Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pollinating the Cashew Tree at the Huntington Museum of Art

Recently, my friend, Carolyn Bagby contacted me. She wrote, "Our conservatory director, Mike Beck, has a cashew tree that is budding that will be in need of pollination in a week or two. We were talking about this at lunch today and I told him you might be willing to help him with this problem."
I contacted Mike who is the Director of the very beautiful Consrevatory at the Huntington Museum of Art. He told me they have a cashew tree starting to bloom & he had always wanted to try to get it pollinated to have actual cashews growing in it. I toured the Conservatory with Mike and there were several things I noticed. First, there were huge windows all around to let in light. Bees orient, in part, by polarized light. I was concerned that the bees would simply fly toward the windows and get stuck there trying to get out. To overcome this, I rubbed lemongrass oil on the opening of their hive, since bees also locate their hive by its unique smell.
The second concern was that there were several other wonderful smelling flowers in bloom. The vanilla vine, along with a few other trees and orchids were blooming profusely. Bees will always choose the flower which has the highest percentage of sugar in its nectar.
I researched cashew pollination on the internet and discovered that the flowers are very attractive to bees, which are used to pollinate the trees in the tropics. I shared this with Mike & we agreed to give it a try.
The trickiest part of the operation is that we obviously couldn't have an open beehive in the Conservatory while people were there. Since the Museum is closed on Monmdays, we agreed that I would bring a small observation beehive to the tree at closing time on Sunday, March 29th and return to pick them up the next evening.



Mike met me at the door and the we opened the hive directly under the cashew tree. As predicted, many bees flew directly to the large windows and spent their time trying to find a way out. But Mike came back on Monday and saw several bees around the cashew flowers. He even rigged up a small plastic flower pot on a long handle and scooped a few bees off the windows. He then poured those over the cashew flowers to try & give them the idea. All he got for his efforts was a stinger in the ear!
The next day, I brought a small bee vac which scoops up the bees into a chamber from which they were released near their hive after they returned to my beeyard.
Time will tell whether the project was successful & the Museum will have its own cashews. But Mike & I had a lot of fun & learned many new things about bees & trees!

15 comments:

Dan O'Hanlon said...

From my friend, Carletta Fannin:
How wonderful!
Thank you for sharing with me. I loved the story. It is amazing what people (including myself) don't know AND don't realize about bees and what all they do.
Have a good week,
C

Dan O'Hanlon said...

Now another friend, has also commented:
Great story!
Kathleen Thornton

Dan O'Hanlon said...

Yet another good friend has commented:
Honorable Judge Dan....very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot.
Terry Deppner Hardin

Dan O'Hanlon said...

The great beekeeper, filmmaker & artist [just Google her name if you don't believe me] Laura Tyler has commented:
Ooh! I DO hope you see some cashews as I hear they're beautiful http://tinyurl.com/d5cypt. Keep us updated!

(Tried to leave comment above, but it didn't take.)

Much care,


Laura

Dan O'Hanlon said...

A true Renaissance Man, Mr. Raamie Barker has commented:
Only you could make such a story interesting enough to want to read more---look forward to the follow up---and maybe to a cashew or two from what I know will be aparkling success. Bees and beekeepers are fascinating. RB

Dan O'Hanlon said...

We have now heard from the MAESTRO himself, Mike Beck:
Dan
Thanks for the site info. I'm still waiting, impatiently, for the fruits to form. I'll let you know when they do.
Mike

Dan O'Hanlon said...

from my online friend in Raliegh Co., Viki Hatchinson:
Very interesting!!

Dan O'Hanlon said...

Here is a comment from my good buddy & fellow judge, Hobby Spaulding:
Dan - I really enjoyed the story, the pictures and the music. It is a good example of why I enjoy your company. If the pollination worked do you get
to eat some of the cashews? Hobby

Dan O'Hanlon said...

The woman who started it all, Carolyn Bagby, had this to say:
Dan - wonderful!! We are all anxiously awaiting the outcome. Thanks again for helping out. Carolyn

Dan O'Hanlon said...

Our most famous home town chef, Katie Lee Joel, said:
Very cool! If cashews grow, you should make some cashew butter:)

Dan O'Hanlon said...

Cabell County's Chief Probation Officer & my good freind, Jonny Winkler, commented: Very cool! If cashews grow, you should make some cashew butter:)

Dan O'Hanlon said...

My freind & fellow beekeeper, Ken Cole, wrote: I enjoyed your blog on pollinating the Cashew tree. What are the hours that the museum is open? We will be in Hutington tomorrow and my wife wants to stop in and see it.

Thanks
Ken

Dan O'Hanlon said...

More from Ken after he visited the Museum:
Dan
I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the Huntington Art Museum. Sunday they had a youth exibit. Although I enjoyed the whole museum I spent the most time in the antique firearms exibit and the conservatory.

I looked at the bloom on your cashew tree and there appears to be some fruit set. Did you notice if you lost many bees to the pitcher plant next to the cashew tree?

I would be interested in getting a few of the seeds from the Caco (Chocolate Tree) and the Paparus plant. Would you mind asking the curator for a source for me?

Here are a few interesting web pages I found on cashews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew

http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/cashews.html

Dan O'Hanlon said...

from Dr. Rodger Blake:
Dan

Way too cool. This could be a National Geographic special!!!

Keep me up dated on the tree status.

/rodger

Dr. Monica Brooks said...

Hello, Judge O'Hanlon! It was a pleasure watching you, Gabe, and Pete extract the hive from the historic Chester Parsons home in the West End this a.m.! If you would like to use any of our images or short video clips, please feel free:

http://www.dropshots.com/mbrooks88

Sincerely, Kathy Seelinger