Field trip to Linville farms and Chaddsford winery

Weather: Overcast, cool with a breeze most of the day. Occasional warm sun.

So today was an all day field trip. We meet at 9 and then drove about 40 minutes to Linville orchard (Map). Going there I was under the impression that it would just be an apple orchard, and we'd maybe talk about techniques like pruning or something. But well Linville Orchard turned out to be more of an entertainment centre. Its fall, so there were masses of pumpkins, giant scarecrows, hayrides, mazes, and a lot of kids on school field trips. They also have a market and bakery selling things like apple cider donuts, pies and preserves. We got a tour from the farm manager in a tractor pulled trailer. We trundled around and occasionally he'd stop and talk about some aspect of the business. It was interesting as he talked very openly about finances. Linville seems quite opportunistic. Eg, they can no longer use fallen apples to make cider because someone in the state got e. coli. But rather than leave them to rot, they gather them and sell the to kids to slingshot at targets set up in a field. So after touring Linville and stopping for apple cider donuts and coffee we drove to Chaddsford winery, which is only about ten minutes down 1 from longwood.

At the winery we were given a tour of the facilities. I was a little surprised as they didn't actually have any vines (apart from a few demonstration) as they're at another site about 30 miles away. But we were shown the process (separating grapes from stalk, crushing, primary fermentation, casking, bottling etc), and she explained a little about different varieties and styles. After the tour we had a wine tasting. It was some of the first wine Ive drunk here ( I dont buy it here because the liquor shop is ages away). So fun to try some American wines. There were a couple I quite liked. One I hadn't tried before, warm apple cider wine. Was, ok. All in all a good day.

Potting more bulbs with Juergen

Weather: Light rain until about midday. The overnight low was about 45oF, with a high of about 85. Its a little warmer at night thean usual, with the first frost aapparently occuring around the 17th. There is no frost forecast for at least ten days. Koa was saying the other day that the weather this year has been a little unusual, with a drought over summer and a wetter fall. So who knows what winter will bring.

So the morning was a bit of a mess today. After working with Jason yesterday I was meant to be working with Koa for the rest of the week. It took awhile to find him as he didn't have a radio or mobile today, and then at about 9am Juergen requested my help with bulbs. I'm not too sure where Ill be for the rest of the week, probably bulbs... Which is a bit of a shame as Koa is installing the Mum chandelier tomorrow which will be a fun project. Oh well.

So after moving to Juergens area we made a run over to abonde to stock up on peat and vermiculite, and we then made a few batches of soil.
And for the afternoon we potted bulbs. We potted about 50 Hippaestrum 'Minerva'. Juergen said Hippaestrums are his most expensive bulbs, at around $5 wholesale. This particular batch came from South Africa. Like the other bulbs, the are composted at the end of their season as there is not enough space or labour available to keep them... Pretty sad really. They were potted one to a pot in 6 inch pots. Hippaestrums need to be 2/3s out of the soil media rather than being buried, so we lifted bulbs and removed soil media by hand after the went through the filler.
After the Hippaestrums  we potted some Tulipa linifolia, a species tulip that I hadn't heard of before. Tiny bulbs! Seven in a 4 inch pot. I cant wait to see it in flower. http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/?sku=02-1423

Brent and Beckys bulbs is a company that Ive heard a lot about since Ive been here...

Perennial plant conference

Weather: Overcast, cold wind!

So today was the perennial plant conference. Ive been looking forward to it for awhile now, and it lived up to its expectations. It was held at Swarthmore college, a liberal arts school (a very expensive school...) thats campus also incorporates the Scott arboretum (scottarboretum ). Its a beautiful campus, lots of stone buildings, artwork and mature trees.
 The conference itself was about 400 plant geeks in one room. There were five speakers. This from perennialplantconference.org/ 

Eric “T” Fleisher is the director of horticulture at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy in lower Manhattan and a national leader in the field of sustainable horticulture

Dale Hendricks has been growing and propagating plants professionally since 1975 and has been honored with the American Horticulture Society’s Individual Commercial award and the Perennial Plant Association’s Young Professional award.

Holly Scoggins is an associate professor in the department of horticulture, and the director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden at Virginia Tech, where she teaches courses in greenhouse management, ornamental plant production and marketing, herbaceous landscape plants and public gardens.

