Crimping steel cables to vine supports

Today is very rainy and chilly.
Curator was out ill today; the greenhouse was manned by Al, B, and undergrad student L. As usual, B had tasks all lined up for me: working on the vine bench, then repotting banana plants in room C2. B is so very organized.

On the vine bench, a vine plant had been moved from a different room. The plant - Thunbergia grandiflora, blue trumpet vine - needed more support. On the vine bench the plant will be allowed to grow up a stainless steel cable to a height of 8 feet or more. But, the cable had to be installed before I could attach the plant to the cable.

To install the cable, I had to loop one end into a double-barrel ferrule, then crimp the ferrule to secure the cable from slipping out. The loop of cable is then attached to another cable running overhead above the vine bench. Several vine plants of different genera are attached to the cable system.

The trick was having to find the crimping tool in the storage room, then learning how to operate the crimping tool. I used Google and YouTube to provide instructions. Luckily, B had provided me with a bag of hardware with multiple sizes of cable and ferrules.

After getting the vine attached, my next task was repotting several banana plants. The plants had started to outgrow and split their plastic tubs. To free the root balls, I broke apart the old plastic pots. I was able to divide three of the root balls, which went into separate pots. Al recommended soil mix 1a. Last week I mixed a new batch of 1a, but this week it is almost all depleted again.

The ladies all left the greenhouse at noon. I stayed until 1p to finish repotting the banana plants. Then, cleaned the work room, and disposed of the old soil.

Photos of the cable work:

Comments

I celebrate learning this about cycad plants

I didn't know that the cardboard palm - Zamia furfuracea - is a cycad. It isn't a palm tree (don't judge me, I'm not a botanist). But it also doesn't look like the other more familiar types of cycads with their fluted upright palm-like fronds. I didn't know it is said to be the second most commonly cultivated cycad, after Cycas revoluta . I didn't know this plant is unrelated to the common ZZ plant - Zamioculcas zamifolia - although they have a similar appearance. Before today I didn't know any of these things, but now I am happy to have learned them. From the parking lot I walked to the U of M Conservatory greenhouse in near-zero F weather. Stepping into the tropical spaces was a joy of its own. But being able to learn new information and experience new procedures was a compounding factor. Joy squared. During my 3-hour volunteer shift, my initial task was to clean the parasite critters (mealybugs and scale) from the stems and leaves of the cycad, Zami...

The eponymous palm of Palm Springs

Tens of thousands of native California fan palms ( Washingtonia filifera) rise over the gardens and streets of Palm Springs. The fan-like leaves flutter and wave as the trees gently sway in the desert breeze. If a plant could be described as elegant, this plant would certainly be one. Delicate fibers peel away from the leaf blade as they age, giving the palm part of its name, filifera . The advantage of the fibers to the plant is uncertain; however, the fibers were used by the indigenous Cuhuilla tribes for tools and fabrics. It is no accident the city is named for the palm. For centuries the native Cuhuilla residents were vastly outnumbered by fan palms. For the Cuhuilla, the plant became an important resource for their tools and shelters. Even today, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of palms outnumber the residents of the current modern city. Bird's eye view over old Palm Springs neighborhood; fan palms are everywhere. In their native environment, the palms grow best al...

Sharp elbows in the desert

How do plants do it... ...some stand-off-ish plants have figured out how to keep their distance from each other. They have evolved clever adaptations - sharp elbows - to keep their neighbors away. This behavior is important for survival, especially in the desert where plants compete for water. I have noticed this phenomenon especially when I've been on a plane flying low over the desert. Where there are plants, they are uniformly distributed but not touching each other. They don't form clumps. They seem to know how far apart to grow. How is that? Why is it these desert plants don't form clumps? They weren't planted this way on purpose (Palm Springs, CA). It seems so obvious to me now that I recognize what is going on, but it took me a few years of hiking in the desert to be mentally conscious of how widely separated, but yet uniformly distributed in the landscape many plants seem to be. How is it that plants are able to keep what appears to be a relatively uniform dis...

City Gardener

Search This Blog