Spring Flower Show Started

We opened the spring flower show last Saturday March 21st. This year we chose a color theme of yellows, reds, peach, salmon and white. The show features many spring bulbs and cool season flowering plants, including Tulips, Daffodils, Ranunculus, Hyacinth, Freesias, Snapdragons, Pansies, Primula and Crocus. We will be replacing the spring bulbs two times during the show. After about 12 days a new group is planted to keep the show fresh. The spring show runs through April 26.

Spring has Sprung

Sunken Garden Show Change

Spring is almost here! This week we are in working in the Sunken Garden installing the Spring Show. Besides removing the flowers from the old show and installing the Spring flowers, there are many other maintenance activities that we try to squeeze in that week. The pictures show two of the projects the Horticulture Staff and some of the Tradesmen are working on. We clean the reflecting pool out twice a year. The Tradesmen are replacing a bad motor that controls the opening and closing of the vents. Other routine maintenance that we do during the show change includes pruning the Italian Cypress, cleaning the decorative star lights, and occasionally replacing all of the soil with new soil.

Vanilla Orchid

We are excited to see our Vanilla Orchid has started blooming in the North Garden. There are 5 buds in this flower cluster and 3 have opened so far. Vanilla is a vining orchid which needs to be mature and at least 30 ft. long to bloom. Ours has reached ~ 35 ft. in length and these are the first flowers we have had in many years . The staff has attempted to hand pollinate the flowers and we hope to see pods in a few months.

The beginnings of Victoria Water Platters

The horticulture staff has planted the Victoria Water Platter seeds. Once the seeds have been planted they are put into a tub of temperature controlled water. The temperature is kept at an average of 80 degrees. It takes several weeks for the Victoria seeds to germinate. It's hard to believe that those tiny seeds produce such a large plant. The Victoria pads can span 6 feet in diameter! You can see the Victoria Water Platters at the Visitor Center pools starting in June!

Repotting a Giant Orchid

This week the Horticulture staff is working on repotting our largest orchid, an Angraecum eburneum. This is an orchid from our collection of almost 1200 orchids. We like to use fresh mix in the orchids every two years. The Angraecum eburneum has been in this pot and soil mix for at least five years. We are concerned the soil mix will start rotting. This is a specimen orchid and we do not want to divide it. The concern we have is lifting this heavy plant without damaging it. We came up with the idea to use the lift that we use to move our soil bags. This has been a very exciting repotting experience.

Kapok Tree

This week we had another big event happen in Tropical Encounters. The Forestry Dept. came in to cut down the kapok tree which was touching the top of the glass structure in TE. The room at this point is 45 feet. Kapoks can grow up to 180 feet. Kapoks are a very fast growing tree. In order to cut the tree down the forester needed to climb up the tree, tie a rope to it and knotch the tree so it will fall in the direction he wanted it to. Then he pulled on the rope in a controlled manner from the ground. This routine was repeated several times. We did leave a 12 foot section and this will resprout. Please come and look at the shorter kapok in Tropical Encounters.

Balsa

We are very excited to see that our Balsa tree in Tropical Encounters is blooming this spring. This is the first time that it has bloomed at the Conservatory. Balsa is a very fast growing tree that is growing in our light gap area. The light gap area in the rain forest is an area where trees have fallen that allows a good amount of light to enter an area of the forest. Because this is a fast growing plant we have to continually prune. Balsa easily becomes to big for our space. Now that we have had the balsa flower we are hoping that we will have our own seed source. If we have our own seed souce we can continually start new plants as we need them.

New Growth In the Green House

It is now the beginning of February and the Horticulture staff can tell that things are changing in the greenhouses. We can feel that the angle of the sun is getting stronger. The green houses are noticeably getting warmer during the day. We can tell that the days are getting longer. It is no longer dark when we start out our day. And as you can tell from the picture we are beginning to see new growth popping out all over the greenhouses. This picture is of a cycad that is growing in the palm house. Please visit to see all of our new growth.

Winter Show Opens

Today January 29th we are very excited to open the 2009 Winter Show. We worked very hard this week planting in the Sunken Garden. The featured plants we have in the show are azaleas, velthemia, cyclamen, cineraria, oriental lillies, amaryllis, pansy, and primula. This was an extremely hard show change because we had to dig out and then replace all of the soil in the sunken garden. We are thankful to the extra volunteers that came in to help with that process. Please come to enjoy our new show.

We will now be preparing for the next show which is the spring show featuring spring bulbs.