Yay, We got a press release for our project!

It is not every day that I get mention in a press release. Pretty sweet :)

MOSI AWARDED GRANT FROM FISKARS’ PROJECT ORANGE THUMB®

Tampa, FL (March 27, 2009) – The Museum of Science & Industry’s Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove has been awarded a grant from Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb®. The grant will support the planting of nine themed gardens in the Historic Tree Grove the week of Earth Day 2009.

“Through Fiskars and Project Orange Thumb, MOSI hopes to increase awareness of how gardening cultivates community involvement and sustainable agriculture,” said Wit Ostrenko, MOSI President.

MOSI’s Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove provides museum visitors with a stroll through history by focusing on the stories of 17 culturally significant trees that are associated with notable people and places across America. The nine garden areas will expand upon the historic significance of each tree and add to the beautification of the Historic Tree Grove.

MOSI is searching for volunteers to help plant three gardens each day during the week of Earth Day, April 23-24 from 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Participants will be separated into teams, and each person will be assigned to plant one garden each day. To pre-register yourself, or a team of 10 people, contact Kristen Gilpin at (813) 987-6357 or by email kristeng@mosi.org.

The nine gardens to be planted include:
Sensory Garden: planted at the Ray Charles Live Oak to encourage the use of non-sight senses, and to experience a garden in the way of someone who is visually impaired.
Moon Garden: planted at the Moon Sycamore, will focus on plants that bloom at night and reflect moonlight.
Medicinal Garden: planted at the Clara Barton Red Bud to highlight plants from which medicine is derived or plants with healing properties.
Jurassic Garden: planted at the Frank Lloyd Wright Ginko, will focus on fossil plants which, like the Ginko, have lived since the time of dinosaurs.
Flatwoods Garden: planted at the Olustee Longleaf Pine, will highlight native plants of the Florida Flatwoods ecosystem community and similar to those found at the site of the Civil War Battle of Olustee
Edible Garden: planted at the George Washington Carver Persimmon, will focus on edible plants including floral varieties of Carver’s favorite plant: the peanut.
Air Plant Garden: planted at the Wright Brothers Sweet Gum, will focus on plants that can live above the soil, like orchids and tillandsias.
Native Garden: planted at the Fort Matanzas Red Ceder, will focus on plants native to Florida.
Rose Garden: planted at the Juliette Gordon Low Magnolia, will highlight several species of roses in honor of the Girl Scouts founder.


One of the oldest companies in the world, Fiskars—best known for its consumer products, such as scissors, knives and garden tools—began as an ironworks in the small village of Fiskars, Finland in 1649. Started in 2003, Project Orange Thumb is a grant program that provides community garden groups with tools and materials needed to reach set goals for neighborhood beautification and horticulture education. Marking its 7th year in 2009, Project Orange Thumb has provided over 100 community groups with over $200,000 to create and develop their own community gardens.

MOSI today is the result of 52 years of growth and maturity reflecting both on the institution and the surrounding community. With a total size of over 400,000 square feet, MOSI is the largest science center in the southeastern United States, and home to the only IMAX® Dome Theatre in the state of Florida. MOSI is a not-for-profit, community-based institution and educational resource that is dedicated to advancing public interest, knowledge, and understanding of science, industry, and technology. For more information on MOSI, visit www.mosi.org.

About MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry)

MOSI is a not-for-profit, community-based institution and educational resource dedicated to advancing public interest, knowledge, and understanding of science, industry, and technology. With a total size of over 400,000 square feet, MOSI is the largest science center in the southeastern United States, and home to the only IMAX® Dome Theatre in the state of Florida. Kids In Charge! The Children’s Science Center at MOSI is the largest children’s science center in the nation. Disasterville, featuring WeatherQuest, combines education and 10,000 square feet of interactive exhibits on the science behind natural disasters. MOSI’s newest permanent exhibition, The Amazing You, explores the intricate world of the beginning of life, childhood, and adolescent developmental life stages. For more information, visit www.mosi.org.

Fiskars Project Orange Thumb Grant!

Good news!

The BioWorks Butterfly Garden at MOSI has received a Project Orange Thumb Grant from Fiskars and will be planting nine themed gardens in the MOSI Historic Tree Grove the week of Earth Day!

