Botanical Gardens - Orchid lover's dream

[My Green Pets]

This collection is way more massive than I expected. I can't believe they are not paying you though. You are doing a job for them!

[jmmehler]

@troythediver Darndest thing. I’m sure the high humidity and air circulation is key. In the ‘before’ picture of the Phalaenopsis, you can tell that the bark has completely composted by how low the level is in the pots. You can also see the aerial root development that has progressed in the years that have transpired since they were last repotted. In the picture showing the mineral deposits you will also notice how low the media is in the pots due to the bark being completely composted. Those cattleyas are living in damp compost. I will also speak with the grower about his chemical use and post his reply. As the main greenhouses are just now being re-established (first function this weekend), after a complete renovation, the orchids, have for the most part sat in a ‘growers’ greenhouse with heat in the winter, ventilation in the summer, and plenty of water.

@RandomGemini You are right, mayonase brings out a beautiful luster in all plants. I simply add a little bit of mayonase to water, and using a rag or sponge, wash the leaves of orchids, and house plants without rinsing it off.

@CabriaWhat Nope, not getting paid. Probably not getting any acknowledgement either. Then again, getting a fortunes worth of knowledge and experience, just by turning into the gardens on my commute to work (hmmm early morning decision, work? or play? Tough desicion). Heck, I'd pay money for this.

[BettyE]

This is very kind of you to do this re-potting work for these orchids...they are grateful, and they & I THANK YOU! BettyE.

[epiphyte78]

Personally I'd prioritize working on the least common species that needed the most help. I'd divide them up...repot/remount the largest divisions for the botanical garden and then distribute the smaller divisions among the best growers in the society. Not keeping all your eggs in one basket will infinitely increase their chances of survival.

[Chatbud]

C'mon, you should be paid for this.
Why do they keep this gh when they have no expertise in it or no help to do the upkeep?

I'd expect to see more blooms in such a grow space. The whole place looks neglected.

[nikkik]

It is awesome you volunteer your time like this! My orchid society also volunteers for a local conservatory that doesn't have the appropriate amount of staff to help. The conservatory is kept running because of the volunteers. When budgets get cut the first place money is taken from is places like this, that's why they ask for volunteers, so they can keep it open and the plants alive.

I second Betty and thank you for your time and for being a great person! We need more people like you in this world!

[tropterrarium]

As a curator at a natural history museum, I see the situation from the other side. We have WAY more stuff in need of being taken care, than in-house staff can handle. External funding is VERY limited, and we are appreciative of any person volunteering.

The flip side is, the volunteer also benefits: access to interesting material, many people appreciate the social aspect, opportunity to go behind the scenes not open to public, interaction with staff knowledgable in all sorts of things. For instance, any of our volunteers can sit down with me to do an extended private session on our scanning electron microscope. If they have something to look at, I'll pop it in. As in the add punch-line, that is priceless. We will also match the volunteer's interest with jobs that need to be done.

A paid person, on the other hand, will be told what to do, and it usually is the less glamorous stuff, yes, even less glamorous then repotting plants.

Have fun helping out in the orchid collection. You will learn a lot, and your contribution is going to be much appreciated. It's a win-win situation.

Re potting, I assume they have a temperature and humidity recorder somewhere. If not, at least a thermometer and an RH meter. See what the mean values are, and what the hi-lo readings are. Given the size and the number of plants, most likely it is a pretty stable, high-humidity (~70-80%) environment. That bodes well for mounting. However, mounted plants are more labor-intensive, need to be watered more regularly, also over holidays. So here's the practical consideration: is constant and consistent care ensured? If the plants should be fine for say 5 days without water, then mounting is possibly not the best idea, and rather lower the watering frequency. Potting/mounting/media type is not right or wrong, but depends on the remainder of the culture conditions. Think about color coded tags for each pot with daily, every other day, once a week watering requirements; some may also require dry rests. If you can, possibly group plants with similar culture requirements on the same bench/area, but talk with staff about this before moving things around.

Re water spots, a RO system would possibly be a wise investment, particularly for the more odd-ball species. Not cheap on that scale, but I assume the garden is a 501c3 institution, so contributions are tax deductible, and hardware expenses are the easiest to find donors for. The hard fundraising is for salary of people. May be have a chat with some of the gardeners/curators, but approach it gently. There are many competing interests and lots of politics involved at any institution. Ideally, it may take 2-3 years to get an RO system set-up. But it may never happen.

Hope that helps.

[jmmehler]

So yesterday, I had my Buddy, Ronnie B, come in from Bessemer, AL and help me assess the situation. Together, we came up with a plan. Ronnie has a large, well set up, green house, with about 450 orchids, and spends his days tending to them, and researching on Orchidwiz. We have 13 tables that appear to be 4’ x 12’ and for the most part orchids are grouped by table.

