From 2 billion to 7 billion and then...

In 1951, the year of my birth, there were 2,58 billion people.  Today it is 7.6 billion.  No wonder everything is crowded and resources are being used up.  I had wondered if I should have a more positive view towards the future, but this seems to say it all.  This many people today are not doing a good job of living 'with' the planet.  Can you imagine how much better or worse it will go with more people? The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their Climate Change report yesterday. It is what brought my attention to the population plight. That report gave 2030 as the defining year by which action must be taken. The well-used number for the maximum population that the earth can sustain is said to be 10 billion people.  It is based on food resources.  The common statement is that 2050 is the year that will happen. The statement goes:  "By 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.1 billion, and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that at that point, the world would need to produce 70% more food than today to feed all those people." This is considered contentious by the American Council on Science and Health.  They are pro-industry, but fact-based, and they think the 70% increase is an inflated number, along with the prediction discounting the advances in technology, and that it disregards the drops in population that are happening. The Economist says it is not time to panic yet - that the number of hungry people has fallen, that eliminating waste will raise food production by 60% or more, and so on. So the pros and cons for the maximum population are debated. Yet isn't that date looming near for those who will be alive in 2050? Anyone 18 years old today will be 50 years old then - perhaps just over half way through a typical lifespan.  And think of 2030 - those born in 2000 will only be 30 years old.  I wonder what our young people think of these urgent messages and concerns and how they will deal with them as the urgency grows. We are looking at the Sunnylea garden in an August rain.

Up on the Roof

The contents of my conservatory greenhouse are still in the garden.   Compared to yesterday morning, it is very clean outside and in. How does one clean the outside of a greenhouse?  From the roof!  The little yellow chord in the picture is the water supply. What is the difference between a conservatory and a greenhouse?  Wikipedia gives us three options: Conservatory (greenhouse), a substantial building or room where plants are cultivated, including medicinal ones and including attached residential solariums Music school, or a school devoted to other arts such as dance Sunroom, a smaller glass enclosure or garden shed attached to a house, also called a conservatory So greenhouse and conservatory are interchangeable.   Along the way, I saw that a conservatory and musikgymnasium appear similar.  Musikgymnasiums are in Germany.  In Germany, this term describes one of three types of the most advanced types of German secondary schools.  It sounds similar to the Royal Conservatory of Music - musical education for youth.  The Royal Conservatory is outside the regulated education system in Ontario. Its is an independent institution, although it used to be governed by the University of Toronto.  Its royal charter came from King George VI in 1947.   Who would be considered its most famous pupil?  Would it be Glenn Gould or Oscar Peterson?  There's a very long list of graduates HERE.  They include Gordon Lightfoot, Diana Krall, Gordon Pinsent, Norman Jewish, and Randy Bachman.  Jeff Healey is listed, but I heard him on his JazzFM show say that he was disgusted by their lack of interest in early Jazz (his specialty), and he left in the first semester.  In his biography it says he received an Honorary Licentiate from the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Glass over Grass

