The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Biological Control at the Conservatory

The horticulture staff faces a number of challenges when it comes to keeping the conservatory's plant collections looking their best. One of the most constant is dealing with pest insects attacking the collections. Having so many plants in contained environments, their density and year-round growing seasons create a great opportunity for pest insects to make themselves at home. At the conservatory, we try to choose the most effective and people-friendly (we are open to the public every day) options. The most interesting of which is biological control, or the use of one organism to control the population of another (undesirable) organism. Sure, there are sprays to kill bugs, or even the simple removal of a pest. But introducing predators and parasites to kill pest populations is far more exciting!

Since we grow plants year-round and in such high density, they are much more suceptible to pest attacks. If one plant harbors an insect, chances are the plants nearby eventually will , too. There is no freezing or dormant season,like there is outside, either. We regularly monitor our plant collections, looking for evidence of the unwelcome insects feeding on our plants--this could be something as obvious as spots on leaves or flowers, or something as minute as the perpetrators themselves. We receive shipments of "good" bugs, as often as weekly, and release them in areas where we know we have an issue. The beneficial organisms are often specific to certain pest insects; they are usually predators or parasites that prefer certain species. We can order them from a catalog and recieve them within a week.

Be sure to look around the conservatory and you may see some of our good bugs in action--sometimes there are ladybugs wandering around looking for an aphid snack. This may sound awfully gory, but there is a satisfaction to knowing that the bugs responsible for ruining a stunning flower, or destryong the leaves of a specimen tree, are being devoured by another insect. Or maybe I am just a vindictive gardener....

Reusing Container Plants

Every year on the zoo, we have about 35 planted containers on display around the Visitor Center and Main Zoo Building. This season there were a variety of plants including sumac, purple fountain grass, Japanese blood grass, gazanias, and sweet potato vine planted in the containers. For the first time, we decided to grow a perennial shrub in our containers to later be planted on zoo grounds. The sumac was planted in the containers as a 1-3 gallon nursery sized plant. Throughout the season they have flourished and are now about 4 feet tall.

Now this week we have taken the zoo pots off of display and are harvesting the sumac to be planted alongside the lion exhibit. Sumac is a great plant choice for this area because the lions like the shelter the plants provide, but visitors will still be able to peer through the plants to catch glimses of the lions. We are in a race against the clock as to when the plumbers will shut off our water, so it is essential that we get them planted while we still have access to water to get them watered in. It's amazing how quickly the growing season winds down.

Environmental Maintenance in the Fern Room

Like all of the Conservatory's display rooms and greenhouses, the Fern Room maintains specific environmental conditions. These conditions help create a healthy atmosphere for the fern collection, as well as an interesting and distictive experience for our visitors. The conservatory's fern collection consists of over 100 species of ferns and fern allies. Most of our ferns are native to Asia, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii--places with climates that are very different from the hot, hot summers and frigid winters here in Minnesota. To create the best display for these plants, we rely on a computer system to monitor and maintain environmental standards in the room. The space is cooled in the summer by motorized vents, fans, and a fog system; it is heated in winter with radiant heat from a system of hot water pipes. The ferns not only require specific temperature ranges, but also higher levels of humidity. When the humidity falls below a specified range, mist nozzles automatically turn on to fill the air with additional moisture. Without these controls, it would be impossible for us to display such a large collection of these types of ferns.

We have reached a point where the heat and mist systems we rely on so heavily are in need of maintenance before the cold days of fall and winter. Between the 8th and 18th of September, we will be repairing our heat system and replacing mist nozzles to ensure peak performance for the upcoming winter. While this will temporarily impact access to the room for us and visitors, it will help us be sure we can maintain the best possible conditions for our beautiful collection. We are working daily to keep the plants out of harm's way as the scaffolds go in, allowing workers to complete the installation with minimal impact to the overall display.

The current Fern Room has been open since 2005, replacing a much smaller and less accessable space. Since the opening of this room, we have been able to expand our collection to include larger species, like the towering tree ferns, and some more unique plants, like the staghorn ferns growing up the rock wall.

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory at the Fair

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory had a special booth at the fair this year. The theme this year for the exhibit was "Orchids on a Stick." Many brightly colored orchids were featured. There were over 350 plants to be judged overall contributed by variety of sources. Como Park Zoo and Conservatory won first place in the category of less then 30 plants and also the special prize of Best Exhibit overall. They also won another special ribbon for "Best Specimen" plant which was awarded to Coilostylis ciliaris . Overall Como Park Zoo and Conservatory won 13 First place, 7 second place and 5 third place ribbons as well as the two special ribbons.

Also during the week the lights will be left on in the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. Stop by during the evening to get some great pictures of the lighted dome.

In time for the fair

The chrysanthemums in the greenhouses are growing well for the fall show. In the past week the mums have been on short days. This means that an automated black cloth in the greenhouse is pulled to give the mums no less than thirteen hours of darkness every night so they will bloom at the right time.

Preparation for the state fair orchid show has also begun this week. This is an annual ritual for the hort staff. Right now gardeners are selecting orchids for the display that will be in the horticulture building on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th of August. Gardeners are planning the setup for the display which will be judged and compared with other entries during the short time they will be exhibited. Next week will be busy for these staff as they will be putting the structure together for the display, taking it down for transport and reassembling it again once they reach their destination at the fair. Let's hope for more ribbons!

Working with Education

Today the horticulture staff was able to work with an education camp called "Behind the Scenes." The 16, 6th through 8th grade students or campers have the opportunity to work with the horticulture staff on 4 different projects.

The first project was releasing beneficial insects in the Fern Room. In this case, they released lady bugs. The campers get a dixie cup full of ladybugs and are directed around the room and informed where they can release the ladybugs. We are pretty sure this is their favorite of the 4 projects.

The second project was potting up papaya, that were started from seed and also, potting up an experimental cordyline, which is considered a grass-like tropical, from the original six packs into 4 1/2" pots.

The third project is washing pots. This consists of a big tub of water and disinfectant soap. Since we recycle our bigger pots at Como we need to wash, dry and store them to be used again. The campers felt like they were washing dishes but since everyone was a little wet we think they had a good time playing in the water!

Last but not least, they got to come out on zoo grounds and help horticulture staff beautify a island of trees right across from the Gorilla Exhibit. This consisted of cutting back some daylilies, raking around them, picking up bigger sticks from the evergreens, and then mulching the bare areas. They realized that it was hard work but some thought they could go home and help their families in the garden now! We appreciate their hard work, although some tasks or projects are not that fun, we believe they still had a good experience when they were finished.

Exhibit work and Victoria news

This morning the two gardening staff members that work on the zoo grounds did their magic while performing a scheduled maintenance of the plants in the lion yard. Gardening staff on zoo grounds must communicate regularly with zookeepers in order to perform their regular duties and schedule exhibit work with zookeepers.

Today gardening staff could access the exhibit while the lions were off exhibit. Zoo gardeners have a lot of work to do before 10am so that visitors can enjoy the animals on exhibit. The specific task for today was requested by a zookeeper, that the gardening staff remove burdock plants since they produce seeds that stick to the manes of the lions. Gardening staff that work on zoo grounds have to be especially diligent to search for and remove any weeds that appear that may be potentially toxic to the animals. Other tasks performed in the lion yard were handpulling weeds, mowing, and deadheading flowers. The lions are now enjoying the hard work.

On the conservatory side, the Victoria waterplatters are now in bloom consistently each night. If you haven't seen them yet, come check them out!

Victoria's are ready to bloom!

Our Victoria waterplatters are getting ready to bloom. These are a must see if you have not done so yet! As you may recall 4 years ago we were able to bring the Victoria water platters back to the Como Zoo after being absent for nearly 100 years. Every year it is quite a process that happens behind the scenes to get these looking as awesome as they do year after year!

