Adelaide City Council Nursery
Episode: #4 23/09/2006
Presenter: Kim Syrus
The parks and gardens around the Adelaide City are looking absolutely fantastic at the moment. Filled with the colour of thousands and thousands of annuals blooming their heads off.
Hidden away in the parklands, is a production nursery run by the Adelaide City Council. The nursery is filled with an amazing selection of plant types from clivea?s and bergenia?s, agapanthus and buxus and, of course, a brilliant selection of annuals, all grown exclusively for planting in the council?s parks and gardens.
To start, 48 cell trays are filled with a seed raising mix then smoothed off. A packet of seeds is opened but these aren?t your average seeds. They are very small and it would be nearly impossible to plant them by hand, so they use this special seeding machine.
At the moment, the pansy?s, nemesia?s and primula?s are just finishing their blooming and are ready to be replaced with the new season range of annuals, including petunia?s, marigold?s and stocks.
The seeds are placed in a holding tray against a roller which is drilled with tiny evenly spaced holes. At the other end, the filled trays are placed on a conveyor that moves the tray under a knobbly cylinder, making a dent in each cell. As the tray approaches the seed roller, it triggers a sensor. The roller turns, and each of the small holes sucks up, and holds onto, a single tiny seed, finally dropping one into each cell of the tray with incredible accuracy. The tray then moves on and the seed is covered with vermiculite.
The trays are then marked off with the variety, date seeded and, importantly, the actual location of where they will eventually be planted. The main bed in Victoria Square is replaced 4 times a year and uses nearly 15,000 potted annuals.
The trays are placed in a glasshouse on benches and are hand watered and regularly misted.
After 6 weeks, the plants are ready to be placed outside to become acclimatized. They are then taken out of their cells and potted up.
Once the annuals are in pots, they sit in the main nursery area, growing and just waiting for a turn to show off their brilliant best in the city?s parks and gardens.
Adelaide City Council
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