John Greenlee is the owner and founder of Greenlee Nursery in Pomona, California, the largest native and ornamental grass nursery on the West Coast greenleenursery.com 

Piet Oudolf is a native of the Netherlands, where since 1982 he and his wife Anya run a small specialized nursery and trial garden in the countryside near Humelo. He has designed numerous award winning gardens and public parks throughout Europe and in the United States. www.oudolf.com/piet-oudolf 

They spoke in that order, with Piet being the biggest drawcard. To be cont

Planting bulbs with Juergen

So my help is needed more elsewhere in production. Today (and I think for the rest of the week), I was with Juergen (?) in the G33 houses. Juergen is another of Longwood's international community and is originally from Germany. He looks after a variety of crops, including most of the tender woody container trees (Citrus etc) and Longwoods bulbs. Longwood orders around 500,000 spring bulbs per yer. I cant wait till Spring! Most of that order goes outside (and Ill be planting in the few weeks), but a Juergen plants about 100,000 in pots for the conservatory.

Working the mum field

Weather: Sunny, high of 80

Was working with Koa today. Whilst its certainly getting colder and rainier, theres still the occasional brilliant day. Nice change from Welly really, where even though its spring they're having hail... Work wise, today was a simple day. First off, checked the mums that we transported last week, mostly doing well but a couple had missed water over the weekend... Then went back to the field. I worked on grooming some Chrysanthemum pacificum that will be moved to display shortly. C. pacificum was new to me. It is native to the island of Honshu in Japan. It resembles a standard though its foliage is thicker and more leathery with a distinctly silver underside and margin. Its flowers yellow and more insignificant than most mum hybrids, and it being grown more for its foliage interest.
After I was finished with that, I composted some excess Salvia luecanthas and mums. Quite a shame to see them going to waste really...
Found quite a few Wooly Bears (a caterpillar). There are loads of them around at the moment. Apparently the severeness of the winter can be predicted by the length of their stripe. Pyrrharctia_isabella

Moving mums with Koa and Dean

Weather: Rainy and cold!
So this morning was changeover day, geez it comes around quick! This time Im rotating back through production, and first off Im back with Koa in the mum field. I have hand written entries of my last rotation with Koa which I must write up! Koa runs the mum (Chrysanthemum) fields in the nursery on the other side of highway 1. While Yoko is creating the 1000 bloom Koa is in charge of producing the other forms. This year the include spirals, basket spheres (both large and small), columns, cascades, cloud forms, topiary forms (butterflies)... Its interesting to rotate through again after two months and gives a lot more perspective on the process. Last time I rotated through we (with a team of seasonals who have now left) were doing a lot of training and tying stems down. Since then they have been grown on and trained more, then sheared or pinched. That's a very simplified explanation of a process as all the forms and cultivars are different. Some stretch better, some have to be sprayed with growth regulator, some bud earlier etc... So now everything is budding up and we are moving pretty much everything over to the main nursery complex, where they will then get moved into the conservatory for the mum festival starting later this month.

This month will also see the first frost sometime around the 15th. One thing that I'm not used to is the winterising of the water systems, irrigation etc. Here the water in the pipes freezes and cracks, and for that reason a lot of irrigation systems (eg the mum fields) are closed down and the systems blown out.

So. Work undertaken today was moving mums.... We moved all the cascades with the boxtruck in the morning. Mums are fairly brittle and fragile, and the pots aren't light, so it took a degree of care. And then moved some of the bigger baskets in the afternoon with the bigger truck. It isn't exactly an easy task. Two to a truck and loaded by the bobcat.  There is a custom made Chrysanthemum production facility in the works which would be located next to the G33 houses in Longwood proper which would cut down on all the backwards and forwards driving. But well, it probably wont be completed for a few years yet. It is needed though! Apparently Yokos 1000 bloom mum will barely fit out the doors of her current glasshouse.

Some photos

Koa and his cascades

Unionville fair judging

Weather: Pissing down!

So. Today was a sort of fieldtrip. All the students helped out with judging at the Unionville fair which was held at Landhope farms just down the road on 926. As mentioned before, the weather wasnt so hot. At first I thought the fair would be cancelled, but it turned out it was held in a big barn. The Unionville fair is fairly large, with everyone from kindergaartern kids to adults entering in a range of areas from photography to silage and corn. It was very much a farm agricultural fair. Today was just judging day so there wasnt to many people and when we got there a lot of it was still being set up. I ended up judging 'youth specimen flowers' with Brian Trader (my program coordinator) and Nicole (a PG). Twas good. But it hard be to critical when your judging a 4 year olds 'favourite flower'. Ha.

There was some really good entries though. I loved watching the old time judges of the corn and silage. Scent, texture, it all counts.