American Garden Award Entries on Display at Conservatory

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory is one of 28 prestigious gardens participating in this year’s All-America Selections American Garden Award, the nation’s only popularity contest for flowers. The American Garden Award is a unique opportunity for the public to vote on a specific flower that they think has the most appealing garden characteristics. The six entries for 2012 are:

Angelonia angustifolia ‘Serena® Blue’

Begonia boliviensis ‘Santa Cruz™ Sunset’

Gazania ‘Big Kiss™ White Flame’ F1

Petchoa x hybrida ‘SuperCal® Pink Ice’

Petunia ‘Surfinia® Deep Red’

Sunflower ‘Goldie’ F1

Voting is open June 1 – August 31 and winners are announced in September. To view the entries and place your vote, visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory before August 31. You can also vote online at http://www.americangardenaward.com./

Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Full Bloom...As seen on FOX-9!

The winter flower show is happening right now at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. Fox-9's Garden Guy Dale K. is there with more.

Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Full Bloom at Como Park: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Dale K of Fox-9 Stops out for a Sneak Peek of the Winter Carnival Orchid Show

Winter Carnival Orchid Show Preview: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

A blooming Voodoo Lily, Amorphophallus Konjac

When we came in to water the plants in this small greenhouse this morning, there was the familiar smell of dead mice lingering in the air! It is not that we have dead mice in the greenhouses all the time--gross-but we do occasionally have a blooming Amorphophallus Konjac at this time of year and that is it's tell tale smell! This plant has a great inflorescence (a grouping of flowers) that smells stinky to us but possibly lovely to it's pollinators. Some of you may remember another stinky plant that we had bloom here at the Conservatory last summer? Yep! It was the Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus titanum.

Come and see this fun plant in the Conservatory's North Garden. The blooms could last the week if we are lucky! And since there are actually three inflorescence's in this pot, the lovely aroma might just linger through the weekend!

What Is It?

This is a photo taken of the underside of a Victoria Water Lily crown. All of the Victoria Water Lilies have been removed from the pools at the Visitor Center Entrance. The center of the picture shows the hard, fleshy main stem of the plant. Secondary to that, is the white roots that supported the lily in the pot. The thick crowns were cut out while the water was still in the pools. We used a very sharp, high-tech pruning shears from the Japanese Garden. Several cuts were made to get through the heavy stem.

The top view of the cut crown shows 2 flower buds along with 2 folded, emerging pads. All of the bigger lily pads were cut off before the crowns were sliced off. Note all of the thorns. The stems, undersides of the pads, and the flower parts all have these spiny thorns. These lilies have great plant defense in the wild.

This last photo is a side view showing all of the old stems from the pads that were cut off. The most pads we had on one lily at a time this year was 15. Wind gusts of 10-15 mph can overturn the pads very easily, and this accounts for the majority of our damage.

You can look for the return of the Victoria Water Lilies to the Visitor Center pools, sometime in early June of 2012.

Harvesting in the Edible Garden

The Edible Garden has been closed to the public since Labor Day weekend, but the staff here at Como have been maintaining the remaining plants throughout the fall season. This is because all of the produce grown in the exhibit goes to the zookeepers here at Como, and is given as treats and enrichment to many of the animals here at the zoo. We have been harvesting plenty of tasty produce throughout the season. Some of the things we are still harvesting in the garden this time of year include: tomatoes, peppers, beans, kale, swiss chard, eggplant, squash, beets, parsnips, pumpkins, watermelon, and a variety of herbs. Here are some pictures of a few of our animals enjoying some of the harvest.

This is Nils, a De Brazza's Monkey enjoying some onions.

This is Markisa, one of our Orangutans eating an eggplant.

Here are some photos of the garden last week

Considering we've only had one or two light frosts in the Twin Cities, the garden is still looking great for this time of year! There are certain vegetables that can tolerate cooler temperatures than others. Broccoli, kale, mustard, onions, parsley, peas, and radishes which are all found in the garden, can withstand a pretty hard frost. Other more tender plants such as swiss chard, eggplant, melons, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, and squash can be damaged by a lighter frost. Inevitably our cold weather will be the demise of most of the plants in your vegetable garden but hopefully you (or the animals) have had a chance to enjoy the harvests while you can!

Only A Few Days Left To See The Summer Flower Show!

Summer Still in Bloom for the Garden Guy: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Possible seeds?? Big tuber!!

We discovered these seed looking structures this week on our corpse flower, BOB,too. After the initial excitement, it was determined that these were not viable seed and the reddish orange fruits were empty....

This is the large empty looking pot in the support greenhouse that holds the tuber for BOB,too. The structure sticking out in the middle is actually the base of the inflorescence. The strange looking material on the left is the dried up inflorescence.

It was thought that we might have some seeds that had developed!!

After opening all the red berry looking structures, it was found that they were all empty. So sad......


But there is a bright side to this story! Here is our Corpse Flower grower with the tuber of BOB,too!! It looks healthy and has only a few spots of rot that were treated. The tuber weighs 43lbs and 3/4 ounces! That is a change from the pre-flowering weight of the tuber. In December 2010 the tuber weighed 55 lbs 1 ounce. Now we need to get this tuber back in the pot and allow it to develop the big leaf that will channel more nutrients back into the ever growing tuber!

43 lbs and 3/4 ounce!

Blooming Corpse Flower Follow up!

As we were looking over the Gardener Blog from the great blooming Corpse Flower event in June 2011, we happened to notice that there were not any photos of the fully opened inflorescence (flower). So, to finish that chapter in the story of this great plant, here are a few photos of BOB,too the day after it started to open! This plant finally reached a height of 6'3"!!!

Edible Garden Featured on FOX-9

You'll find it at the Como Park Zoo And Conservatory in Saint Paul. It's an 8,000 square foot garden that looks more like the produce section of the grocery store than a garden. Garden Guy Dale K. stopped by for a bite.

Edible Garden at Como Zoo: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com