It used to be that a greenhouse was constructed on good soil, so that the plants could flourish under the warmer conditions during the winter.  I can remember these greenhouses - Niagara had many floral crops under glass - you could see and smell roses  and lilies in the middle of winter and buy a bouquet. There's no soil in a commercial greenhouse today. Everything is sterile to reduce issues like fungus and insects.  Biological controls are used - no chemical sprays anymore.   So Niagara soil is often covered with hundreds of acres of greenhouses on cement floors.  It is up to thousands of acres under glass - peppers, cucumbers and tomato production represents 3,000 acres of greenhouse growing. (This would include the Windsor corridor.) There were 223 vegetables and 400 flower greenhouse operations in Ontario in 2015. The greenhouse produce industry in Canada is worth $1.3 billion. I was able to see in to some of them because of an open house on the weekend in support of charity. Seven in the Jordan area were on the tour.  Included was CosMic the phalanopsis orchid grower and Jeffrey's where I buy overflowed pot plants in the summer.  Jeffery's is particularly large. It also grows other seasonal pot plants, such as Chrysanthemums for autumn and Poinsettias for the Christmas market. There were floral greenhouses on the tour that I hadn't seen before.  Below is a picture of  statice - one of the bouquet flowers.  They also grow amaryllis for the floral trade and peonies outside for the June market, to keep their staff employed. The number one cost of greenhouse operations is labour - around 30-40%. And that is with migrant workers who are below minimum wage.   There is some automation - little robots space the plants perfectly for maximum efficiency.  Automation supports moving plants up to the next pot size - filling pots with soil. There are a few other areas applications.  But all the pinching is done by hand, and there's a fair amount of it.    We didn't get to see a tomato production house. I ran out of time to see St. David's Pepper production.  Here is a wonderful Financial Post article HERE covering the largest tomato greenhouse producer in Canada - located in the Windsor area.  There are great pictures and video.  What I was interested in was that the article covers the Vineland Research Station's new 1 acre test greenhouse.  It has a greenhouse tomato breeding program.  They are hybridizing like crazy in there - cross-pollinating commercial and heirloom tomatoes to get the supreme tomato of great flavour and great durability. It is just a matter of time... We see what the industrial floral landscape looks like. Our first picture shows a typical migrant worker - they come from Mexico and South America.  In the second image is the water reclamation pond.  Little irrigation hoses go to every pot.   Our third picture shows the work at hand - pinching, etc. There are some flowers to see - but mostly a vast landscape of green all around. There were some pretty pot plants in Jeffery's showing colour.  They will likely get shipped out this week to their major customer Costco.

Hamlet's Lament

Consider Hamlet.  His existential angst has become is a crossword puzzle question and answer in the world of Google.  Pages of crossword puzzle hits come up for the search for Hamlet.  Question: Hamlet's lament Answer: Alas Ophelia fares no better.  She comes up as a song by the Lumineers. It's on top of the list as it as gotten 221 million streams on Spotify. Compared to this King Lear is "King Lear" and Othello is "Othello".  They are characters in Shakespeare plays - no more than that. What about Romeo?  He lives on, having become synonymous with the 'lover'. The urban dictionary defines romeo as an attractive, passionate male seducer or lover.  I found a context we wouldn't think of:  in the world of espionage, the romeo is a male who is carefully placed within a high level of government agency to seduce lonely females placed high in the government.  Females used in this capacity during the cold war were called romiettes. Is the Alfa Romeo named after Romeo?  No it isn't.  Instead, it is the combination of the original name of the company and the last name of entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who took control of the company in 1915:  "A.L.F.A." ("Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobile") Romeo. Our diverse exploration of Shakespearean character names can only be done now with our tools like google. There's the much longer-lived academic investigation of Shakespeare as the authentic playwright of his works.  Here is a recent update:  a most interesting article from the New York Times, February 7, 2018. "Plagiarism Software Unveils a New Source for 11 of Shakespeare's Plays" The findings were made by Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter, who describe them in a book to be published next week by the academic press D. S. Brewer and the British Library. The authors are not suggesting that Shakespeare plagiarized but rather that he read and was inspired by a manuscript titled “A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels,” written in the late 1500s by George North, a minor figure in the court of Queen Elizabeth, who served as an ambassador to Sweden. The article is HERE.  Our picture shows the greenhouse at the beginning of May 2017.  Only a few weeks away and this will be our landscape.

