Friday, April 28, 2017 –Acclimating plants, Rain & Coleus, Geranium Rooted Cuttings, Brick Yard

Our first task this morning was to move more plants out of the greenhouses to the shaded benches for acclimating. We filled up several more benches with plants but there is still a little room left for more next week. 

Since it rained most of the day we didn’t get to work on the grounds or plant any flowers. Instead we worked in the greenhouses trimming back the Coleus plants and giving them a “Haircut.” These Coleus plants will be held back as next year’s “Stock Plants.” They will be used to obtain cuttings from for the following spring. Next winter thousands and thousands of cuttings will come off of these plants.

We finished the day harvesting cuttings off of the Geraniums “Stock” plants. We only cut three shoots from each parent plant to propagate new geraniums. Each Geranium plant is unique with its own name, leaf pattern & foliage scent and flower pattern & color. The flowers are brilliant with color and the foliage is very fragrant.

In the afternoon during our free time we volunteered to help in the “Brick Yard” making bricks. Elder Hughes and Elder Ercanbrack were the tour guides while we were there. They helped us make bricks and set the type to be imprinted on the bricks.

 

While we were in the Brick Yard the kiln had just been fired up with a full load of bricks. The kiln will take a couple of days to bake the bricks completely. The temperature inside the kiln gets up to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit.