 16 different species of oaks in this small collection. They all have suffered a bit of neglect over the past year, and staining from an accidental spray of white wash. My project has been to clean up the damage as best I can. Today I was able to clean, prune, and stake 6 of the 16 oaks. They are mostly all evergreen oaks native to Mexico and California. Their Latin names are Quercus agrifolia, Q. oleoides, Q. champmanii, Q. wislizeni, Q. texana, and Q. acutifolia. I've included the photos of three of these in the post below. Plants new to me After my work with the oaks I took a bit of time to walk around the Conservatory. It is springtime in the greenhouse, so many plants are blooming. There are so ma...

Making the rounds Before starting my shift as a volunteer at the University of Minnesota Conservatory Greenhouse I enjoy walking around to see what plants are in bloom, and I also check on my prior projects to see how they have progressed over time. Today I noted the corpse plant was in full bloom. It is a sure sign of spring when the corpse flowers are blooming (Amorphophallus titanum). From the tropical forests of Indonesia, it has one of the largest flowers in nature. When it blooms, the large red and green "flower" spathe may measure up to a meter in diameter. It has a scent similar to rotting flesh, the color is dark red like meat, and the central flower spike (spadix) heats up to body temperature. All of these features are helpful to attract insect pollinators. Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) Oaks There are several species of oak trees (Quercus) in the Conservatory's collection. For a long time 16 of them have been used as part of a research project. Located ...

I often feel guilty after my trips to the CBS (College of Biological Sciences) Conservatory at the University of Minnesota. They are supposed to be earnest volunteering events. But really, it feels like recess or playtime. The best part is that there is almost no stress: there are world class experts to consult if I have a questions, and the best part is I have no deadlines, peer reviews, compliance courses, diagnosis or billing codes to muddy the experience. I feel a bit sheepish for getting so much joy with almost none of the responsibility other than arriving on-time at 10:00 a.m. - a very civilized hour of the morning. Today I learned so much. My task today was hanging bromeliad plants. This is a project I started last week but couldn't complete due to lack of time and materials. On the way, I passed these two interesting orchid plants. They were just sitting at my elbow as I worked to hang the bromeliads. Cymbidium orchid A tiny orchid meant to look like a lady bee, to attract...

I appreciate so much the Greenhouse staff for their ability to organize a group of student workers and volunteers - as I am. For example, when I arrived today there was a white board listing duties waiting to be performed. There is no need to stand around wondering what to do. Today my task was clearly outlined on the board: hang bromeliads. Neoregalia hybrids (in the family of bromeliads) My tasks listed in blue ink Empty trellis, waiting to be filled with bromeliads Located in the cool temperate 'cloud forest' room is a collection of bromeliads plants with the genus name of Neoregelia. They had been growing on the flat surface on one of the benches - as on a table top - occupying 50 square feet of bench space. That is a lot of bench space to devote to one plant genus. The proposed solution was to move the plants from a flat surface to hanging on a trellis in the same room. My task began with moving plants to gain access the trellises. I then transferred clusters of bromeliads...

I returned to the Greenhouse after a 6-week break so that I could do some traveling. I'm grateful to be allowed the time away from the volunteer opportunity at the University's Botanical Greenhouse, which I so much enjoy. Today, I was assigned the task of maintaining the vining plants in the desert room, on the Collection side of the greenhouse. The vining plants in this room are situated on one of the benches along an internal glass wall. The vines are attached to a number of wooden and metal trellises. Over the past year, the vines have grown and become a bit misshapen. Some of the stems are quite dead, or nearly so. My task was to cut down, prune, and re-string the vines to be ready for the coming growth season. Here are a few examples: Xerosicyos danguyi, silver dollar plant Xerosicyos, or silver dollar plant, is in the cucumber family Cucubitaceae from Madagascar. Fockea edulis Fockea is a succulent shrub in the dogbane family Apocynaceae from Africa. It has the nickname ...

 On vacation…volunteering outside of my comfort zone All during my working years I thought I might like to do volunteer work in my retirement, even while traveling - but  especially  while traveling! I like to be active everyday, and the thought of just sitting around in retirement never seemed appealing. I’ve seen loved ones slump into their recliner chairs for the last twenty years of their lives, and I think they suffered for it.  If I’m going to spend weeks or months away from home, it be great to find some way to stay active but also give back something to my hosting community. It is hard for me to think of a place in the world that doesn’t have the need of volunteers for one thing or another. When I was working as a pathologist, I didn’t feel like I had time to volunteer for things in the community. It took so much time just to do my job reasonably well - I’d been working 10-12 hours per workday and often on weekends. And, I also had family responsibilities for...

Raining in February   The morning began with a walk in the rain from my car to the Conservatory greenhouses - in the month of February. According to the calendar, we should be in the depths of winter. The precipitation today should be snow not rain. The storm system that we're experiencing is probably related to drenching rains moving inland from the west coast. I met Coordinator A... at the door of the Conservatory. His office desk faces one of the main doors to the building. He cannot escape observing everyone who enters...poor guy, it must be distracting for him. Anyway, as soon as I entered the building we started to discuss his plan for my activity of the morning. He offered me the project of rebuilding the support for vanilla vines which have been suffering from overexposure to sunlight and dry air. A bit of background The vanilla plant (Vanilla planifolia) is in the orchid family. It is native to Central America and Mexico. The seed pods were used by the Aztecs to flavor coc...