Repeat Again

This is Groundhog Week!  The Groundhog Day movie is a movie on the theme of repetition.  What about unnecessary repetition?  Wouldn't that be what redundancy is?  Do you think Bill Murray's character felt the repetitions were redundant? Here are expressions that could be termed 'groundhog moments' in celebration of the movie.  Redundant is what they are: a moment in time – A moment is essentially a period of time. ATM machine – ATM already stands for “Automated Teller Machine” true fact – By definition, facts are true. join together – How else would something join? free gift – Because when’s the last time you had to pay for a gift? added bonus – The word bonus indicates something outside of what’s expected, so of course it’s added. end result – Results always come at the end. final outcome – Related to the above, an outcome signifies the end, or finality. plan ahead – Planning always refers to the future, or what’s ahead. repeat again – Ah, the irony here! close proximity – To be close to something is to be in proximity. past experience – Experience refers to what has happened in the past. most unique – Unique implies there’s nothing like it, so one cannot compare it to something else. rise up – When rising, there’s no other way to go but up. the reason why – A reason explains the why. new innovations – An innovation is something that did not exist before, i.e., it is new in and of itself. unexpected surprise – If you were expecting it, it wouldn’t be a surprise. advance notice – When giving someone notice, you’re always doing so in advance. What redundant phrase do you find yourself using most often? Are you having Groundhog moments? This wonderful list is courtesy of proofreadnow.com  The orchid arch at Longwood is twelve feet high and contains more than 600 orchids. The reconstruction of the Longwood Main Found Garden is shown in this youtube video time-lapse :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuioDG74Jk

Centennial Greenhouse Guest

I found out that these observances have something in common:  Sausage Month, Pork Month, Popcorn Month, and National Pizza Month are all observed in October in the U.S. I hadn't heard about National Pizza Month so did a search. The first thing I noticed was that Pizza Pizza's website entry from 2010 came up close to the top of the search list. Another top retrieval was Domino's Twitter feed is full of tweets looking for deals and complaining about recent ads.  I concluded that some of the observances in October are significant - like Breast Cancer Awareness Month - and other's like Pizza Month, fall further down the scale of significance. Back in Toronto, I spotted this little chipmunk in the Centennial Greenhouses in Etobicoke last week.

Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouses Display

At this time of year, when many of our traditions trace themselves back to Britain, George Mikes' manual "How to be a Brit" has been republished after 30 years ago.  Here are a few excerpts to start our day.  Once we know how to be British about them, we can rediscover Lost Christmas Traditions. On not knowing anything One thing you must learn in England is that you must never really learn anything. You may hold opinions – as long as you are not too dogmatic about them – but it is just bad form to know something. You may think that two and two make four; you may ‘rather suspect it’; but you must not go further than that. Yes and no are about the two rudest words in the language. Why don’t the British panic? They do, but very quietly. It is impossible for the naked eye to tell their panic from their ecstasy. Why don’t they work harder? They just don’t like hard work. The Germans have a reputation for hard work, so they like to keep it up. The British find it boring. Then, apart from a tiny and despicable minority, the British dislike the idea of taking part in the rat-race. They will give up certain advantages – knowingly and with their eyes open – in order to be able to stick to certain values and a way of life. How would they fight a civil war? Very, very quietly. Our pretty houses decorated for Christmas are at the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouse.

What is in a Boat's Name?

It is always a great trip to Niagara Falls to see the Showcase Greenhouse Christmas display.  The drive back along the Lakeshore means one can stop at Sunshine Express to see their grand display and then cross the canal at Carlton Street.  But we didn't immediately cross the canal - we watched a boat come through into the lock. Isn't this quite the sign on the boat?  Look over there - it is NO SMOKING making its way through the Welland Canal at Lock 2.  I wondered what the name of the ship is. I  went looking for the schedule - but didn't find an online schedule.  I remember there was a posted schedule at the Visitor Centre last summer, so one could time one's visits for the ships coming through.  Having lived next to the Welland Canal near the Lock 2 bridge on Carlton as a child, one could look down Scott Street and pretty well spot a boat any time.  It was constant, and the bridges when up and down all the time. Of course, there's less traffic now as we're at the end of the season.  The canal is open late due to the good weather.  When the weather gets cold, the locks will be emptied, and one will be able to see how deep they are.  I'll take some photos so you can really see the engineering feat that was accomplished in the 1930's. And then back to the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouses, there were some lovely mourning doves  flitting about and cooing.  There was even a small group of sparrows in the tropical house.

