See What's Cooking For Valentine's Day Dinner

Chef Art appears on KARE-11 preparing the delicious Valentine's Dinner.

Orchid Show

The horticulture staff has been busy preparing our display for the Winter Carnival Orchid Show this weekend. Visit the Orchid Show on Saturday & Sunday, January 29-30, to see an incredible exhibition of hundreds of orchids from the private collections of Orchid Society members as well as specimens from the Conservatory’s extensive collection. The plants will be displayed throughout the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory and vendors will also be on site with a selection of orchids available to purchase. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 3-12 ($1 off admission with Winter Carnival button).

Garden Guy Dale K. takes you on a tour of the Conservatory

Garden Guy at Marjorie McNeely Conservatory : MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Bobby & Belinda Visit the Sunken Garden!

Holiday Flower Show From KARE-11

Pruning The Palms

This past week three horticulturists spent a day pruning some of the largest palms in the palm dome. We have a geni lift that can extend our reach to over 20 feet. We then can use pole saws to extend up to another 20 feet.

The first palm we pruned was the Desert Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera. The leaves can grow as large as 3-6 feet across. The petioles which connect the leaf to the trunk can be up to 6 feet. So the entire frond can be up to 12 feet long.

Another palm we pruned was the Princess Palm, Dictyosperma album. The feather shaped leaves on this palm can be as long as 8-12 feet long.

The last palm we pruned was the Queen Palm, Syqgrus romanzoffiana. This is the tallest of all the palms we have in the Palm Dome. The Queen Palm can grow as tall as 50 feet. The fronds can grow to over 15 feet.

We needed to groom the older fronds for both cultural and aesthetic reasons. This also gives us an opportunity to evaluate our insect populations.

Triangle Palm

This past week the Horticulture staff transplanted a Triangle Palm, Dypsis decaryi into the Palm Dome. There is currently an older Triangle Palm in a nearby location which is almost touching the ceiling. Triangle Palms can grow to about 50 feet in height. At some point the older Triangle Palm will need to be cut down because of it's height. We want to get this younger palm established so that we can continue to have this variety of palm on display. It has a very unique shape. This palm doesn't transplant well but is a fast grower once it is established.

The Trianle Palm in native to the Madagascan rainforest. The fruits are high in nutritional value. This is an attractive plant and we hope you get a chance to see this palm in it's new location.

Inga

It has been a couple of years since the Inga Tree has been pruned in Tropical Encounters. Pruning is an involved process because we have to bring out tall ladders and extendable pruning tools. It is sometimes difficult to maneuver ladders in the plant beds because of plant material in the beds and the unlevel soil in the beds. The Inga in a very vigorous growing plant so we did prune it back quite hard. It well grow back quickly. There were also vines growing in the Inga which we wanted to remove.

Ice Cream Bean is another name for this plant because the seed pod looks like a bean and parts of the pod tastes like vanilla ice cream. Inga is a companion plant for shade grown coffee because it grows so tall. Birds like to sit on this tree because it is such a tall plant in the Tropical Encounters exhibit.

Sunken Garden Holiday Show

This week horticulture staff have been busily creating the Sunken Garden Holiday Flower Show. The mums and accent plants that made up the Fall Flower Show were removed Monday morning with the help of 10 volunteers. After that the beds were prepped and the poinsettias came rolling in. Staff worked from a hand-drawn plan to place the plant material. The poinsettia pallette is a very traditional red and ivory, with accents of multicolered coleus, purple alyssum, and juncus.

The conservatory received its poisettia crop as rooted cuttings in June, and staff have diligently grown them in the greenhouse. Poinsettias are subjected to shortened day lengths to stimulate the growth of their characteristic brightly colored bracts. Despite their popularity during the coldest time period in our climate, poinsettias are actually native to Central America and love warm temperatures. When you visit the Sunken Garden during the Holiday Flower Show, you will surely enjoy a warm, festive retreat.

Brrrrr!!!!

Well, in case you didn't notice, it seems as though winter is here to stay! We had a wet heavy snow move through on the 13th that caused quite a bit of damage to some mature trees around campus. We filled 5 or 6 dump trucks full of debris to be hauled away to compost. We also had our cities forestry crew come in to take care of broken and damaged branches that we could not reach up in the canopy of many trees. A lot of the branches were buried by the icy heavy snow, and will have to be cleaned up in the spring once all of the snow melts.

In addition to storm cleanup, our outside crew is putting some final touches on grounds before they leave for the winter. One easy way to spruce up a somewhat dismal landscape is to put out some winter display containers. Using only materials found on grounds (most from that storm damage), and using cut-back perennial materials, we have put together some pots in front of our office building on the zoo. We used cuttings from evergreens including white pine, Chamaecyparis, and a Douglas Fir with interesting pine cones. We also used cuttings of red-twigged dogwood, miscanthus flame grass (silver plumes), and chasmanthium (oat-like seed heads). Using all of this material, we arranged the cuttings in a pot of soil, and then watered it in. These plants are no longer alive, and don't need water, but the cold temperatures will cause all of that water to freeze, and hold everything right in its place. The best part about these displays are that they are free! You might not have all of these materials in your yard, but think about what you do have. Any everygreen branches will provide color and structure all winter. Grasses add a flowing look, and many hold up all winter long. Colorful branches, such as the dogwoods are a great added touch. Also, any plant with berries adds that extra pop (if the birds don't eat them all!). You can also find some interesting curly willow, or branches with a unique form and structure to add interest. Hopefully this will inspire some of you to try out a beautiful winter display of your own!