"What frightful trouble you have taken about Vanilla; you really must not take an atom more; for the orchids are more play than real work"    

-Charles Darwin in letter to colleague William Hooker   

  As I am preparing for this year’s Orchid Mania exhibit  opening February 27, I wanted to share some history of one very interesting and perhaps most economically important orchid species, Vanilla planifolia. The vanilla orchid is peculiar because it grows like a vine. The fermented seedpods are the source of the flavoring vanillin.

        Vanilla and chocolate have a long history together and have been together long before the invention of ice cream.  One of the earliest record of the use of the vanilla bean dates back as far early 1400’s when vanilla beans along with cacao seeds, from which chocolate is derived, were part of tributes paid by the Totonacs and other Central American tribes to the Aztecs. The Aztecs, Mayans, and other Central American natives used vanilla almost exclusively to flavor and perfume a popular beverage prepared from cacao seeds. 

      In the early 1500’s, vanilla, along with its chocolate beverage, was introduced in Europe and became popular among the wealthy. It wasn’t until 1602 that Hugh Morgan, pharmacist to Queen Elizabeth I, suggested that vanilla could have other uses besides being a flavoring for chocolate. In 1789, Thomas Jefferson, then the U.S. ambassador to France, brought Vanilla to the U.S. from Paris along with a recipe for vanilla ice cream. His hand written recipe can be found in the Library of Congress.

          Many attempts were made to grow vanilla outside of Central America in the first three centuries after its discovery, but the orchids never bore fruit. In 1838, Charles Morren discovered that only bees of the genus Eulaema pollinated the flowers, and they could not survive outside of Mexico. Three years later a suitable method of hand pollination was discovered that allowed vanilla production to spread across the globe. In 1858, vanillin was isolated opening the way for the creation of artificial vanilla.

 Posted by Nate Tschaenn

                Ants are like the mercenaries of the plant world. If given a reward, they will fight to protect plants from grazing animals and insect pests. On the other hand, if the price is right, ants can also be found aiding the sap-sucking insects that feed on plants. With their great numbers and impressive strength given their size, they are certainly a formidable army. So what does it take to have an army of ants on your side? 

                 Well, if you were a plant, one of the best things you could do to bribe a colony of ants into protecting you is to provide them with a home. Many plants have specialized structures called "domatia" in which certain species of ants form colonies. These can be hollowed-out structures like stems, petioles, or spines or cavities and chambers in swollen roots and caudices. As anyone who has ever accidently stepped on a fire ant nest can tell you, ants will aggressively protect their homes.

This ant plant, Hydnophytum, has been cut open to show the chambers used by some species of ants as a nest. photograph © Alex Wild 2004	Cross section of a hollow acacia thorn. photograph © Alex Wild 2007	Cross section of cecropia branch show ants nesting in the hollow internodes.  photograph © Alex Wild 2007

                  Another method that plants use to attract ant guardians is supplying them with food. There are many different examples of plants that provide ants with nectar in extrafloral nectaries. Extrafloral nectaries are special glands that produce nectar outside of flowers. Providing ants with their own nectar source also has the benefit of keeping them out of the flowers so that they do not interfere with pollination. In addition to nectar, some plants even produce specialized food bodies that ants can collect and store in their nests.  

Extra floral nectary on the leaf of an inga tree. photograph © Alex Wild 2007	Ants collecting protein rich food bodies from an acacia tree. photograph © Alex Wild 2007	Food bodies produced a cecropia tree at the bass of the leaves.   photograph © Alex Wild 2007

            Of course, with upwards of 10,000 different ant species, not all of them are plant friendly. There are many ant species that  harm plants by aiding the sap-sucking insect enemies of plants. The insects have something ants want that is just waste to them, literally. Ants actually eat the sugary substance known as "honeydew" that is excreted from a variety of sap-sucking insects. In what is often referred to as "farming," ants will protect their insect livestock, overwinter them in their underground nests, move and position them around a plant, and even "milk" some types of insects by coaxing them into producing honeydew. Unfortunately, we see more of these enemy ants in greenhouses. It can be a real problem trying to control pests with beneficial insects because they will protect their livestock from insect predators.