There are also dozens of hanging baskets, about 20 large Bulbophyllums, several smaller ones, a few dozen vandas, et al.
There are overhead misters, that are still coming on, for 15 seconds, every 15 minutes. Yesterday, at 3:30 PM and about 70 degrees outside, the gas heaters were coming on. One of the staff comes in and waters them about once a week. I will be speaking to the Grower and asking if the timers are set to daylight savings, what is the winter temperature setting, and if they will be using the misters throughout the winter.

We decided to start on the uni-foliate cattleyas. According to Ronnie, the bi-foliates should not be touched yet. While we are employing triage, and MASH type tactics, progress is still slow. We repotted, and re-tagged only 10 large cattleyas in almost 3 hours (probably a couple hundred more to go). For mass re-pottings we employ some very simplified procedures. We are not washing anything, as introducing water will just make a giant mess. We have a container with diluted TSP to disinfect our pruners. We have a spray bottle of Physan 20, that we use for loosening the roots from the pots, and disinfecting the roots after pruning. We also use it to clean off the tags so we can read them and update them with the repotting date. Our ‘mass production’ procedures are;
1) Select the plants
2) Strip off sheathing, prune spikes and dead foliage while still potted
3) Loosen roots from pots
4) Remove the plant from the pot, cut of all but 2 inches of roots
5) Cut off all back bulbs that have no roots (between 1/3 and ½ of the plant) and spray with Physan
6) Fill the bottom 1/3 of a pot with large (1 – 2”) pieces of granite
7) Place one of the tags in the bottom of the pot
8) Plant and clip the plant in a bark and cedar mix purchased from OFE in Miami.
9) Insert the remaining tags on the back side of the container

It will be interesting to see how they fare, as they had been in a very wet rotted environment for so long, and somehow learned how to thrive.

---------- Post added at 11:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 AM ----------

@tropterrarium Thanks for your comments. You are so right in so many ways. Sad, but true societies run on money, and plenty of it. At our last orchid meeting, the director of the gardens gave us a presentation of the remodeled greenhouses, and the future plans. It is not enough to just solicit and receive large donations. Large donations must also come with a maintenance plan. Once a building or structure is funded, it takes money to maintain it for years to come. We have 3 public greenhouses that are about to be re-opened very soon. The main one is for the ‘Wow’ factor. A smaller greenhouse on the left is for deserts or arid plants. Another, smaller one on the right will be for regional plants. Plans are to solicit funds to expand these by adding 2 smaller houses on the ends. This is where the ‘science’ of donation solicitiation comes in.

They hope to upgrade the regional greenhouse to incorporate aqua-culture, in addition to the various Alabama environments. This would serve as an environmental teaching environment.

One of these will be set with movable pots, so that it can be quickly re-configured for large corporate or social events. The other one would be for medicinal herbs. As Birmingham has several large medical research facilities. The thought is to seek funding from them.

While I use RO water at home, I don’t see it being introduced at the gardens anytime soon. Strangely, it does not seem to affect the orchids. I did not even get a chance to clean off the cattleyas that I repotted yesterday.

There is a lot to be said for volunteering. As far as I’m concerned, the less attention I get, the better. As you mentioned, I am not told what to do. I do seek out very experienced assistance, but as much as I love the members of my society, I would just not have the time to ‘govern by committee’. My buddy, Ronnie and I made some decisions, and are trying to maintain a simple set of standards, so that the plants can strive under the care of staff that has no particular experience with orchids.

While we have a very large supply of slat baskets, We seem to be out of hanging space under the misters, and it is difficult to get a close up look at them when they are ten feet off the ground

There is a lab in the main building, and we are allowed to use it. I would love to try propagating seeds, but that is another world I could get so lost in, and I simply do not have the time. Still, it is so tempting, as there are over a dozen seed pods throughout the greenhouse. No telling who the pollinators were.

[No-Pro-mwa]

I think it is wonderful of you to do this. I think volunteering is a great thing for people. I use to volunteer at our local animal shelter, I did that for years it was very rewording.

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by jmmehler

There are dozens of cattleyas and dendrobiums in rotted medium, also covered in mineral deposits. I lifted up a gigantic dendrobium whose root system had completely rotted out. While the medium was lava rock, it was so old that the algae, roots, and other debris kept it too moist. I’m tempted to over winter them in empty clay pots. Could use any and all input







Thanks

Suggestion for repotting the Catts and Dens. We have been using a rock material called Stalite mixed with charcoal and some sponge rock. These guys love it. We have a lot of rain here in the summer and using this we have no medium breaking down, great drainage and when repotting comes along just move to a bigger pot medium intact. It is available at a Landscaping rock supply in Miami so I have to drive a ways to get it but well worth the drive. Less expensive than other S/H material. Comes in small and large size. Large is perfect for the catts and dens. Small is too small.