Annual MN Bonsai show and Sunken Garden Summer show

The annual MN Bonsai Society show was Mothers' Day weekend. Members brought in their trees for the two day display. The Bonsai Gallery is now open for the Ssummer with some of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory collection on display.

The Summer Flower Show was installed in the Sunken Garden during the week of May 2nd- 6th.This show features Geraniums, Roses, Petunias, Gerbera Daisies, Alternanthera, Hydrangea and Hybrid Lilies.Every week we do some changes to the display as plants finish blooming or an area needs rejuvenating. The show runs from May 7th to October 2nd.

Preparation for Japanese Garden Opening!

This year the cleaning of the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden was delayed by about a month because of snowfall in March. The Japanese Garden is quite shady, therefore the snow took longer to melt. Despite the delay the Japanese Garden will be open to the public on May 1st, with the tea ceremonies starting back up mid May!

There are many things to do in preparing for the opening of the Japanese Garden. For starters all of the fallen branches have to be picked up and composted. All of the leaves that fell in the Fall have to be raked up and removed from the centers of the bushes. The pool is cleaned out, filled with water and dyed black. The water is dyed to cut down on algae growth. Any dead foliage and flowers are removed from plants. The burlap and the tree wrap that was used to cover some of the smaller pines to protect them from winter burn is removed. Mulch is added to all of the beds and occasionally additional gravel is added to the pathways. Lastly, cleaning up after the resident red fox and owl! You must come and enjoy the fruits of our labor! Enjoy the before and after pictures!

Summer is Near

It is a busy time in the production greenhouses as summer approaches. The Horticulture staff, Interns and Volunteers are busy transplanting plugs and seedlings into larger pots in preparation for planting the indoor and outdoor summer gardens.

The Spring Flower show will end on May 1st. We have been busy replacing the spring bulbs as they fade. (~ every 9 days after planting) It is a very fragrant and colorful show. Come in and enjoy the last few days of the show.

Anxiously awaiting the Victoria Water Platters

The Victoria Water Platter lilies were planted from seed in the beginning of March. It takes the seeds a couple of weeks to germinate. The seeds germinate in temperature controlled tubs of water. Victorias are native to the Amazon therefore the tubs are about 80 degrees fahrenheit. The Victorias will be going out to heated pools that are in front of the Visitor Center the first week of June. The Victorias are about as big as a large grapefruit now, but can grow to be 6 feet in diameter!

Mushrooms: More than just delicous to eat!!

Last February, Forestry worked at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory removing and pruning trees in the North Garden, Palm Dome and Tropical Encounters. The Horticulture department also recently hired a new Horticulture employee that has an interest in growing mushrooms! Our new mushroom expert suggested that we try growing mushrooms on the stump that was leftover from Forestry cutting down a large Mackaw Palm in Tropical Encounters. We decided to give it a try. Traditional methods of stump removal could not be implemented because of the birds in the exhibit. The picture to the left shows Forestry removing the Mackaw Palm.

The first step was to get the mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus - the Oyster mushroom) growing on grain. The grain was colonized and transfered onto sawdust. Once the sawdust had been colonized it was used to cover the stump and shoved into cuts that had been previously made. The sawdust and stump were covered with a plastic pot and landscape fabric for a week to allow the mycelium to jump from the sawdust into the stump. After one week the cover was removed, the material was well watered, and then covered with soil. We hope that the soil will hold in the moisture needed for the mycelium to grow, rot the stump away, and hopefully produce mushrooms in the process. The picture to the left is the covered inoculated sawdust and the picture below is the uncovered sawdust with white mycelium growing.

Preparing for Spring

The Horticulture staff is busy installing the Spring flower show in the Sunken Garden. On Monday March 21st staff and volunteers removed the Winter show to prepare the room for Spring planting. Some of the plants from the Winter show are reused from year to year. Azaleas, Amaryllis, and Velthemia are moved to the production greenhouses, cleaned, pruned, and repotted as necessary and grown for next year. Plants with spent flowers like cyclamen, cineraria and pansies are removed from the show and the tops composted. The soil balls are ground up and pasteurized for reuse. The new Spring show will feature Tulips, Hyacinth, Snapdragons, Hydrangea and other spring bulbs and flowers. Planting continues thru March 25th. The show opens Saturday March 26th.

Forestry pruning in the Japanese Garden

Every February & March St. Paul's Forestry Department prunes in the Japanese Garden. They prune the Austrian pines on a rotating basis (ex. one year they will prune half of the pines and the next year they will prune the other half). The purpose of prunning these pines is partially done for aesthetic reasons, but also for the health of the pine. The lower branches can be shaded out by the branches above and can die as a result. Prunning the upper branches lets more light into the lower branches preventing this from happening. Aesthetically, the pines are pruned according to Japanese Gardening standards. Any new growth is thinned by removing growth upward or downward of the branch. In general the branches fork into two branches and then continue to fork by twos, any growth extra of this is removed. You can see a good picture above of a tree that has been pruned and one that hasn't. The tree to the left of the Forestry employee has been prunned, the tree that the Forestry employee is in has not.

FOX-9 Visits The Winter Flower Show

Thanks FOX-9 & Dale K. for stopping out! The Winter Flower Show is on now through March 20th. The Sunken Garden will be closed March 21 - March 25 to prepare for the Spring Flower Show

Marjorie McNeely Conservatory Tour: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Forestry in Tropical Encounters

Recently the horticulture staff received some help from the City's Forestry Department to do some tree maintenance in the Tropical Encounters exhibit. Some of the large trees in the exhibit were beginning to out-grow the space and needed to be pruned back or removed completely. The horticulture staff typically does plant maintenance in the exhibit but when it comes to the removal of very large trees, the forestry crew is better equipped to tackle such a task.

This giant McCaw palm had reached the top of the exhibit structure. Removing it was no easy feat, especially considering that the trunk is covered in very sharp spines!

The crew also pruned the Balsa, Kapok and Hogplum, all of which were outgrowing their space, and removed the tallest section of a Peach Palm which was pressing on the glass.

Orchid Show Awards

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s exhibit at the 2011 Winter Carnival Orchid Show was a great success. Not only was it awarded an American Orchid Society show trophy and a best of class trophy, this year’s display was also awarded the American Orchid Society's Gold Certificate!

The coveted American Orchid Society's Gold Certificate is given only a handful of times in any given year. To qualify, an orchid exhibit must score a minimum of 90 points on a nationally standardized scale that is intended to recognize exceptional artistic or unique arrangement, educational value, creativity and artistic skill. Displays that receive Gold Certificates are exceptionally beautiful in the eye of the judges present not just well-executed, or technically well-done in their application of the principles of design. They possess a “wow factor” that is difficult to describe. This display, housed in its own room and designed to maximize the impact of numerous skylights and the natural sunlight provided, gave the viewer the impression of walking into an orchid-laden jungle.

Many individual orchid plants within the exhibit were also given awards including:

10 first place ribbons
14 second place ribbons
10 third place ribbons
1 Certificate of Cultural Excellence award for Angraecum eburneum ‘Como Conservatory’
1 Certificate of Cultural Merit award for Paphiopedalum swanianum 'Don McNeely'
1 Best of Class trophy for Laelia moyobambe 'Greg McNeely'