MOSI’s Orange Thumb Project:
MOSI’s Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove provides museum visitors with a historic stroll through time by focusing on the stories of 17 trees that are descendants of trees associated with famous and historic people and places of America. The goal of this project is to begin the planting of 9 specific garden areas that will expand upon the interpretation of the historic significance of each tree and enhance the visitor experience in this green area.

The 9 garden spaces that will be created in this project are:

• Ray Charles Live Oak: A Sensory Garden to encourage the use of non-sight senses, specifically touch and smell, to experience a garden in a way similar to someone who is blind.


• Moon Sycamore: Moon Garden will focus upon plants that best reflect moonlight or bloom at night.


• Clara Barton Red Bud: Medicinal Garden to highlight plants from which medicine is derived or plants with healing properties.


• Frank Lloyd Wright Ginko: Jurassic Garden will focus on fossil plants which, like the Ginko, have lived since the time of the dinosaurs.


• Olustee Longleaf Pine: Flatwoods Garden will highlight native plants of the Florida Flatwoods ecosystem community similar to those that would have been found at the site of the Civil War Battle of Olustee.


• George Washington Carver Persimmon: Edible Garden will focus upon edible plants including several flowering varieties of Carver’s favorite plant, the peanut.


• Wright Brothers Sweet Gum: Air Plant Garden will focus on plants that can live above the soil, like orchids and tillandsias.


• Fort Matanzas Red Ceder: Native Garden will focus upon plants native to Florida that would have been found by our original settlers.


• Juliette Gordon Lowe: Rose Garden will highlight several species of beautiful roses in honor of the founder of the Girl Scouts.

Through these plantings this Earth Day week, we hope to increase awareness of gardening and the Historic Tree Grove at MOSI while interpreting these trees in a unique way.

Volunteers!
MOSI is seeking volunteers to assist with these awesome plantings! We will be planting three gardens each day over April 22nd, 23rd and 24th from 9:30am until 2pm. Volunteers will be assembled into three teams each day and each team will work on the planting of one thematic garden. To pre-register yourself or a whole team (up to 10 people) for these plantings please contact Kristen Gilpin at MOSI.

Kristen Gilpin
BioWorks Butterfly Garden @ MOSI
kristeng@mosi.org
(813)987-6357

Volunteers will receive a free pass for the MOSI permanent exhibits so they can come back on another day and enjoy the museum.

About Fiskars Project Orange Thumb:
Started in 2003, Project Orange Thumb is a grant program that provides community garden groups with the tools and materials they need to reach their goals for neighborhood beautification and horticulture education. Marking its 6th successful year in 2008, Project Orange ThumbSM has provided over 100 community groups with over $200,000 to create and develop their own special community gardens. These included projects geared toward community involvement, neighborhood beautification, sustainable agriculture and/or horticultural education.
Learn more about Project Orange Thumb here.

How Gardening Makes Us Feel:
The Fiskars Project Orange Thumb Grant application asked that we create a presentation about how gardening makes us feel here at MOSI. With the help of an amazing student filmmaker and a young actor here is our answer to that question: Flower = Smile

Thanks Fiskars! This is going to be a great project!

Good News

I'll be announcing some good news for the Butterfly Garden this wednesday. Stay tuned!

Making a difference: Chloe's butterfly research

Recently, a young lady named Chloe came out to MOSI to conduct some research in the butterfly gardens for a science fair project concerning butterflies and their flower color preference for feeding. Her project was so excellent that I wanted to share it with my readers here. Well done, young lady! I am so proud of the work you did and I think you will make a fine lepidopterist! Reprinted with the permission of Chloe and her mom, here is the text of the project:

PURPOSE
The purpose of this experiment is to see if Gulf Fritillary butterflies prefer red or white Penta plants.

HYPOTHESIS
I predict that more Gulf Fritillary butterflies will be attracted to the white Penta plants
than the red Penta plants because the white Penta plants are brighter than the red Pentas.

PROCEDURE
Materials:
1. One 180cm measuring tape
2. One sharp pencil
3. One clipboard
4. One data log/journal
5. One indoor/outdoor thermometer
6. One watch or clock
7. One gallon-sized potted red Penta plant
8. One gallon-sized potted white Penta plant.
9. Gulf Fritillary butterfly garden with 45 Gulf Fritillaries.

