School Gardening

Teaching pupils at West Park School

Zoe and Zoe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:07:00 GMT

We have had an amazing day again in Durban. It started with a trip to the West Park School in Malvern on the outskirts of the city. We started with a school assembley where Simon and Lauren talked to the school. We then had a tour of the impressive permaculture work that the school is doing. The pupils at the school train rural schools in permaculture techniques as well as doing their own work. After the tour the two of us gave a workshop to a group of staff and pupils from every class. we talked about growing orchids and showed them how to deflask seedlings. We have left over fifty seedling likts at the school so that each class can have their own seedlings to grow. West Park school is a special needs school and has a fantastic atmosphere. The school is using horticulture and enterprise to provide experiences for the pupils as well as fund projects and it is really exciting to know that we can help them to help themselves by supporting them setting up an orchid project. Right got to pack. Back in the bush looking for orchids tomorrow and then flying back to the UK after an incredible African adventure.

Teaching about replating orchid seedlings

Zoe and Zoe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:42:00 GMT

In the workshop Zoe B was teaching people how to replate seedlings. These are the plants that we brought all the way from England. By the end of the day the workshops had made more than a hundred jars of sown seed or replated seedlings, wow. All the jars will stay at the Botanic Garden to grow on in their collection.

Zoe P teaching orchid seed sowing

Zoe and Zoe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:33:00 GMT

Wednesday was workshop day at the Durban Congress. We gave two long workshops on orchid growing from seed. It went amazingly well with groups of 16 and 17 people and they all loved it. Here Zoe P is working with two of the people and showing how to surface sterlise the seed. The people at the workshops came from botanic gardens all over the world and now they all want to set up orchid projects with schools in their cities. The whole day was just brilliant fun.

Amazing gardens

Zoe and Zoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:51:00 GMT

This is 6am at the Durban Botanic Gardens with Chris Dalzell the Curator. Chris gave us a fabulous tour of the whole Gardens including the Cycad collection which is where we are in the photo. The Garden also has amazing birds like Pelican and Vervet Monkey. Today we are giving our workshops on orchid propagation from seed in the laboratory here. We have more people signed up for our workshop than any of the others....it's going to be fun. The talk we gave last night went really well. Actually one of the orchids we found in the wild on Sunday was one that no one knew was at Vernon Crooks. More about that later. We better go and get ourselves sorted for a busy day.

Eulophia speciosa

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:55:00 GMT

Eulophia speciosa is one of the orchids that Margaret grows from seed in her lab and here it is flowering in the growing house. We like it. The trip around the growing area was realy inspiring and tomorrow we are getting up at 5.30 to have a special tour from Chris the Curator of the Botanic garden before it opens in the morning. A botanic gardens all to ourselves, how good is that.

Weaning plants at Durban

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:51:00 GMT

In this photo you can see how we found out all about how micropropagated plants from the Durban lab are weaned and grown on. Under the fleece there are thousands of small plants in trays. Most of them are threatened medicinal plants. You can see that production from the lab is very high.

In Durban Botanic Garden Laboratory

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:45:00 GMT

We spent this afternoon with Margaret in the Durban Botanic Gardens. Margaret runs the lab and after a tour where she showed us all her projects, we sorted out our plants for the workshop on Wednesday, and made sure we had all the equipment we needed. The lab is fantastic and most of her work is raising threatened South African medicinal plants. The plants are raised in the lab mostly by tissue culture and then grown on into large plants ready for sale or use in the Botanic Gardens. It was really interesting.

Congress day

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:06:00 GMT

Today has been another very busy day. The congress started at 8:30 with speeches, two brilliant school choirs and then lectures. Lauren's lecture was great and we also heard about work with medicinal plants in South Africa and other projects all over the world. As you can see we have put up our display and everyone has been really interested in our project.

Eating a Bunny Chow

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:47:00 GMT

The food here in South Africa is fantastic. We went to a resturant and we had Durban speciality, the Bunny Chow. Bunny Chow is a loaf of bread with the middle taken out and filled with curry. I will have to make some of this when I go home.

Looking for orchids

Zoe and Zoe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:02:00 GMT

In the reserve as you know we found a number of different orchids. This is how. We walked around the reserve looking on the ground and up in the trees for anything that might be an orchid. In this tree sir wanted to get a better look. Luckily he didn't fall out.

Thanks Luke

Zoe and Zoe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:40:00 GMT

We must say a big thank you to Luke Barnes for keeping the Writhlington School Orchid Project website up to date with our news from Durban. He is brilliant.

Satyrium longicauda

Zoe and Zoe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:01:00 GMT

The first orchid we managed to spot was the Satyrium longicauda, this was growing on the edge of a stream, in boggy ground. Mr Pugh-Jones says this is the most dramatic terrestrial orchid he has ever seen growing in the wild. I was pretty impressed too! In the reserve we did not just see orchids. We saw lots of other plants that we recognised like Clivia, Palms, tree fern and a large number of the Daisy family including a wild species of Gerbera. We also saw so amazing animals: a wide range of birds, zebra, impala, wildebeast, Vervent monkeys and creepy crawlies like enormous black and red millipedes. South Africa is a fantastic place. In the evening we registered at the congress and already have new friends from all over the world, cool. Good night from Durban.

Close up of Polystachya Zambesiaca

Zoe and Zoe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:56:00 GMT

This is a close up of Polystachya Zambesiaca, when we found it we had to compare the flowers with the descriptions in a book called African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation.It was quite tricky but a really good experience.

Finding Polystachya Zambesiaca

Zoe and Zoe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:46:00 GMT

My favourite of all the orchids we found was the population of Polystachya Zambesiaca on this tree. Before today I have never seen an orchid growing as an epiphyte up a tree in the wild. Now I have seen seven different species! I think i have learned alot about orchids as a gardener, by seeing them growing in the wild and surviving on trees.

Exploring sub-tropical jungle

Zoe and Zoe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Zoe P here, this morning we had an amazing trip to the Vernon Crook Nature Reserve. Here we are, exploring the grassland and woodland looking for orchids. I am really pleased as we found nine species of orchid and three were in flower.