BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MAIN GREENHOUSE

• BY VALÉRIE LEVÉE

At the end of February, the Jardin botanique's Main Greenhouse opened its doors for the spring event Garden of Oddness. In a true plant symphony where flamboyant, enigmatic, succulent, giant and other extravagant plants coexist, the public can admire the beautiful orange puffy flowers of Stifftia chrysantha, the strange flowers of Dorstenia bahiensis, the phylloclades of Muehlenbeckia platyclada and many other botanical curiosities. To put on this show, the Jardin botanique's horticultural team worked for many weeks, even months, running into a series of hurdles along the way.

"There are as many challenges as there are plants to grow," says horticultural specialist Josée Massé. Each plant has its own rhythm of growth. A first challenge is to get them to bloom at the right time for the opening of the exhibition. For commercial plants, production times are known and the team can set a schedule with the sowing, dividing, cutting and repotting dates for each plant. Nevertheless, all these plants grow in different climates: they have specific requirements in terms of temperature, humidity and light for their growth as well as for their flowering.

In the greenhouses, the team reproduces a variety of environmental conditions by playing with temperature, humidity and watering. Plants that require a dormant period are kept in the cellar; bulbs are even kept in the refrigerator. Growing conditions get even more complicated at flowering time, which for some plants depends on the length of daylight. We can add artificial lighting to one or, on the contrary, we can put up opaque cloths to mimic longer nights.

That's when the conditions for growing the plants are clearly known! “Things get more challenging when you start experimenting with rarer plants," says Josée Massé. You have to test different types of lighting, temperature and watering conditions, as well as monitor the reaction of the plants in the hope of creating the ideal conditions.

D-day is finally approaching and all the plants are ready for the exhibition. But now another challenge arises: how to move the plants to the exhibition greenhouse. While most of the plants are not stressed, "a few sometimes get motion sickness and look downright gloomy by the time they reach the greenhouse," says Josée Massé. Others don’t respond well to the change in environmental conditions between the preparation greenhouse and the exhibition greenhouse. "The difficulty lies in bringing together all these plants with different cultural requirements in one place," explains Viviane Fortier, specialized horticulturist for the thematic greenhouse. In their new home, the conditions are not strictly homogeneous, which means the experienced team can install the plants in the places that suit them best. This way, most of the plants will overcome the stress of transportation and adapt to their new conditions before opening day.

It's D-day. Everything is ready, the plants are at their best, and the exhibition can finally greet the public. However, the horticulture team must continue to take care of each plant on a daily basis to keep them healthy until the end of the exhibition. Dried leaves and withered flowers are cut to trigger a second bloom as spare plants replace those that have shed their flowers. Maintaining the bloom and foliage colour of all these plants with varying requirements throughout the show is the final challenge. "This is why the event only lasts a few weeks and why you should seize the opportunity and come to see it," says Viviane Fortier.