Orchids and bonsai at the state fair!

Over the past week, Conservatory staff have been diligently preparing for the showing of our plants in the Horticulture Building (near the food building) at the State Fair. All day Friday, September 3rd and Saturday, September 4th several orchids from our award winning neotropical orchid collection, and a few of the best bonsai from our bonsai collection, will be displayed. The orchids will be judged by peer judges including three horticulture staff from the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory and an American Orchid Society Judge. In order to prepare for the show, orchid leaves are cleaned to remove superficial defects that could impact appearance such as residues on the leaves from watering or fertilizing. The display for the orchids is also set up in the greenhouse so staff can preview and perfect the display before it is disassembled and moved to the Horticulture Building. Horticulture staff always have to keep in mind how much space is available in the vehicle that will transport our plants, that means limiting the number and size of plants that we send to the Fair as some of the bonsai are quite large. The bonsai also take some preparation. Some of the pots are oiled so that they do not look too dull and the trees receive some final pruning to maintain a finished look. In the end all that work is worth it! All you have to do is show up at the Fair to see them on display!

2010 Lantern Lighting Festival

On Sunday, August 15th the 12th Annual Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival took place in front of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory (MMC) & the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden. This year Bonsai and Ikebana were featured as the theme of the festival. Eight bonsai from the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory's collection were on display at the historic entrance to the conservatory. Bonsai demonstrations were given throughout the evening and the junipers used in the demonstrations were then given away to audience members thru a raffle. If you have not yet been to this festival, mark it on your calendar for next August 21st! Regular attendees look forward to the food, music, dancing, exhibitors, martial arts demonstrations, and the view of the 300 white paper lanterns floating on the water in the Frog Pond & Japanese Garden pool at the end of the evening.

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER!

The dog days of summer are officially here. We are on day 15 of temperatures 90 degrees and higher for the year. Staff and visitors should be very aware of the heat wave we are in. Everyone should drink plenty of water, wear loose fitting clothing, wear sunscreen, and take frequent breaks in the shade. Outlook for next week is predicting mid 70's, that will be very refreshing! Stay safe and cool everyone!

What would you rather have right now?

Gardeners working in exhibits

As horticulture staff, we get to experience what its like to work in an animals home and beautify their surroundings. We start with contacting zookeepers and letting them know that we would like to get into the exhibits to do work. The morning of our scheduled work day we call zookeepers so they can secure animals and unlock gates for us.

Tasks we usually perform in the exhibit are; pulling toxic weeds to prevent the chance of an animal eating them, mowing, pulling weeds, pruning, planting, trimming and mulching. We finish before 10am so the animals have a chance to get on exhibit for the visitors to view them.

When we do exhibit work its nice to see the animals come out for the first time. Sometimes they seem curious about the changes we made. In the Polar Bear exhibits, after we mow, it is very fragrant, the polar bears seem to really enjoy that too.

Flowers blooming in the greenhouse

Most visitors don't get to see much of what is inside the greenhouses at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. Here are a few of the flowers that were seen blooming inside the greenhouse today.

Check out the Blooming Butterflies video from Kare 11

Great Tour of the MMC Courtesy of KARE-11

Is that a bonsai?

Frequently horticulture staff and volunteers hear visitors ask a lot of the same questions. Today we will answer one of the questions heard frequently in the Japanese garden.

A lot of visitors ask if the short scotch pine in the Japanese garden are bonsai. Although the conservatory houses a large collection of bonsai, there are no bonsai in the Japanese garden. The trees in the Japanese garden have some similarities to bonsai but one obvious difference. Bonsai trees are grown in pots, whereas Japanese garden trees are grown in the landscape. Trees in Japanese gardens are pruned similar to bonsai but the root growth is not restricted resulting in larger trees of a similar style to bonsai.

The scotch pine and mugho pine in the Japanese garden are pruned similarly. In spring the new growth or candles on the trees are shortened to reduce growth and stimulate the development of buds on the trees for future growth. The trees are otherwise pruned to remove verticle growth within the pads of foliage to maintain definition between each branch or foliage pad. The branches at the tops of the trees tend to be shorter so that lower branches should have more foliage than the top of the tree. The resulting branches could be reminiscent of steps toward the top of the tree. The shorter branches have a functional purpose in addition to the aesthetic appearance. Shorter branches at the tops of trees allow more sunlight to get to lower branches. In pine trees, when lower branches do not get enough sunlight they die. Again evergreen trees and shrubs grown as bonsai can be pruned similarly but are grown on a different scale.

Japanese garden trees are grown on a human scale. The trees tend to be shorter but not so small as to compare to bonsai.

Keeping cool in the greenhouse

In hot weather like this the horticulture staff is trying to stay cool. Greenhouse crops can also suffer from heat stress. The greenhouse is equipped with a pad and fan cooling system to mitigate the heat in the greenhouse. Pad and fan cooling is an evaporative cooling process. Fans on one end of the greenhouse pull the greenhouse air outside while on the opposite end of the greenhouse, water pours through the pads. Air coming into the greenhouse through these wet pads evaporates the water in the pads and cools the greenhouse. Other circulating fans and vents in the top of the greenhouse called ridge vents are also used to cool the greenhouse.

In this hot weather the greenhouse staff will try to stay cool by caring for ourselves, as well as the plants.

Skipper Garden

The Skipper Garden was created by horticulture staff in 2005. It is an AZA Zoo Conservation Project that was created to raise awareness of endangered and threatened butterfly species. The Dakota Skipper was once widely distributed across Midwestern United States. It has experienced significant declines in the last 150 years.

The Skipper's primary reason for decline is the conversion of native prairie to cropland as well as urban development. The Dakota Skipper depends on high quality prairie habitat for survival, and is an important indicator of prairie health. The last remaining stronghold of the Dakota Skipper is in western Minnesota, northeast South Dakota, and most of North Dakota. We have not specifically seen any Dakota skippers in our garden. Minnesota does have more then two dozen other skipper varieties that are native.

Specific plants attract certain kinds of butterflies and moth species. Adult butterflies choose their favorite nectar plants to feed at, and along with the caterpillars that also eat their favorites. Shelter is important to butterflies too. They like a sunny location and away from prevailing winds. Color is a factor to attract them to the garden also. An example, Monarchs use milkweed as a caterpillar food as well as a nectar source when they are adults, they also lay their eggs on underside of the milkweed leaf. Swallowtail larva feed on parsley and lay their eggs on carrots, parsley and dill.