Longwood Heating

Longwood's nine production greenhouses are 378' x 80'. I met the supervisor of heating and mechanical while visiting earlier in the week.  He was walking through the greenhouses and checking in corners, so I thought he must be in charge of something.  He briefly outlined the two heating systems - one for the show greenhouses and the second for the production greenhouses.  He said that it takes a lot of manual monitoring in addition to the automation. Longwood's main boiler plant has three boilers fuelled by oil or gas to produce steam for heating.  That's how we heat our greenhouse here, too.  In addition, they have a 10-acre solar field across the road from the garden entrance.  It produces 2 million kilowatt hours per year and accounts for 30% of energy consumption.  Within the greenhouses, their computerized system controls temperature, bench and perimeter heat, snow melters, and cooling and shading devices.   Do you check out the news around the world?  Whenever I do, I am surprised by the North American names for newspapers in other cultures.  For example, you can't be sure where the "Star" headline might come from.  Here's a great example today: ‘Titis Sakti’: Grand marriage of comedic Shakespeare and dramatic Mak Yong At first glance, the Malay theatre production Mak Yong Titis Sakti seems to be made up of two completely disparate elements. Talk about chalk and cheese. Mak Yong Titis Sakti is one part A Midsummer’s Night Dream – one of the most famous romantic comedies ever written by the English playwright William Shakespeare. The other part is Mak Yong, a traditional form of dance-drama from the northern states of Malaysia. You wouldn’t think they could blend so well. Yet for director/actress Norzizi Zulkifli, who first presented Titis Sakti (Magic Drops) in 2009, these two art forms have a lot more in common than most people think. “Every time I read Shakespeare’s plays, they give me visuals which I realised, ‘Oh, this is very similar to my culture!’ Like Mak Yong, or Bangsawan theatre,” says Norzizi, 41, in a recent interview at KLPAC. Mak Yong Titis Sakti is on at Pentas 1, KLPac, Sentul Park,in Kuala Lumpur from Jan 27 to Feb 4.  Look at the google map,  and you'll see place names that are definitely not in North American. It would be interesting to see this show - maybe it will travel some day. Read more about the show. Our "flowers" today are illuminated by a little afternoon light in the Longwood Conservatory.  They are Anthurium - known as Flamingo Lilies.