Tonka and Water

My second day working at the greenhouse found me starting my work day by petting and talking to the greenhouse cat, Tonka. I petted his rough fur for a while and then walked upstairs and signed in. Then I started planting in Greenhouse 5. It was nice to be able to get into the greenhouse because up until a few days ago, the door could only open a few inches. Someone had worked on the entrance way of the house and new the door opens wide, making it accessible and not having to walk around through the mud and ice and go in through the back door.

Today I was working on a new shipment of plants. I planted a tray each of Emerald Lace Sweet Potato Vine, Illusions Sunset Potato Vine, Tequila Sunrise Superbells, Supertunia Bordeaux, Angelface Dresden Blue, Catalina Grape-O-Licious, and Helichrysum Licorice Splash. While I was planting, I was listening to the music on a classic soft rock channel. The music helps through the monotony of planting. All the while, I kept wondering who gets to name all these amazing plants and some of those names are really interesting.

When I finished, I grabbed my clipboard and water bottle and walked over to Greenhouse 1, where I continued to plant more trays of annuals. In 4-1/2” pots, I planted Spikes. I took a break when Tonka jumped up on the planting table, demanding my full attention. I petted him a few times and then shooed him off the table. I guess he was miffed because he jumped up on the table behind me and started to snack on the Spike plants that I just had planted up.  I stopped him and took him off the table and then continued to plant up Midi Fiji Dahlia and Grande Colina Dahlia; half of the plants would go into 4-1/2” pots and the other half into 6” pots.

Sometimes when I forget to drink enough water, the greenhouse work becomes a struggle and I start to feel sluggish and sick…so I filled up my water bottle and drank the water from the cooler. After 5 minutes, I felt better and got my second wind to plant.

I found two trays of Ivy; Glacier and Ritterkreuz and took them back to Greenhouse 5, and planted them into 4-1/2” pots, next to the Sweet Potato Vines. I stepped back and noticed the different shades of greens, next to the lighter ones and marveled at how healthy everything looked. I look forward to seeing the plants next week and seeing some of them flower and survive in the long cold days of winter. It all makes me see the promise of spring coming.

Before I left, I placed the newly arrived Pansy tags into the trays that I had planted on my first day in the greenhouse. I took out the old labels that I had hand written in black market. Now, everything really looked great!