SPRINGTIME IN THE GREENHOUSE WITH HARRY
By Marsha S. Walker
I thought when
I moved here from Arizona, I’d seen all the cacti I’d ever see. Little did
I know that living in Boulder, considered high desert, would provide me with
ample opportunity to make prickly pear cactus jelly, or have a next door
neighbor with three outdoor cactus gardens and a greenhouse crowded with a
vast variety of succulents, and more. Much more.
My visit started
first with a phone call asking if I could come and see them and their
greenhouse. “Oh, no,” Kirsten Van Loon says, “it’s not mine, it’s
Harry’s greenhouse, you talk to Harry.” So I did. “Come on over, come
around 11:00 when the sun is shining on the plants,” says Harry. So on a
cold, cold Sunday morning, I trudged through the snow to the Van Loons.
They were both at the door to welcome me in and I was, well, I was charmed
with their humor and hospitality and our easy conversation.
In addition to
the hundreds of artifacts and eclectic pieces of wall art collected from
years of travel, and nine years of raising three children abroad, there are
plants. Plants 14-18 feet high, and more plants…plants in the living room,
grapefruit and orange trees growing in pots, and kumquats, and miniature
lemons. Hard to believe I was in Colorado. Then to the subject at hand,
recalling the building of The Greenhouse. The mixing by hand of sand, soil
and manure, and hauling all 17 cubic feet of it in to use as a base for the
now huge specimens growing effortlessly under Harry’s gentle care.
As we toured the
greenhouse, lush with staghorn ferns, oleander, olive shoots, bulbs,
towering cactus, and fig, ginger, ginkgo, and ivy, Harry introduced me to
his plants, giving me the botanical names for each. It was impressive. I
asked him why it was important to learn the “technical” names, and he said,
“Ahhh, well, you need to know your children’s
names, don’t you?” And they are like his children, these plants,
many grown from seed, others gifts from people all over the world. His
babes.
Over tea I heard
about the time Harry bought a couple of zebra finches for the greenhouse.
By spring of that year the population had increased to 40! Just about 38
too many. So on a warm and lovely day he opened the skylight and bid the
flock goodbye. It was a nice day so he left the window propped open. Later
in the afternoon, he discovered all the birds had returned loaded down with
nesting material. They were movin’ in! Harry said, “There were nests
everywhere, and it was a real mess, so the next time I got smart. I opened
the skylight, let them all fly out, then closed it fast. Then,” he said
with a smile, “I got a garter snake, but the day it crawled into Kirsten’s
office that was the end of that. So now I just have a few little lizards
who lie about eating bugs and sunning themselves.”
This interest in
growing things, where did you get this idea” “I was born with it,” Harry
said, “It’s innate, but also my father was very involved with plants.” I
asked him what is it about the plants he grew that appealed to him?
“They’re easy to grow and they don’t need a lot of watering (about once
every two to three months in the winter and in the summer about every three
weeks), and it’s the shape of them that is so appealing, and, of course, the
flowers they produce are beautiful.”
“Harry,” I
asked, “Once you decided to create a greenhouse, did you find a club or
group to join where you could get technical advice or help with growing your
plants?”
He chuckled at that.
“Well, I did get together with a few guys at one point, but all they really
wanted to do was share their stories about The War. At the Denver
Botanic Garden,
the Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society meets, and I found that to be a
good place to find people with similar interests, to swap information and
obtain plants.”*
Okay, so what
does one need to start a greenhouse? “Money,” he said. What about
lighting, heating, placement, water, humidity? “You’ve got to have the
greenhouse facing south. And I don’t use artificial lighting because
there’s enough light just as it is. If I had to do it all over again I
would install a natural gas heater, as opposed to electric, because it’s
cheaper to run and you don’t have to worry about the power going out, and
I’d run a water pipe directly in to the greenhouse. The humidity in the
winter has been a problem because the materials used in building it were not
mildew proof as I had been led to believe. You’ve got to use good
materials.”
I asked Harry
the Big Question; what has been your greatest pleasure from all of this: the
peace and calming the greenhouse brings you, the relaxation? “No, it’s the
pleasure I get from seeing things grow, that’s it,” he said, “Just seeing
things grow.” Harry, Senior Research Associate at NCAR and an
internationally recognized climate expert, proudly says, “I’ve even got 17
pots of things growing in my office!”
“So, Harry,” I
said, “what if someone reading this decides they would like to start
greenhouse growing, and specifically raising cacti and succulents and other
low maintenance plants, what should we tell them?” “Have them call me,” he
offered. “I’ll help them, and I’ve got lots of shoots I can give them.
I’ll get ‘em started. And I’d love to swap plants with anyone out there
with a greenhouse.” I said to myself, as I was bundling up to leave the
snug comfort of the Van Loons…Boy, I want to be first in line to be mentored
by Harry, this kind and generous man of boundless energy. (My husband,
Jack, says he can see that this interview with the Van Loons is going to
cost him a lot of money).
Meanwhile, as I wave goodbye, Harry calls out to me, “Marsha,” he says
with a big grin, “My plants have a good life here.”
I know that,
Harry. Thanks.
*The Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society meets the 2nd Tuesday of the
month at 7:30 at the Denver Botanic Gardens. For more information call Jim
Cuscaden, (303)659-8428 or Harriet Olds, (303)989-6998. MW
From the Pine
Brook Press, Spring, 00
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