The Collections team recently made their annual journey to the Costa Rica glasshouse at the botanical gardens to perform some much-needed pruning work. This biome requires a hard pruning session each year given how quickly the plants and trees grow. With vines climbing the glass and trees growing into the ceiling, the team saddled up and got to work.

All in all, it was a great (but humid) day of work, the Collections team was able to thin and reduce 6 large trees as well as remove the vines growing up the glasshouse walls.

Some trees could be climbed normally, other trees required our arborists to tie into the structure of the glasshouse itself.

The cuttings from this biome must be frozen before it can be disposed of to mitigate the chance of invasive pests escaping. This single day of pruning produced over 50 large contractor bags of debris needing to be frozen. The result of a very successful day of work. A special thank you to Sadie S, Gabby F and Gavin H for assisting the crew of arborists in their pruning endeavors and clean up. Had there been no aid on the ground, keeping the work zone clear, completing a job of this scope in a single day would have been impossible. It was a true team effort, and we are all quite happy with the results.