Variables:
1. Manipulated Variable:
--The color penta plants
2. Responding Variable:
--The number of Gulf Fritillary butterflies
3. Constant Variables:
--Time of observation
--Penta plants
--Type of butterfly observed
--Observation location

STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS
1. Gather required materials.
2. Bring materials to Museum of Science and Industry (M.O.S.I.) butterfly garden.
3. Record temperature, time, and date.
4. Place white and red Penta plants 300cm apart in the middle of butterfly garden.
5. 30 minutes into observation, record temperature and time.
6. Quietly observe butterflies, and tally mark the number of
Gulf Fritillaries that land on each color Penta plant.
7. At the end of the hour, record time and temperature.

CONCLUSION
The data I collected demonstrates that Gulf Fritillary butterflies prefer white Penta plants to red Penta plants. My original hypothesis proved correct. If I decided to conduct this research project again, I would extend the amount of butterfly observation time from 1 hour per trial, to 2 1/2 hours. By doing so, I feel the results I obtained would more strongly support my hypothesis.

RESULTS
Of the 45 Gulf Fritillary butterflies observed, a total number of 25 fed from the white Penta plant; while a total number of 8 fed from the red Penta. As a whole, the butterflies chose the white Penta three times more than the red Penta.

About the Scientist: Chloe C.
Chloe C. attends 3rd grade classes at MacFarlane Park Elementary School. A lover of butterflies and all of nature, Chloe also enjoys reading and watching Animal Planet. Her science fair project was the 3rd grade winner at the MacFarlane Park science fair and received the "Save the Planet" award at Hillsborough County Regional Science Fair. Chloe idolizes Kristen G at MOSI and hopes to someday become a lepidopterist.

Getting in to the swing of spring: Gulf Fritillary

The BioWorks Butterfly Garden seems to be fairly unique in that we rear all of our own butterflies for display and only display Florida native species. Our message here is that butterflies are awesome and important and that by making some simple changes to your landscape you can provide these little wonders with more habitat to call home. Because we don't purchase butterflies, our winter crop is very much reflective of what is available in wild butterflies during the same period: not much.


During winter we may have only a few butterflies in the Flight Encounter. Cold weather and butterflies don't really get along. Butterflies are poikilotherms and need warm weather to be active. When spring finally come around, the butterflies come back in droves to take advantage of the amazing climate of the Tampa Bay region. Here are MOSI, our darling insects are on the upswing.


This morning we had our first Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) eclose from its chrysalis. I have a tank brimming with larvae, about a half dozen already in chrysalis and now our first of these lovely butterflies. Don't tell the other species, but I am really overly fond of Gulf Fritillaries. Their wings have spots of silver that are shiny and reflect sunlight. Very hard to capture in a photo and much better to see in real life. This afternoon there will be a few dozen of these wild beauties cruising the gardens and depositing eggs on the passionvine.


The caterpillars are also pretty spectacular. Brilliant orange and black spines warn away predators, but I just find them lovely. Warning colors apparently don't work on keepers.

Forest Innocence

Walking in the woods with Carolyn we came across this lovely carpet of Innocence (Hedyotis procumbens) and fell in love with these little four-pointed flowers. This diminutive flower is known commonly as Innocence, Fairy Footprints, and Round-leaf bluet. No, it doesn't have much of anything to do with butterflies, but it is certainly beautiful and just begged to be shared.

Check out TheLongleaf, MOSI's forest blog for more images and tales from our woods.

Tea: a drink with jam and bread and butterflies!

I love tea! As a gardener I love the idea of sipping a brew made from delicate flowers and leaves that I might raise in my own garden or delights from far off postmarks where I may never visit. Tasting plants and delighting in their bouquet fascinates me and I am certainly a tea-a-holic. Now, partner tea with butterflies and I am helpless against the power of this potent formula!

The BioWorks Butterfly Garden @ MOSI has a cozy butterfly encounter where you can get up close and personal with butterflies, two acres of gardens where butterflies fly free, ponds filled with space fish descendants an animal husbandry lab where you can watch butterflies in every stage of the life cycle, but it also has a really neat butterfly classroom.

This classroom is indeed used for educational classes but can also be rented for things like the High Tea that was held the day before yesterday. I received a few questions on facebook about the pictures I posted there so here is the info:

Butterfly teas can be booked for groups from 6 to 20 people at two different price points: $8 per person for tea and cookies and $25 per person for high tea which also includes admission to the MOSI permanent exhibits. We also have annual Mother's Day and Holiday teas where you can book seats. If you are interested in holding a tea or an event in the classroom or butterfly garden call Pat Robison at MOSI (813-987-6320) and she will be happy to help you with whatever you may need!

