The Temperate area is shut again for 4 - 5 weeks a) to fix the shading and to clean the glass inside. They have contracted a German company, it is estimated that the cost is £150,000. They have 5 cherry pickers and four pressure washers. It is a Dutch company that cleans the outside of the Glasshouse annually. They have planned for cleaning the glass inside to be perhaps a bi-annual affair. The Glasshouse team themselves annually do the gable ends (where they can reach). So it was a huge inconvenience for everyone - Tropical is open but they have go around the back of the Glasshouse to access it - they have been worried about the control of the doors there (too much opening and closing and that area losing heat and humidity, but it has been okay so far. The vivid Colour from Seed exhibit was moved to the corridor, but it is deadly quiet as the signage is perhaps too small and no one realises it is there or not so bothered to come and see it specifically. People are curious about the corridor when they come to the Glasshouse, but the draw is mainly the Glasshouse itself.
Whilst the Temperate section is closed - the Washingtonia robusta in Arid that has grown too big for the house has been cut down by the Arb team. Like the Ravenala that was cut down before Christmas last year it is one of the first plants placed in the Glasshouse, so is one of the oldest and biggest plants. They also saw it as an opportunity to change the bed with new planting, potentially making it a new 'Proteaceae' bed. It involves digging everything out by hand and mini-digger. Everything that is saveable or worth doing so is potted up. Then all gravel needs to removed from the top and sieved and then the soil in the bed be taken out and changed.
 |
| Photo 1: Soil agitator machine to sieve and separate stones from soil. Where everyone is standing over is where the Washingtonia was, and now is just a stump to be dug out by a mini-digger. |
Dasylirion taken out of the of the beds were hard to pot up because of their size and because some of them had sharp leaves. We cut the base of the leaves so that they would fit in a pot better, but so that they didn't lose their shape and could be used in Display again if necessary. The soil mix was 50% PFS, 25% small gravel, 25% cornish grit - quite a dry gritty mix, very free draining. Their roots systems were surprisingly small for their size.
 |
| Photo 2: Cutting off the bottom leaves of Dasylirion longissimum, trimming the leaves down was like cutting matchsticks. |
 |
| Photo 3: A particular spiky Dasylirion sp. with it's leaves bunched back to make it easier to cut off the bottom leaves. |