"All Good Things Must Come To An End"

Susan and I began the task of monitoring the bluebird boxes at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden on February 5th of this year. To borrow a phrase attributed to Chaucer from the mid-14th century, “All Good Things Must Come To An End”. And, as this was true in the 14th century, it remains true today. Our monitoring of the bluebird nest boxes came to an end a few weeks ago at the end of August.

The bluebirds at DSBG are still flying about and can be seen perching on some of the nest boxes, but they are through raising their families now. That work is finished until next year but they will still be busy looking for food and shelter to get them through the coming winter.

It was an interesting year on the bluebird trail. We had our share of ups and downs. We were thrilled to see chicks ready to fledge their nests and we were subsequently discouraged to find ant infestations that destroyed both chicks and eggs.

We did make an effort to reduce wasp infestations by putting foil on the inside tops of the nest boxes. But, the wasps were smarter than we were. They just decided to build their nests on the inside sides of the boxes instead. We can’t be certain if this in itself was helpful to the bluebird population but we did see an increase in eggs laid and chicks fledged this year. We cannot really do an apples to apples comparison of the data as we began monitoring later in 2008 than we did this year, we foiled the inside tops of the boxes and we also relocated some of the boxes from 2008 to 2009. With so many variables it is difficult if not impossible to draw conclusions.

In 2008, we recorded 28 total nests, 103 eggs laid and 56 bluebirds fledged.

In 2009, we recorded 28 total nests, 132 eggs laid and 67 bluebirds fledged.

The one thing we can say with certainty is that DSBG provides 33 nest boxes for the bluebirds’ use and the bluebirds used them more this year than last year. In 2008, bluebirds built nests in only 17 of the boxes. And this year, 21 of the boxes were used for nest building.

Even though the Eastern Bluebirds have finished their family business for this season there are still plenty of birds to see when visiting the garden. With the fall migration, it is a great time to visit the garden and observe the birds passing by. Susan and I will continue to come to the garden during the fall migration and we hope to see you there as well.

They're Here!

It’s that time of the year again where The Orchid Conservatory and the Garden becomes home to some very special insects, butterflies! Some of the species we have this year include monarchs, painted ladies, swallowtails and mourning cloaks. The most fascinating part is some of the butterflies we receive come to us in the form of a chrysalis.

The beautiful butterfly you normally see goes through a long process before it becomes what you see. Everyone knows the short version of metamorphosis: caterpillar-larvae-butterfly. In our regular gardens, you may come across caterpillars. The Garden has some naturally so we don’t order any of those. For our Something’s A-Flutter exhibit, we receive butterflies both in the pupae stage (a chrysalis), and adulthood (butterfly).

Our first order of chrysalides came in on Tuesday. Enthusiastic volunteers and staff were armed with cotton balls and pins ready to prepare these little gems for display. We receive the chrysalides from butterfly farms via UPS or FedEx. When we get the package, the chrysalides are packed in foam cases, with individual slots. We’re expecting to receive several hundred chrysalides a week! After gently removing the chrysalides, we create artificial silk by taking a tiny amount of glue and gathering a small piece of cotton ball so it sticks to the chrysalis. Usually in nature, this silk would allow the chrysalis to hang from a twig, but we just take pins and hang the chrysalis up by the cotton.

Chrysalides are different depending on the species of the butterfly. The most impressive chrysalis is the monarch. With its seafoam green case and sparkling gold accents, the monarch chrysalis looks like the focal point of a fine piece of jewelry. Other chrysalides look more natural like a leaf such as the painted ladies. The reason why the monarch chrysalis is so pretty is because the case is a warning signs for predators to stay away. The monarch doesn’t have a very a nice taste. However, the painted ladies taste very good to predators so they require more camouflage to blend in with the natural environment. All of our chrysalides are safe from predators because we display them in a case for you to see part of the butterfly life cycle.

Then we just wait. The chrysalis will turn black and in some cases then clear. The monarch will turn clear and you can see the bright orange colors. When the butterfly hatches, it releases its extra blood it no longer needs (miconium) so don’t be surprised if you see red on the bottom of the display case. Then the emerging butterfly grabs onto the chrysalis while it pumps blood from its abdomen into its wings. The wings are smaller and look like folded blankets when first hatching. After pumping its wings, the butterfly is ready to feed and fly around. The hatching process is different depending on the species. We had some butterflies hatching on Wednesday, only a day later! Painted ladies are quick to hatch, while the swallowtails take a little longer. If you’re lucky, you can see the process yourself in our Conservatory. Be sure to check out both our friends under metamorphosis and our already fluttering friends!

Food Fight

They say that if you truly love something you have to let it go. I'm not quite sure who "they" are, but "they" are also champions of other depressing adages such as "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", "anything that can go wrong will", and my personal favorite, "beggars can't be choosers". Well kids, in this situation life truly imitates art. Perhaps I should tell my story...

The Orchid Conservatory features a lovely collection of tropical fruit trees and shrubs. Every effort is made to coax these wonders into producing fruit, which not only do our visitors enjoy viewing, but we, the staff, enjoy consuming. The fruits of our labor if you will. Some of these plants are bounteous, easy to grow and productive to the point of nuisance. The bananas would fall under this category, each season bringing us up to 100 pounds of fruit that ripen simultaneously and make us all sick of banana bread and pudding. Others are finicky plants and have very specific cultural requirements that must be met in order for fruit production to occur. In this latter category are the citrus, the chocolate tree (evil evil thing!) and the subject of our saga, the pineapple.

After a long years wait, defying rot, pests, and a freak boiler failure that plunged the conservatory into a night of forty degree temperatures, our pineapple plant sent up a lovely pink flower spike! Slowly but surely each flower dropped off, revealing a spiky green pineapple segment. A pineapple is actually a compound fruit- one that is composed of many small fruits fused together. Over a period of weeks the fruit grew to a decent size of about 8 inches long. As hot summer days ensued the ripening process began, changing the pineapple from a rock hard, dull green rock to a fragrant golden fruit. The scent of it hung in the air, enticing us with the promise of a treat no grocery store could deliver.

As luck would have it, two of my esteemed staff celebrate birthdays within the same week of August. A wonderful plan formed in my mind. What better birthday cake for the conservatory staff than a scrumptious pineapple upside-down cake, made with the luxurious fruit of our very own pineapple crop? I stroked the pineapple gently that Friday before leaving for the weekend. "Monday my dear, you become a culinary masterpiece." Over the weekend I gathered the other ingredients for my super-special-tropical-birthday-surprise-cake and planned our party for the next Tuesday.

Sadly, fate intervened over the weekend. Upon arriving at work Monday morning I received the report- the pineapple had vanished. A year's worth of love and care disappeared, replaced by a torn and ugly stub. All I can hope is that who ever took it enjoyed it, that it wasn't just tossed in the back of a fridge to turn to mush or thrown off a bridge to see how big of a splash it made. If the culprit is out there reading this enjoy your pineapple, you will never have another like it and I imagine the wheel of karma will turn your way eventually.

I guess we'll have banana bread instead.