The flower is also so unique on the Victoria's that it deserves a seperate explanation. The Victoria's are night bloomers. Right at dusk, sometimes earlier in the day, you can see the flower bud crack open. This is a sure sign we would have a flower that night. The first night the flower is white and it has a pineapple scent to it. The second night it reopens and it is now deeper pink. After it has opened twice, it is considered a spent flower and we would remove it. This grooming happens on a daily basis throughout the whole pool.

In South America, where they are native, a Scarab beetle would be the main pollinater of Victoria's. In Minnesota, we tried for the first time last year to pollinate by hand, using a small, soft paint brush. It was a lot of hard work and many hours put in and unfortunately were unsuccessful. We will keep trying till we master the art though!

The water gardens will be up and running till early fall but that is all weather dependent of course! Horticulture staff that work on this day in and day out do a wonderful job! It is the best we think its every looked!! Great job fellow staff!

Pot recycling

Staff on the Como campus are constantly brainstorming ways to have a positive impact on the environment. Como even has a team of staff called the green team that does just that. The following is the result of one idea that came out of this group.

The horticulture department at Como go through lots of plastic pots, cell packs and trays. In the greenhouse behind the conservatory, horticulture staff grow plants for display in the conservatory, the zoo grounds, the carousel, como town, the butterfly garden, and even the water gardens in front of the visitor center. You may not know that we also grow annuals for other portions of the city of St. Paul including, but not limited to, Como golf course, Midway Stadium and downtown St. Paul. In the process of growing all these plants from seed, cuttings or plugs, the plants are often times transplanted from one pot to another, from a pot to a flower bed or moved from a pot to the compost.

Aren't you curious what we do with the pots when we are done with them? I'll tell you. The short answer is that they are reused but since the soil that remains in the pots potentially harbors pathogens and other pests that could damage future crops, our used pots are routinely washed and sterilized by volunteers before they are reused. Reusing pots reduces our costs and saves space in the landfills since plastic gardening pots cannot be recycled through the regular plastic recycling programs. All pots at the conservatory do not get washed however. After a while some pots and are inevitably broken and must be discarded. A year ago the conservatory was still throwing all the extra pots into the garbage. Como's green team was still looking at ways to reduce waste and one team member found that there was in fact a recycling program for plastic gardening pots through the Minnesota Nursery and Lanscape Association. The information for this program was posted on the MNLA website and in the Star Tribune in 2007. The recycling program continues this year and today gardening staff loaded up the van with plastic pots for the second trip this year to have our plastic pots recycled instead of putting them in the trash. Homeowners can do this too. A handfull of garden centers accept the pots so its best to find out before you go.

Hot, Hot Days

Once again it is that time of year where no matter how much water you drink it still doesn't quench your thirst! It has been difficult conditions for the horticulture staff to work when it is so hot and humid. The staff that work on the zoo landscape battle the lack of in ground irrigation. So they are constantly moving hoses and sprinklers to keep grass green and plants happy! The staff that works inside battle the obvious lack of air conditioning since that would not be feasible in a greenhouse. Plus, over half of the displays in the historic conservatory are tropical environments. Adding to that there is a real lack of air flow inside, we count on a few ceiling fans and some help from mother nature once and awhile. Everyday something has to be watered when its so warm and humid and throw in some high winds and you have the cards stacked against you!

Besides keeping up with watering in the gardens, we have routine maintenance, which consists of weeding, deadheading (removing old flowers), mulching, trimming, etc. Our new Blooming Butterfly Exhibit has kept everyone extra busy. We are all trying not to fall behind in our work because it will be that much harder to deal with down the road. Although some things are couple weeks behind from our late spring which helps us out a little. We deal with these conditions year after year but, we certainly don't look forward to the hot and humid days!