Anticipation is over!!

The Blooming Butterfly Exhibit will be opening this Friday June 18th. There is a variety of tropical butterfly plants and butterflies are coming as I write this blog. You have to come see the new topiary, Bertha the Butterfly! It was installed almost a month ago. The horticulture staff used Yellow and Burgundy Threadleaf Alternanthera, Samba Hot Rose Purslane, and Wooly Thyme. It looks amazing! Horticulture staff also have hanging baskets all around for some extra nectar for the butterflies. Please come and check out this captivating and educational living exhibit. Its Dynamite!!!!

New orchid additions to the conservatory collection

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory has acquired 12 new orchids to add to the orchid collection. Currently there are about 850 species orchids and almost 120 genera. The majority of the orchids in the collection are native to South America. The new orchids were acquired with funds from a $400 conservation grant awarded by the Mid-America Orchid Congress. The MAOC is an organization of orchid societies that works toward the conservation of orchids by preserving natural habitats and by propagation of orchids.

Victorias, Butterflies and Gates!

The Victoria Waterplatters are in the heated pool in front of Tropical Encounters. They are looking small at the moment but by the end of the summer, some of the leaves can reach five and a half feet in diameter! The spread of an individual plant can be up to 20 feet! The water temperature in the heated side is held above 80 degrees as these plants are native to the Amazon River.

The pool on the other side of the sidewalk is unheated and is being filled with marginal plants--plants that can tolerate moist to wet growing conditions.

Horticulture staff planted Bertha, the big butterfly form, on Monday in the high temperatures!

A sketch was used to help with plant placement. The same tool used for this planting is also used in the Gates Ajar planting.

Horticulture staff and a dedicated volunteer finished the planting in one day. The ground bed plantings will start next week so that they will look fabulous for the opening of the Blooming Butterflies exhibit on June 18th!

Planting at the Gates Ajar still had a way to go earlier this week!

The symbols represent faith, hope and charity. The Gates have been planted in this location for more than 80 years.

The interns have been working daily to get this planting completed by this weekend!

The plantings on the structure have been completed this week! Now the ground bed plantings need to be finished and then Gates Ajar will be ready for the season!

Come and visit all the beautiful plantings in Como Park!!

Planting at Gates Ajar

Gates Ajar is being planted!!! This is a sure sign that Memorial Day is just around the corner.....

Horticulture staff and interns have been working very hard at getting everything ready to plant the "Gates" by Como Lake. Cuttings have rooted and now it is time to plant!

The "Gates" frame has been mudded----a soil mixture was pressed into the holes of the wire frame and smoothed. Patterns were traced around and then the interns started planting!

The soil mix must be kept moist or it will crack and fall off the wire frame. The plantings are watered two times a day until they are rooted into the wire frame.

The work is slow and most years it takes about 100 hours to complete the design.

Two of the main plants used for the design are Hen and Chicks (Echeveria) and Joseph's Coat (Alternanthera).

Stop down by Como Lake off Lexington Avenue and watch the progress of the Gates Ajar plantings!

New planting for Blooming Butterflies!!

There will be a giant topiary butterfly in the exhibit this year! The wire form is filled with New Zealand sphagnum moss.

The interns and volunteers are taking 5000 cuttings of Alternanthera to be planted into the butterfly form the week of May 24th!

The cuttings are placed in the propagation house to grow roots. Once they are well rooted, the horticulture staff will plant the huge butterfly form that is located in the butterfly exhibit. The exhibit opens June 18th!!

Changing the Sunken Garden from spring to summer!

Look at all the activity in the Sunken Garden as the spring show came to an end last week.

Volunteers, interns and horticulture staff deconstructed the Sunken Garden in a matter of a few hours.

The koi had t0 be captured and placed in the waiting tubs. The koi were then moved outside to the Japanese Garden pool.

The bulbs that were removed from the Sunken Garden are saved. They are packaged and offered for sale in the Gift Shop!!

Then the summer show plant material is loaded up on carts and wheeled out to the Sunken Garden. Geraniums, roses, lilies, statice and numerous other heat tolerant annuals are used for this show.

Pots are sunk into the loose soil mix, awaiting the roses! The pot system is used as each rose plant in the Sunken Garden summer show is rotated numerous times between the Sunken Garden and the outside growing areas. The roses are pruned back after they are removed from the Sunken Garden and allowed to regrow and bloom again up to four times during the duration of the summer show!

Plants for the summer show are installed over the course of the week. The entire room must be cleaned, swept and scrubed. The plants must be fed and straightened. Then the room can be opened for all to see! Come and see the finished summer flower show!!

Ahhhhh!! Vanilla orchids and Bromeliads!

Our vanilla orchid (Yes! vanilla is an orchid!!) is starting to bloom again!!! Beautiful! There is no fragrance to this flower that we can detect. Each individual flower lasts only one day. Then they wither and fall off the vine if they are not pollinated.

Horticulture staff enjoy attempting to pollinate this flower when possible! We do not have the natural pollinators in the Conservatory so pollination must be done by staff! See the pollen on the left side of the photo? It is the triangle shaped yellow bundle in this photo. It is removed from the flower with a small piece of bamboo and then placed on the sticky surface of the flower and pressed in place. The flower is only receptive to pollinating for about 4 hours in the early to late morning!

When a pollination attempt is successful, the beginnings of a "vanilla bean" can be seen! Look closely at this photo and you can see the old whithered flower still attached and the green swollen "bean" attached to it. It can take about 9 months to get a ripe "bean" after a successful pollination.

The vanilla vine has at least 8 flower bud clusters at this time! The flowers open about one flower every third day. This warm spring has been great for this vine in the North House!

And the bromeliads in the display in the Palm Dome are very happy too!

Bromeliads for the display are rotated through the display as needed. Staff and volunteers groom and replace plants at least weekly.

The bromeliads in Tropical Encounters started out as divisions of plants from the collection in the greenhouses. They were then mounted on the fallen tree in Tropical Encounters with fishing line. The company that created the fallen tree attached coated wire mesh to the top of the branches. Sphagnum moss was stuffed under the wire mesh and then the bromeliads were tied on to the mesh with the fishing line.

These have been growing on the fallen tree for just a few years!

The bromeliad collection is grown in the production greenhouses at the Conservatory. At this time, there are three benches dedicated to the approximately 400 pots of bromeliads . The bromeliads are watered about every 5-7 days during the spring and summer and less often during the winter/darker months. They are fed about once a month when they are actively growing.

Bromeliads are also grown in high light areas with plenty of airflow!

Watch the ever changing display of bromeliad plants in the Palm Dome as they are moved from the growing area to the display in the Palm Dome!