Vine maintenance

Today it seems B... and Curator J... had not planned anything for me to do. So we all scratched our heads, so to speak, for a few minutes while Al and B considered the possibilities. Finally, we decided there are several plants, particularly on the vine bench, in need of cleaning. The scale insects and subsequent black sooty mold collect on the leaves and decrease the plant’s vigor. And, the black curled leaves are unsightly.

I collected three of the vines and brought them outside to the little courtyard next to the workroom. Outside I was able to freely move around the plants scrubbing off the mold and the scale insects. The most affected vine was the Thunbergia mysorensis. The other two vines were Euphorbia heterophylla (Mexican fire plant) and Tetrastigma voinierianum (chestnut vine).

After cleaning, pruning, and repositioning the vines, B mentioned the Zamia plants across from the vines were also heavily infested with scale insects and sooty mold. I spent the last half hour cleaning two of the small plants. But, there are more on the bench in need of cleaning. I will add them to my list for next week.

Meanwhile, spring continues in the greenhouse. These plants are all located close to the vine bench. Two of them are close to my heart:

On the left is Medinilla magnifica from Asia; on the right is Begonia brevirimosa from Malaysia.

Sidenote: B told me that the new student-worker V... had caught a cockroach in the hall. He brought it into the greenhouse and fed it to one of the pitcher plants!

Comments

Thrip control: peppermint and clove

Here's a question: how many natural plant scents do you find repellent? The one that comes to the top of my mind is the scent of the newly blossomed corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum . It smells very much like the name implies. If I could produce a scratch-and-sniff blog post, I would be tempted. The odor is horrible to humans, but sweet to some flying insects which are also attracted to rotting flesh. But perhaps you cannot tolerate the scent of clove, or eucalyptus? Insect pests are like us in this respect. Pests in the garden and greenhouse Insects, arachnids, fungi, and viruses. Their numbers are legion. The battle is constant. The most effective weapon is vigilance. In addition to vigilance, there are biological controls made from natural compounds which are generally non-toxic to humans. Included in this category are essential oils. For example cinnamon, rosemary, sage, neem, clove, peppermint and many others. These oils are repellent, and even toxic, to many of the pests...

Remembering my former city garden

This post is more of a journal entry than a public blog post. It is interesting to me, but won't be too interesting to almost any other reader - except perhaps my partner who was there as a co-conspirator. I want to document my thoughts about the past, my backyard garden, and what we put in it. The size of our city lot was not large. At 100 x 50 ft, there was just enough room for the house, a small garage, and back yard. The driveway was shared with our neighbor. The style of the house was standard American Foursquare, built in 1903. We bought the place in the early 1990's and slowly, over the next 25 years, renovated almost every inch the house and garden. A dry stone wall was built, with terrace bed to break up the height of the wall Caladiums and dragon-wing begonias line the steps of the front porch Well-earned sit-down on the front porch after a busy day Front wall terrace with blue phlox, hostas, astilbe, snap dragons, and coral bells. Front wall terrace, brunnera "J...

Dorset Coast, UK, 2024

I've had the privilege of visiting the United Kingdom a few times, but I had never visited the English Channel or the south coast. On a recent backpacking trip up the Thames River with friends in the county of Oxfordshire, my partner and I took the opportunity to explore a small bit the coastal county of Dorset. Route to the Dorset Coast We had ended our hiking trip up the source of the Thames River in the town of Cirencester, in Gloucestershire. From there, we took a train south to Bristol, then continued south on a train to Dorchester, in Dorset. From there, we caught a double-decker bus to Bridport. In Bridport we hiked with our meager backpacks a short distance down to the connected harbor village of West Bay. Bridport and West Bay, Dorset Since we didn't have a rented car, public transportation was our only option to get around. We chose the town of Bridport and the connected harbor of West Bay as our base for exploring the coastal trails. We chose this location because:...

City Gardener

Search This Blog