Normally I don't blog here about things other than butterflies and plants but this was just so darling and of course involved my bugs! I so wanted to run inside and join these ladies at their wonderful little tea!

Monarch Chrysalis: beginning and end

The monarch chrysalis, once formed, appears a pale jade green trimmed in gold and black. This glorious little pod has the appearance of a budded leaf or flower, and looks nothing at all like an insect should.

Over the next 7 to 14 days, depending upon ambient temperature, the former caterpillar undergoes a complete metamorphosis, transforming into a monarch butterfly.

When nearly ready to emerge, the skin of the pupa becomes increasingly transparent. You can see the structures of the antenna, eyes, wings, and body slowly developing within. Right before eclosing (emerging) the pupal skin is generally so transparent that you can readily see the orange color and the patterns of the butterfly wings inside.

Once the butterfly exits the pupa, the remaining chrysalis skin is clear and has a very papery feel.

Beautiful Insects: Steven Katzman photographs on display

As of this morning there is a new photographic display at MOSI and I am very, very excited about it. Steven Katzman 11 large scale photos can be found in a long corridor on the second floor of the museum, just past the Disasterville exhibit.

These images are of insects: beetles, millipedes, butterflies. It is amazing how easily we can overlook insects in our lives but these photos present the bugs in a way that is very striking. They are big! They are shot in exquisite detail. They are breathtaking.

On display until April 30th, come check out these very extraordinary images of insects at MOSI. And now... a word from our Artist: Steven Katzman

Katzman Photo Exhibit Artist Statement
MOSI, Tampa, Florida

I recently received permission to photograph the beetle collection at the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Entomology Museum. With millions of specimens to choose from, I gravitated towards a few old boxes on a shelf, beetles that were left intact from a German collector, never formally being cataloged into the Museum’s main collection. Always inquisitive, I found out that the specimen trays originated from the Field Museum. As I became deeply involved documenting my subject matter, the proverbial light bulb exploded in my head. The Field Museum of Natural History!

Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska during the 50’s, Chicago’s relatively close proximity provided an opportunity for a family vacation. We spent time at the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum of Natural History. Our day almost complete, I asked my parents if I could go to the Field’s gift shop where I immediately gravitated towards a large specimen displayed in an elaborate glass case. My father bought me the Rhinoceros Beetle, and it would become my prized possession, eventually replaced by other youthful priorities. Forty-five years later, I was once again looking at a Rhinoceros Beetle that captured my childhood imagination.

The specimen trays were created from multiple collectors’ hands, culminating over years of casual research. Their pattern, arrangement and display of insects preserved in their present state of arrest by this photographer’s camera. I cannot understand why I didn’t become an entomologist with my fascinations of insects, butterflies and moths as a child. Perhaps it was the thought that I perceived it cruel to capture a living creature, ending its life with a pin through its thorax or wings.

These photographs are not for us to debate the process of research, regardless of its environmental or social impact upon our ecosystem, but to rekindle those child hood memories that can easily escape on the wings of a butterfly.

Blooming today: Hippeastrum

Spring has come to the Historic Tree Grove at MOSI. For the last week the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Live Oak has had a riot of orange blooms circling its base. The Hippeastrum bulbs have put up flowering stalks despite the beating they took in the freezes this past winter.

Two large and established patches of hippeastrum are blooming like mad and bulbs that were relocated late last fall are also trying their hardest to compete, bringing color to the base of the Ray Charles Live Oak. If you get a chance to visit the museum in the next few weeks, take a dash out into the gardens and check out these remarkable flowers. They never do last very long, but while they are here they are truly a sight to behold.

The rest of the year these plants will leave behind gorgeous green foliage but I am always struck by their beauty each spring. Totally unexpected, they throw their stalks of flowers into the air in mid-February and are blooming like champs by the first day of March.

More on Hipperastrum: Hippeastrum, from the Greek for "horseman's star" and now also known as knight's star are popularly, but erroneously, known as Amaryllis. Amaryllis is in fact a monotypic genus (only one species) from Africa that look similar to hippeastrums but have no leaves.

Hippeastrum is a commonly sold bulbous plant that readily grows in pots and indoors. There are around 70-75 species of hipperastrums available on the market, but somehow I favor these brilliant orange ones. Certainly they are not the most showy cultivar but their color is eye-catching and remarkable.