Today, I spent the entire day (ten hours!) working in the greenhouse with other officers from Geeky Science Organization. We completely reorganized the plants by sunlight and watering preferences, as well as relocated the work station, set up a shade cloth (I never did like all those tension problems in Physics... But now I wish I remembered how to do them!), cleaned up and arranged the close to eight thousand pots we found under a counter, and hauled fifteen buckets of gravel from one bed to another. We found a secret colony of Chandelier Kalanchoes in the three centimeters of space between a bed and the wall, and had some fun grouping plants by name (thus, Mother-in-Law's Tongue is next to Dragonfruit, Wandering Jews next to Moses-in-a-Boat, and Ghost Plant next to Resurrecting Fern!).
I arrived before everyone else and had some time to take pictures before work began, but have not yet taken pictures of the finished work, as we were all too exhausted to do much more than go home!
Welcome to the greenhouse! Please, allow me to take you on a tour... As you can see, it is a bit messy in here. But don't worry! We are going to clean it up today.
This is our beloved Pencil Plant. It is older than any of us who work here. Sadly, it has been feeling somewhat blue (or rather yellow) recently, and is dropping branches all over the place.
Our work station is rather congested--there is no room to move and too many pots to fill!
As you can see, we have a fine collection of Agave, grown from cuttings collected on the big Agave on Main Street.
In the back are our mothering plants, plants that take a long time to grow, or simply plants that no one can identify.
Our succulents! Our pride and joy. We have native plants as well as many Kalanchoes from Madagascar, Cacti, Sedums, Ghost Plants, and many more.
We have a bit of trouble keeping the more rambunctious of our tenants in check--this Climbing Aloe has a mind to exploring.
Under the A/C unit, we keep plants on a raised shelf to avoid flooding problems. After all, this is a very old greenhouse.
Back here, it could almost be a forest. The Ferns and Mother-in-Law's-Tongues are growing tall and thick.
We are very proud of our Jade plants, but are having quite a bit of trouble propagating them. They grow so slowly and are so picky!
Lately, we've been experimenting with ornamental compositions to see if they sell better. People really like the tiny Texas Sedum!
In fact, they are so successful that I have begun to grow them in tiny little glass jars.
A single cutting dropped in there will grow up in only a couple of weeks.
This being, after all, a scientific organization, we receive most of our glassware and plant donations from research labs around the University. We make the most of everything!
Cacti are one of the most frequent demands we receive, yet they are quite hard to grow and propagate. Fortunately, we found a nest of little offshoots hiding in the gravel behind a pot of Sotre-Sotry Plants.
Ghost Plants, also known as Mother-of-Pearl Plants, are very popular because of their pretty color and elegant structure.
College students love Mother-of-Thousands: they barely require any care, are almost impossible to kill, and constantly make more of themselves. We love them for the same reason, but regularly have to weed out the greenhouse because they will grow everywhere--even on concrete and metal!
We have only two Bear Paws, but wish we had more. They look adorable, but grow so slowly!
I arrived before everyone else and had some time to take pictures before work began, but have not yet taken pictures of the finished work, as we were all too exhausted to do much more than go home!
Welcome to the greenhouse! Please, allow me to take you on a tour... As you can see, it is a bit messy in here. But don't worry! We are going to clean it up today.
This is our beloved Pencil Plant. It is older than any of us who work here. Sadly, it has been feeling somewhat blue (or rather yellow) recently, and is dropping branches all over the place.
Our work station is rather congested--there is no room to move and too many pots to fill!
As you can see, we have a fine collection of Agave, grown from cuttings collected on the big Agave on Main Street.
In the back are our mothering plants, plants that take a long time to grow, or simply plants that no one can identify.
Our succulents! Our pride and joy. We have native plants as well as many Kalanchoes from Madagascar, Cacti, Sedums, Ghost Plants, and many more.
We have a bit of trouble keeping the more rambunctious of our tenants in check--this Climbing Aloe has a mind to exploring.
Under the A/C unit, we keep plants on a raised shelf to avoid flooding problems. After all, this is a very old greenhouse.
Back here, it could almost be a forest. The Ferns and Mother-in-Law's-Tongues are growing tall and thick.
We are very proud of our Jade plants, but are having quite a bit of trouble propagating them. They grow so slowly and are so picky!
Lately, we've been experimenting with ornamental compositions to see if they sell better. People really like the tiny Texas Sedum!
In fact, they are so successful that I have begun to grow them in tiny little glass jars.
A single cutting dropped in there will grow up in only a couple of weeks.
This being, after all, a scientific organization, we receive most of our glassware and plant donations from research labs around the University. We make the most of everything!
Cacti are one of the most frequent demands we receive, yet they are quite hard to grow and propagate. Fortunately, we found a nest of little offshoots hiding in the gravel behind a pot of Sotre-Sotry Plants.
Ghost Plants, also known as Mother-of-Pearl Plants, are very popular because of their pretty color and elegant structure.
College students love Mother-of-Thousands: they barely require any care, are almost impossible to kill, and constantly make more of themselves. We love them for the same reason, but regularly have to weed out the greenhouse because they will grow everywhere--even on concrete and metal!
We have only two Bear Paws, but wish we had more. They look adorable, but grow so slowly!
The same plant had two different-colored flowers. But why?
And finally, here is our rogue Malabar Spinach--six feet long and still growing. We collect its seed pods as soon as they ripen in the hope that there will be no spinach surprises next season!
5 comments:
Odd, I've found jade plants easy to root from cuttings - next time you visit, ask to see the big one on the back porch brought from the left coast as a stub.
- Ellen.
rambunctious: One for Scriptor's word blog.
Splendid seeing that to which you refer so often. It is good to see people in the context of their surroundings.
I echo GB (something I do a lot!) it's always interesting to see the environment in which fellow bloglings are growing.
I loved the tour of your greenhouse! So many plants, so little time!
What a wonderful post! Thank you for this lovely tour.
;^) Now I want to go out and find some of these plants and try my hand at growing them.
;^)
I stopped by because I do hope that everything is ok in your world...
GB was concerned on his post....
please do take care....
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