Posted by Nate Tschaenn

        I’m sure many a Clevelander is affected in some way by the lack of sunlight during the winter months. Even working in a glasshouse, I still miss the full effect of the summer sun .  This time of year the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse is still dark for the first hour that I am at work every morning, and even on the few days that it is not completely overcast, the light intensity is still noticeably less than in summer. Looking around the Costa Rica biome in which I work, it is apparent that I am not the only one missing the summer sun.

 Even the warm, wet, tropical growing environment does not spare the Costa Rica biome from plant dormancy. Plants respond to the reduction in sunlight and slow down their growth or stop altogether. Some trees will lose many or all of their leaves for a couple of months. Some plants even disappear from exhibit all together this time of the year and return again in spring when conditions are more favorable. This is the case with Maranta arundinacea or arrowroot.

    Arrowroot is the first plant to go completely dormant and has been hiding underground waiting for spring for several weeks now. New growth will reemerge in spring from rhizomes and tubers produced during the growing season. The tubers resemble white carrots and can be made into arrowroot powder, which is used in cooking.

    Heliconias, calatheas, ginger (Costus), and a number of gesneriads also produce rhizomes. Although most of them don’t go completely dormant, there is a definite lack of growth and a number of yellowing leaves before new shoots begin to grow from the rhizomes in spring.

Arrowroot tubers	Diastema comiferum	Scaly rhizomes of dormant Diastema

          This time of year corresponds with the dry season in Costa Rica. The rainforests are not as green at this time of the year but the canopy opens up, the orchids are blooming and also more visible, and many of the trees will bloom during this time, some while they are completely leafless.  

            Even though there may not be as many leafy greens in the Costa Rican exhibit as during the summer,  it is still an excellent escape from the cold winter weather. Even while some plants go dormant others come into bloom this time of the year, particularly orchids. You certainly don’t want to miss OrchidMania in March or our amaryllis display going on now.

Here are a few pics of plants in bloom right now:

This sleepy mallow, Malvaviscus arboreus, gets its name from the flowers which never quite open all the way.	This blooming browmeliad is filling in for a dormant arrowroot.	One of my favorite gesneriads, this Kohleria spicata, produces long spikes of red flowers.
Oncidium ‘Twinkle’ - This extremely fragrant orchid can be found blooming throughout the exhibit this time of year.	Panama rose, Rondeletia leucophylla- This shrub is my favorite winter bloomer. Blooms heavily for months starting in late December.	Laelia anceps - The first of several laelia orchids to start blooming this season.

Posted by Nate Tschaenn

WinterShow Amaryllis Display

    The elegant, breathtaking blooms of the tropical bulbs of the genus Hippeastrum, referred to by the common name amaryllis, have made them a staple of the holiday season. The immense popularity of amaryllis bulbs and cut flowers during the holiday season has lead to the development of hundreds of cultivars. The bulbs come in a variety of colors and patterns, including different variations and combinations of white, red, salmon, pink, peach, and even shades of green and yellow.  It was only appropriate that we made festive flowers part of our WinterShow displays. This year we are showcasing a variety of colors and cultivars of amaryllis interplanted with the tropical plants in the Costa Rica biome of the Eleanor Armstrong Smith glasshouse.  New plants and new cultivars will be added to the display every week during WinterShow, so you can be sure that any time you come during WinterShow, you will be seeing bulbs in full bloom.

     

Posted by Nate Tschaenn

      If you live in the Cleveland area, you may have noticed that there are a lot of acorns this year. I’ve certainly been noticing them as they have been falling on my head or crunching under my shoes.  Reports from other places in Ohio are a little more spotty, but we certainly have a good supply here from almost all of our different oak species. What you probably didn’t notice is that last year there were very few acorns to be found in this area.  While you might not give them much notice, acorns can have huge impacts on wildlife and that can affect us or our gardens in turn.

