Beautiful Fall Colors in the Japanese Garden!

With the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, the Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden is open later than usual and is offering breathtaking views!


KMSP-TV

New Addition in the North Garden!

We have a new addition to the North Garden, a Ma'afala Breadfruit Tree! We believe we are the northernmost Conservatory to feature this variety of Breadfruit Tree!

With this addition the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii receives a net licensing fee and, in turn, gives half of that fee to the Samoan government where the plant originated. Como is helping people halfway around the world through conservation!

Come See Our 2014 AAS Display Garden Landscape Design!

For the third year in a row Como Park Zoo and Conservatory is participating in the All-American Garden Landscape Design Contest! The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory received a third place award in 2012 and we are hoping that our 2014 garden display will once again be recognized.

Our display is located in front of the Visitor Center and surround the "Welcome" sign.

Some of the flowers displayed include:

Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit'
Salvia 'Summer Jewel Red'
Zinnia 'Double Zahara Fire'
Zinnia "Profusion Double Hot Cherry'

What is an AAS Display Garden?

An AAS Display Garden provides the public an opportunity to view the newest AAS winners in an attractive well-maintained setting. Additionally, Display Gardens can provide educational programs about the AAS trialing and award process during "open house" or "field day" events during their peak growing seasons. If they choose, Display Gardens can participate in a Landscape Design contest using AAS Winners.

A typical Display Garden is a public botanic garden or arboretum, a municipality, a garden retailer, a university garden and many others.

The network of nearly 200 dedicated AAS gardens includes 55 locations that have served for 25 years or longer. The earliest AAS Display Garden, Norseco, Inc. of Quebec Canada became an AAS garden in 1962.

2014 American Garden Award Gardens are in Full Bloom!

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory has planted all of the entries in the 2014 American Garden Award program and they are ready for viewing and voting. The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory is one of thirty-two prestigious public gardens participating in the nation’s only flower popularity contest, the American Garden Award. This is a unique opportunity for the public to view, choose and vote on a specific flower that they think has the most appealing garden characteristics. Each of the four “contestants” listed below is now planted in our garden and vying for your vote.

Contestants for this year's award can be found in front of the Visitor Center.

As of this month, fewer than 100 votes separate the top three contenders so your vote can make an impact.

Join in the fun by voting in one of three ways:

1)      By visiting our garden, viewing the flowers, then texting the code found on garden signage to a given polling number

2)      By using postage-paid voting ballots located at the garden.

3)      By going to www.americangardenaward.com and clicking on the voting button

The four entries are:

Celosia Arrabona Red

Cuphea Sirracha™ Violet F1

Foxglove Digiplexis™ Illumination^® Flame

Petunia Sanguna^® Radiant Blue

Voting will remain open until September 30 and winners will be announced in October. In the meantime, these flowers, as well as some of the past American Garden Award winners are available at your garden center. Ask for them by name! The 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 winners can be viewed at www.americangardenaward.com

Follow American Garden Award on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the voting results!

www.facebook.com/americangardenaward or @AmerGardenAward

The American Garden Award program is administered by the All-America Selections^®  Display Garden program. AGA entries have not been trialed nor awarded a winner status by the AAS^® Trial Judges.

The Chipotle Edible Garden is Now Open!

Celebrate The Incredible & Edible with Chipotle at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory this Summer!

Como Park Zoo & Conservatory is serving up scrumptious garden fun for the fourth year in a row in the Chipotle Edible Garden, which opened Friday, June 13.

The Chipotle Edible Garden will feature an array of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. All plants are grown from seed and every plant in the garden has at least one edible part. It is an exhibit for visitors of all ages, designed to teach about planting and preparing foods that can be grown at home. The Como Zoo gardening staff hopes the exhibit will offer visitors an appreciation for how easy it is to grow a large variety of plants in Minnesota.

The exhibit opened Friday, June 13 and run through September 29. Trained staff and volunteers will be onsite from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. to answer guests’ questions. At 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. daily, the Conservatory gardening staff will give gardener talks about growing techniques, ways to harvest and prepare food from your garden, natural pest control, and creative edible landscape design. The garden display covers more than 8,000 square feet and is south of the Visitor Center.

In 2013, Chipotle Edible Garden staff harvested 972.5 lbs. of produce for the Saint Paul Recreation Centers’ various cooking classes and summer programs, and 231.2 lbs. that were fed to Como Zoo animals. The goal for 2014 is to exceed last year’s harvest, which totaled 1518 lbs. Some of the more interesting plants grown in the garden this year include purple cauliflower, “Small Wonder” spaghetti squash, Luffa gourds, Chinese cabbage and eight different varieties of cucumbers.

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere.

Through our vision of Food With Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food from using ingredients that are not only fresh, but that—where possible—are sustainably grown and Responsibly Raised™ with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. In order to achieve this vision, we focus on building a special people culture that is centered on creating teams of top performers empowered to achieve high standards. This people culture not only leads to a better dining experience for our customers, it also allows us to develop future leaders from within. Chipotle opened with a single restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 1,650 restaurants including six ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen restaurants, and is an investor in an entity that owns and operates one Pizzeria Locale. For more information, visit Chipotle.com.