Niagara's Little Garden Show

This posting is a repeat of the marilyncornwell blog posting for today.  It is repeated so that everyone can see the wonderful work being done at the Niagara College Greenhouses, in the horticultural program.

A Garden Show in Niagara I went to the Niagara College Greenhouse 'Student Open House' last Friday.  This was the day before they presented the open house so I got the preview and got to meet the students. Everyone was running around, getting things ready, and they were all having a good time of it.  The students took time out from organizing the displays to show me their work and explain the compositions and plants.  It is encouraging and delightful to see a new generation of workers who are engaged and enjoying their work.  They had displays showcasing recycling of materials, as in the humorous use of tires with grass.  There were tiny space gardens and vertical displays.  The horticultural program teaches the latest techniques so the hydroponic lettuces were as interesting looking as they were delicious looking. It was so enjoyable to see this kind of garden show compared to Canada Blooms this year.  It is small, creative, personal and alive. More on Canada Blooms tomorrow.

Escape the Cold of February

Escape the Cold

Canadian Winter Escape Thank you for the Birthday Wishes for Gerry!  We go to Florida on the weekend and will escape the Canadian winter cold for two weeks. How many Canadians take a winter trip to the sun?  I saw an article that said 45% expected to take a winter vacation in the sun (the article was in 2000).  That seemed high, so 'expecting'  might be based on the desire, rather than what people do. I take mini-breaks in the winter by going into the conservatories in the GTA and surrounding area.  I can go to the Niagara Falls Floral Showcase, the Royal Botanical Gardens Mediterranean Greenhouse, Toronto's west-end Centennial Greenhouse, and Allan Gardens in downtown Toronto.  And for pure delight, consider the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. You'll see scenes like these - little versions of Florida botanical gardens. You'll get the benefit of the smells of the tropics too. It is such a contrast with our austere winter landscape and lack of scents in the cold air. So consider a trip to a conservatory - there are two tropical beauties in these pictures - the first is Dutch Man's Pipe - a climbing vine that has these big brim flower at the front and a 'pipe' shape at the back.  And the next flower is an orchid cactus like the Night-blooming Cereus - high white flowers with a lush tropical scent.

Orchids in Niagara

Niagara's Winter Crop

Niagara's Crops There are acres of greenhouses in Niagara.  Some stretch as far as you can see as you drive along the QEW or the Niagara Stone Road into Niagara-on-the-Lake.   We're looking at the orchid 'crop' growing in the Cosmic Greenhouses, in Beamsville.  I stopped in last week to see if they would allow photography and got a quick tour.  Plant production is efficient and scientific:  The orchids we see for sale in the grocery stores and florists take 19 months to grow from tissue culture sprouts to blooming plants. They start in warm greenhouses below, where they receive water and nutrients on a rigorous schedule.  When large enough, they are moved to the next greenhouse where it is cool.  Cool temperatures are needed to make phalaenopsis (what you see here) spike and bloom. And then they are off to our houses.  While it is great to see in winter, this isn't just a winter crop.  These orchids are grown year round, with the greenhouses heated and cooled to match the growing conditions needed.   Our third picture is at Niagara College in the learning greenhouses of the horticultural program. The usage instructions to students include 'maintaining a clean environment and no food or drink in the greenhouse'.  It looked like a cucumber crop in this special greenhouse, and in the larger greenhouse where we are allowed to walk around, begonia seeds will sprout for this summer's gardens.

Arum Titan in Niagara

The last time I saw the Arum Titan in Niagara's Showcase Greenhouse was in 2012 and it was in bloom.  It was a sight - a really great big Jack in the Pulpit sort of plant that we can't imagine here in Niagara where ours are little guys in the forest next to Trilliums.

I didn't realize the plants have remained in the greenhouse until I looked up at the little forest of trees in the entrance and recognized those leaves right away.  Again impressive, it is as tall as a small tree.  

Here it is blooming in 2012.  It's 'fragrance' is stinky to attract flies for pollination.