Bye Bye Victorias!

The victoria waterplatters are sadly coming to an end for the season. These tropical plants are native to the Amazon, and are not enjoying our cool weather here in Minnesota. Even though the water is heated to a toasty 80 degrees, it is time for them to come out. These plants all get composted when we take them out of our pools. Once they are out of the water, they dry up and get papery, and crumble. We cut off all of the pads and buds, and leave the crowns, or the growing points of the plants in the soil they are planted in. Once all of the plant material is out, we will drain the water and dig the crowns out of the soil.

The Fall Show Begins This Weekend

The conservatory staff is spending the remainder of this week completing the installation of this year's Sunken Garden Fall Flower Show. This display is predominated by chysanthemums, but also includes ornamental peppers and rex begonias.

While mums are an autumnal standard in American horticulture, they have been cultivated for thousands of years in China. The plants we grow today are hybridized versions of the original species; there are various flower shapes, colors, and habits.

The conservatory received 1600 rooted cuttings of the mums back in late June and the horticulture staff has been growing them in our greenhouses since then. Mums require short day-lengths (which are actually longer dark periods) in order to set flowers. In the 1940's growers discovered that this is the key to inducing uniform flowering on mum crops. Today, we use black shade cloths to manipulate the amount of light exposure our mums receive each day to ensure a very uniform and predictable crop. We also use cultural techniques, like bud removal, to create different growth habits. Since our greenhouse climates are carefully controlled by a computer system, we can also vary the plants' temperature exposure. This can allow us to "speed up" or "slow down" flower development as needed. All these elements help create beautiful and healthy plants for the display.

The Fall Flower Show opens this Saturday, October 11, at 10 a.m. Be sure to visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory's Sunken Garden to enjoy this lovely display.

Water Garden Tear Down

As the seasons change here in Minnesota, there are many plants that need to come in from the harsh elements of winter to be stored for next spring. One main area where this happens is in the water gardens. The water gardens have been on display in the pools in front of the Visitor's Center since early June this year, but many of those plants are tropicals and need to be taken in for the winter. Throughout early September, there have been a couple of gardeners collecting many of the plants from the pools. Some of the plants have storage organs such as tubers or rhizomes that can be collected and stored in a cooler until planting next spring. Others need to be taken in and dried down to go though a dormant period. Some we keep wet and green all winter long, and are almost treated as house plants. Some plants we will just grow or buy next spring. There are many different requirements for the vast variety of plants grown.

To help with this process, on September 19th we had a great group of students as well as their supervisor come from AFSA High School to help us tear out the plants and soil from the water gardens. We focused only on the Marginal Side, or unheated pool, which had about ten 60 gallon horse troughs as planting containers. The first step was to chop down any remaining foliage that was not going to be saved. Then we composted the top layer of soil that had all of the roots in it. Last, we had to empty all of the soil from all of the tubs so we could remove them for the season. This was a long day of some pretty physical labor, but with all of the help we were able to get it done.

The Victoria side of the pools is still filled with plants, because the water in that side is heated to 85 degrees, allowing the plants to withstand a little bit more cold. However, if you haven't seen these beautiful plants yet, come and see them soon because depending on the weather, they will be coming out within the next week or so.

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!