 

Check out this video from a previous year’s Edible Garden

 

 



A Breadfruit Tree for the North Garden

We have a new little breadfruit tree growing in one of the behind the scenes greenhouses. But it is not just any breadfruit tree—it has a great story!

In December 2012, a Collections Gardener read an article from the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii. The article, titled “Samoa benefits from Hawaii Garden”, explained that the Samoan government received a check for $5,203 from the first year of breadfruit tree sales. But we need to back up a bit to see where our little breadfruit tree fits in to this story.

In the 1980’s, Dr. Diane Ragone, Director of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, spent several years collecting breadfruit varieties in the Pacific’s tropical areas. A collection of breadfruit trees was established in Maui forming the Breadfruit Institute. Dr. Susan Murch, from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, used tissue cultures to micro propagate several of the breadfruit varieties. Currently two varieties originating in Samoa are being mass produced for the commercial market.

The National Tropical Botanic Garden has an understanding with the Samoan government that allows half of the fee collected when the trees are sold to be returned to the Samoan government, hence the check that was presented at the end of 2012.

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory currently has a rather large breadfruit tree in the North Garden (our economic plant room). This tree was planted in the room almost 20 years ago and is getting to be too tall for the 29’ room. The Collection Gardeners wanted to display breadfruit since it has an important role in the global food security story, so the hunt to find a smaller variety that could be used as a replacement for the large tree began.

That gardener found one of the micro propagated Samoan varieties and had it shipped to the Conservatory. A volunteer gardener aide who assists in the North Garden found out about the plant search and volunteered to purchase the new, smaller breadfruit for the Conservatory (Thanks Bob!).

Our new tree arrived a few days ago. It is a variety called Ma’afala and is about three feet tall. It was shipped from a nursery in Miami and will spend some time in the greenhouse before eventually making its way out to the North Garden.

We are thrilled to be a part of this wonderful story of conservation of the breadfruit tree!

John Powell Visits the Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden

Last week marked another visit from our Japanese Garden consultant, John Powell. John hails from Weatherford, TX where he runs a successful Japanese Gardening business. While he has many local clients, he also frequently travels the country to tend to other gardens, including the one here at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory and the garden at Carleton College. The focus of this visit was the continued work on the renovations that began in early 2012. The larger projects in the main garden have been completed, and John was pleased with the progress on the finer details. Together with several of the Horticulture staff John carefully walked through the garden, outlining exactly what looked good and what needed to be pruned, removed or transplanted. One focus is on texture. Certain plant material exudes a coarse texture where a finer texture is preferred. This is especially important near the entrance to the garden as your eyes transition from the “western” landscape design of the Pine Grove Walk into the flowing natural landscape of the Japanese Garden.

John’s vision, and his initial recommendations for the garden renovations, very closely mirror that of the original designer, Masami Matsuda. With John’s experience in the garden at the Adachi Museum of Art in Japan he has the classical, expert training to interpret Mr. Matsuda’s long term vision for the garden. The garden is closer to the original design now than it has been since the renovations under Mr. Matsuda’s supervision in 1991. As the day progressed, John consulted on a variety of areas of the garden, including the Tea House and the Tea Garden. The next phase of renovations will be in these areas and work will focus on updating, improving and fixing certain things that have aged over the years. That afternoon John agreed to fill our Gardener Talk slot with a little more information about what he has done here at Como and where he sees things going. Staff, volunteers and visitors alike were treated to a rare talk from the perspective of the brain behind the changes in the garden.

That same afternoon we were lucky enough to give a few more distinguished guests a tour of the garden. Both guests have played instrumental roles in the success of the Carleton College Garden – currently ranked eighth in North America. Dr. David Slawson is the author of several Japanese Gardening books and a DVD, as well as designer of the garden. Bardwell Smith is the John W. Nason Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Emeritus at Carleton College and former Dean at the time of their garden installation. These two gentlemen are deeply involved in the Japanese Gardening world and had very positive things to say about the progress and current state of our garden. To have such well respected figures praise our garden is truly a wonderful thing, and a testament to all of our hard work.

From left: Reva Kos, Bardwell Smith, John Powell, David Slawson, Adam Strehlow, and Charlotte Smith 

By: Adam Strehlow Horticulturalist, Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden

KARE-11's Grow With KARE Spotlights The Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden

Como Zoo & Conservatory reaches milestone in 10-year expansion | Minnesota Public Radio News

Como Zoo & Conservatory reaches milestone in 10-year expansion | Minnesota Public Radio News

Yearning for spring? It's always summer at Marjorie McNeely Conservatory - A MPR Audio Story

Minnesota Sounds and Voices
Yearning for spring? It's always summer at Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
March 20, 2013


Minnesota Sounds and Voices
This ongoing series produced by MPR News' Dan Olson serves to capture memorable sounds, voices and images that reflect the culture of Minnesota.