This week's Germination

Today the club germinated some seeds for the spring, and hopefully the shamlocks will grow by Saint Patrick's Day! Our Triumvrate decides to grow avacado pulps next week. More ideas soon to come!

Descriptions are from www.thompson-morgan.com

Aquilegia caerulea
Description:
Possibly the most beautiful Aquilegia of all. With glorious light to deep blue flowers 2-3in across sometimes fetching bi-coloured with white. An excellent border perennial, grand for cutting, in bloom for several weeks and will grow in sun or light shade. Flowers late spring/early summer.

Height: 30-35cm (12-14in)

ALyssum Snow Crystals
Description:Distinctly larger flowers than "Snowcloth" and "Carpet of Snow" which while still small, in their overall combined effect make for a whiter, cleaner appearance. Very neat, compact and uniform in growth.

Height: 8-10cm (3-4in)

Dephinium Hybrida "White Swan"
Description:
From T&M's own breeding comes this amazing dwarf delphinium. Pure white, tightly packed, short spikes, held well above deep green foliage, on dwarf, compact plants. Being early flowering, makes this ideal for planting in the front of a border or in containers.

Height: 30-38cm (12-15in)

Shamrocks
Description:
Great for little window displays! A Saint Patrick's Day Classic!

Greenhouse Club Officers 2007-8

Triumvirate presidency:

Malika Dickson
Catherine Droser
Ngoc Duong

Blog Editor:

Vyvy Nguyen

Secretary:

Lori Hobson

These officers were chose by a very informal process: they stood up. If you would also like a position of some sort, please let me know.

Hat's Off To Mr. Moy And His Students

Mr. Moy and his students have been making excellent use of the greenhouse plants as subjects for drawings Here are some of the drawings. Clicking the photos will enlarge them.

Greenhouse Improvements!

We have heat! Ms. Aaronsson has gotten us the big three elements our greenhouse was missing: electricity, water, and finally heat! I think we can supply the rest to make the greenhouse (or outdoor classroom, as it is originally described) a success.

Now that we shouldn't lose plants to frost any more, we can build a collection of tropical plants for beauty and educational purposes.



Above is one of the Passionflowers that I've brought into the greenhouse from my last trip to Logees. It's an astounding greenhouse nursery that sells thousands of kinds of greenhouse plants in little pots for reasonable prices. I also picked up a banana plant, a coffee tree, and a number of other things that mostly have no common names. (Only botanical Latin names.) We should run a field trip there to get more!

Welcome To A New Season For The Greenhouse Club!

We're starting off with some beautiful plants that survived the summer in the greenhouse, and a number of baskets of ivy geraniums from a neighbor of mine. In addition, we have more than a hundred packets of seed, and will order still more as time goes on.



Last year's crop of seedlings was a huge success: faculty snapped them up, making several hundred dollars for the club. Above is Tomato 'Sugary F1 Hybrid'. It's indeterminate, which means it never stops growing. Faculty report phenominal success with this variety, and it's still fruiting in the greenhouse right now.

Below is Zinnia 'Candy Cane'. The zinnias bloomed in my garden until frost last week.



We'll grow a large assortment in the winter and for the spring. Top requests are for more tomatos and herbs: can do!

This year we've got around 24 club members so far. It will be a challenge keeping you all occupied, but there's no end to the exciting projects we can do in the greenhouse. Growing plants for sales is just the start: we can also run experiments, create ecological habitats, compost, and a host of other exciting things. You choose!

June Summary: A Success!

This past year, we had quite a successful spring growing season! We covered two of the 8x4 foot tables with well-grown seedlings of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. The long window bed was filled with beautiful seedlings, which grew throughout the summer. The results were just beautiful

Most of the growing was done by the dozen-strong Applied Academics Greenhouse Club, but my math students were clamoring to do things in the greenhouse as well. I indulged the seniors in my Discrete Math class, and they planted a number of flats.

Here's a photo showing off some of the early-blooming seedlings.



These seedlings were sold mostly to faculty, though of course the students who grew them also got some to take home.