      Squirrels certainly aren’t the only wild animals that eat acorns. More than 90 animal species, including deer, turkeys, mice, and a number of birds and insects also rely on acorns as a vital food source in Ohio. Acorns are highly nutritious, and abundant supplies can increase wildlife populations both in number of animals surviving through the winter and in number of offspring. This, in turn, affects carnivore populations, such as our birds of prey.

    Acorn crops can vary greatly from year to year for a variety of reasons, not all of which are completely understood. Some species of oaks tend to produce large crops in cycles of 2 to 7 years.  It is in the best interest of oaks to produce a ‘bumper’ crop of acorns after a year or two of relatively small crops. Wildlife populations that feed on acorns, especially insects like the acorn weevil, will decrease following years of small crops increasing the odds that acorns produced in a boom year will have a chance to grow.  

     So what does this all mean to us?  Well, a good acorn crop is going to be a good thing for us for now. As long as there are acorns on the ground, the deer are going to stick to the woods and be less likely to be munching in you garden, and the squirrels might just leave your bulbs in the ground.  But populations are also going to increase in the long run. It might be good news for hunters, but if the acorn crops take a sudden drop while populations are high, you can expect to have lots of hungry deer leaving wooded areas, eating your plants, and wandering into traffic.

Posted By Nate Tschaenn

       Some plants seem to wait until the last minute to start blooming. This is the case with the toad lily, a strangely named perennial with a strangely unique flower. The toad lily, in the genus Tricyrtis, is present in the garden all spring and summer but doesn’t start flowering until most gardeners have started putting out mums, kale, asters, and other fall plants. Blooming this late in the year isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just makes toad lilies that much more unique.

      Besides being prized for their exotic-looking flowers, toad lilies are highly valued in the shade garden, being one of the few shade plants that flower in the fall. Though they seem to be growing in popularity, I believe that toad lilies are often overlooked in garden centers in favor of other shade perennials that bloom in the spring and early summer when most people are doing their shopping. Many new varieties are being developed, some with various types of variegated leaves that increase their appeal during spring and summer and can show off the flowers better. One low-growing, variegated variety that is already available is Tricyrtis ‘Lightning Strike’.

     There are about 20 different species of toad lily, all native to Asia. They enjoy moist shady areas in rich organic soil. The flowers are highly variable in their spotted patterns with most being in shades of purple. To me, the flowers look like a cross between a passion flower and an orchid. It’s easy to see why the common name for Tricyrtis in Holland is ‘poor man’s orchid’. No offense to this spectacular flower. I’d highly recommend it for any shade garden.

Posted by Nathan Tschaenn

     Good documenatation and note taking can be  important parts of the long-term maintenance and planning of a successful garden. For example, recording bloom times helps in developing a garden with an excellent succession of blooms, and information about insect and disease problems will help in recognizing patterns that will help in early detection of outbreaks.  Taking down all this information can be time consuming, though. Luckily, we live in a time when digital cameras are very common, and we have the option of photo journaling.

     Each month, I take approximately 70 pictures from different points throughout the Costa Rica biome of the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse.  This way, I can easily record and later find important information about when plants are cycling leaves, bloom times, when plants have been added or removed, pruning times, and even some insect infestations. Also, by comparing  these photos month to month or year to year, I can see if things are growing and improving the way they should, or I can easily spot plants that are in decline and take appropriate steps to get them back on track.

     Photo documentation of the orchid collection has been an extreme help to me. I take pictures of orchids when they bloom and place them all in one folder labeled with their species. Labels for orchids are notorious for disappearing or getting moved around, especially when on display.  With many of the orchids having photo ids on record they can be easily identified when in bloom.

    While taking photos once a month is adequate for the Costa Rica biome,  a perennial garden would probably benefit from more frequent intervals, maybe every two weeks.  Important information that is not easily photographed, such as weather events and fertilizer and pesticide applications, can either be added as footnotes or captions in photo organizing programs or added in a word document to the same photo folder.

I’ve been using photo journaling to help monitor and document this area as it fills in after being redesigned and planted in July and August of 2008. The photo on the left is November, 2008, and the right is September, 2009.

