Meet Kew's Tropical Nursery horticulturists
By: Nick Johnson & Sam Crosfield - 19/08/2010
Find out more about what goes on behind the scenes in the Tropical Nursery at Kew.
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Welcome to Kew’s Tropical Nursery blog.
My name is Nick Johnson and I manage one of the four teams that work in this huge nursery, which has the largest roof span in Kew. With the help of my colleague, Sam Crosfield, we will regularly be bringing you accounts of interesting things happening here.
The Tropical Nursery from above
Whether it’s the Waterlily House propagation drive, repotting cacti, how we look after the orchid collection or simply an interesting plant of the week by one of our students, come to this page to see what we’re up to.
Introducing the Tropical Nursery & Jodrell Glass
The Tropical Nursery, rebuilt in 1998, is one of two tender plant raising and reserve facilities for the Great Glasshouses and Training Section. Jodrell Glasshouse is a support facility primarily raising plants use for scientifc research by Jodrell laboratory. The nurseries provide facilities for the propagation, establishment and growing on of plants from various habitats encountered within the tropical/subtropical regions. There are over 45,000 plants held in the nursery at any one time! These plants are grown to support the public conservatories for educational and display purposes and may by used for scientific purposes by scientists from around the world. The nursery also houses many of Kew's conservation plants, mainly from island habitats.
The nursery covers an area of 6500 m² and is divided into 21 climatic environments which are separately controlled and monitored by a computer. These zones are distributed managed by four teams – Dry Tropics, Moist Tropics, Orchids and Temperate/Conservation Collections.
Eleven permanent staff work in the Tropical Nursery, supported by up to ten students, apprentices and trainees and 28 horticultural volunteers. Daily maintenance of the collections involves watering, feeding, repotting plants, propagating and monitoring plant health throughout the year.
Sam Crosfield, left, and Nick Johnson, right, in the Tropical Nursery
Introducing Nick Johnson
Nick is the team leader of the Temperate and Conservation collections. Nick has been at Kew for nearly ten years and has worked in the Tropical Nursery for eight of them. Nick manages a small team that cares for the temperate collections and the increasingly important threatened island flora collections. Nick provides propagation training to the students in the Nursery and has had the good fortune to have travelled to some amazing island habitats, including Madagascar and St Helena to assist conservationists in their bid to save endangered plant species.
Introducing Sam Crosfield
Sam is the second in command of the Dry Tropics collections. Sam came to Kew in 2006 as a diploma student and, after finishing the three-year course (which included a travel scholarship to study the flora of Mauritius), Sam took a permanent position in the Nursery. Sam currently looks after the warm arid zone which includes the amazing collections of Melocacti, Euphorbias and arid Madagascan flora.
- Sam & Nick -
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About Nick Johnson
Nick Johnson is the team leader of the Temperate and Conservation collections. Nick has been at Kew for nearly ten years and has worked in the Tropical Nursery for eight of them.
Nick manages a small team that cares for the temperate collections and the increasingly important threatened island flora collections. He provides propagation training to the students in the Nursery and has travelled to some amazing island habitats to assist conservationists in their bid to save endangered plant species.
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4 comments on 'Find out more about what goes on behind the scenes in the Tropical Nursery at Kew.'
Carlos Magdalena says
25/01/2013 11:51:30 AM | Report abuse
Dear Elodie, Kew has been involved in many areas of botany and conservation in Mauritius. In Taxonomy we are helping the writing and publishing of the Flora of the Mascarenes. Conservation-wise, we have established a Seed Conservation program which includes the collection of seeds from Mauritius to be preserved in the Millennium Seed Bank. Also, we have set up a small seed bank in Currepipe where duplicates of the seeds collected are stored. We also hold around 150 endemic and Endangered to Critically Endangered species in our living collections. Some of these species have been preserved here for decades but most have been collected in the last 5 years by myself, with the invaluable help and support of the Mauritian National Parks and Conservation Service. This collaboration has been very successful and several species that are on the edge of extinction (populations of less than 10 individuals in the wild) have been successfully established in cultivation. In some cases, like Dombeya Mauritiana, Chassalia boriana or Ramosmania rodriguessi, they have been successfully propagated and repatriated back to Mauritius. In addition, we have also provided training to horticulturists in Mauritius and Rodrigues Island, both in Mauritius and here at Kew, while some Kew Diploma students have been supported by Mauritian officials and conservationist while traveling to Mauritius, as part of their training programs at Kew. Further work is obviously needed, especially considering the extreme risk of extinction that many species face in Mauritius, but we are trying our best to continue our collaborations and conservation efforts to preserve Mauritius's unique, beautiful and interesting flora.
Elodie Therese says
25/01/2013 9:42:56 AM | Report abuse
Hi, i am Elodie from Mauritius It's a great job what you are doing.. Plz can i learnt more on your study about the Mauritius Flora. Thanks
says
22/11/2011 9:43:34 AM | Report abuse
I RECENTLY SAW ON THE NEWS ABOUT NIGHT BLOOMING ORCHIDS. I KNOW OF ONE CALLED THE "GHOST ORCHID" THAT ONLY BLOOMS AT NIGHT IN THE EVERGLADES IN FLORIDA. I HAVE SEEN IT. I HOPE YOU KNOW OF IT. IT IS VERY RARE. I DON'T KNOW IF I PUT THIS IN THE RIGHT PLACE OR NOT BUT I THOUGHT I'D PASS THIS ON.
Richard Johnson says
19/08/2010 12:00:00 AM | Report abuse
Well done, Nick and Sam! from Nick's proud Dad