Watering the Great Glasshouse in the morning before opening (10am). Damped the floor near the front entrance. Watered a Musa basjoo fine sprayed ferns set in false rocks in Temperate zone, damped floor around that area too. No lance, thumb/ finger over hose to create spray & control height of water. Opened blinds around orchid display. No watering of Plectranthus display - experiencing mildew. Spot brushing dry floor areas. Selected watering in temperate service house - e.g. Salvias & base of tree ferns. Damped floor of tropical house (Begonias & Tillandsias).
After partook in apple selling with fruit team, 5 for a £1. Cooking & eating varieties, examples: Ashmead russet (russet just means rough skin), Sturmer & New Rock Pippins, Bess Pool (gentle sweet dessert type variety), Stark - gentle but firm sweet variety, Nonparlier (one of the oldest apples from medieval times, first introduced to Tower of London), John Constable (gentle flavoured eater). Offered customers to try first.
Sunday
Same watering & tidying as Saturday, plus spraying base of tree ferns in main display area (not the tops). Misting Tillandsias. Watering hanging baskets in Temperate service house. Monitored Glasshouse alarms that have been randomly going off. Worked on Christmas displays - Tillandsia Christmas trees (Photo 1).
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| Photo 1: White fairy lights wrapped onto a pre-made metal conical shaped frame. Then illandsias individually attached with wire from the bottom up. |
Washed pots. Put moth traps (Photo 2) out for sugar beet moths - drills through middle of palms. Introduced by accident at the beginning. There are additional pheromone traps used for disguising male moths as females, so males try to mate with males by accident and don't breed properly.
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| Photo 2: Moth traps put out at night in Great Glasshouse. |