 Posted by Nate Tschaenn

    At just under two years old,  this kapok tree, Ceiba pentandra, already stands an astonishing 15 feet and 6 inches in height.  I planted the tree myself in October, 2007 from a seed less than a half centimeter wide. It didn’t grow very much that first winter, but once spring came, it really took off and was taller than me by the end of the year. The following spring it produced a few flowers. Can you imagine growing a tree to flowering size in one year?  Eventually, it grew so tall that I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get it through the doors of the exhibit if I waited any longer to plant it. 

     The kapok tree is not just a extremely fast-growing, large tree. It’s like the king of the rainforest trees and is the tallest tree in the Amazon rainforest. It towers above other rainforest trees, growing above the canopy into the emergent layer and reaching heights over 200 feet. Because of its size and immense buttress roots, the kapok was considered a sacred tree by many indigenous people of tropical America. The ancient Mayans believed that the kapok held up the heavens with its branches and that its roots extended into the underworld.  A lone kapok tree can often be found standing where all other trees have been cut down because of these beliefs.

     Our kapok tree is planted on the left side of the path, near the entrance just before the leaf-cutter ant log.  I predict the incredible growth spurt will continue next year, now that the tree is planted. Unfortunately, it will never get near its full height with a glass ceiling that is 60 feet high, a mere quarter of its potential maximum height!

Posted by Nate Tschaenn

 Hidden Gems of the Rainforest

     Well, they’re not really hidden. I do what I can to make them as visible as possible, but there’s a lot going on in the Costa Rica Glasshouse, and these small gems may be overlooked by you — our guests!

     Among the most unfortunate victims of their own small size are the miniature orchids of the genus Restrepia. The flowers of these orchids measure at a mere centimeter’s width, but have such striking detail that they are among the most beautiful of all the orchids.  The restrepia orchids bloom on an off throughout the year, and there have been a few recent additions to the collection to increase the chances of having at least one in bloom at any given time. Restrepias, with new wooden labels, can be found on the end of the leaf cutter ant log and on two ‘fallen’ branches in the exhibit along with some other ultra-miniature orchids worth noting from the genera Stelis, Pleurothallis, and Maxillaria.

 Take a close look for some more of these hidden gems, and don’t forget the macro lens.

Columnea schideana (above) has a flower often compared to stained glass and grows as a trailing epiphyte.
	The festive spotted flowers of Sinningia guttata. (above)
		Spotted kohleria flower.
	Fuzzy leaf of Kohleria trianae with red edge (above)	Episcia ‘Suomi’ (above) is an attractive groundcover.

Posted by Nate Tschaenn

The plantings in the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse are, for the most part, permanent — meaning that we don’t rotate plants in and out of the beds very often. Still, plants are added to the exhibit when space and light is available and when plants are removed for various reasons. Occasionally, entire areas are in need of a makeover and get renovated. This summer’s big renovation area was what we call the pupae bed and is located on the right side of the path between the chrysalis case and the lower exit.

Pupae bed before

     The majority of the space was formally occupied by a large, scraggly cane palm that served largely to obscure the concrete wall and supports behind it. It was of little value. I’m a fan of sloping beds, so after the palm and some of the dieffenbachia were removed, I piled up soil as high as I could against the back wall, sloped it down to the front of the bed, and placed some stones to hold it all in. Then, the bed was ready for planting with some more attractive and interesting plants.

Here are a few of the new plant additions:

Close up of Anthurium crystallinum. The white areas around the veins sparkle like crystals.	This anthurium has fairly large heart shapped leaves and can spread over a large area.

Calathea lancifolia is among the most interesting foliage plants, with interesting, patterned leaves that are dark red underneath.	The flowers of the odd aroid Spathicarpa saggitifolia resemble a caterpillar crawling on a leaf — earning it the nickname, "caterpillar plant."

     More flowering plants will be added to this area when they have grown large enough to be planted. The plants and vines will also need a chance to grow in. Here is what the bed looks like for now: