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Affectionately often called the “Plant Whisperer,” Kathleen Conrad has cared for IMS’s indoor botanical backyard for almost 20 years. Here, she talks with IMS Staff Writer Raquel Baetz about how she got here to take care of IMS’s indoor backyard, her favourite plant at IMS, and what’s on her plant want listing.
How did you come to IMS and what’s your function right here?
I’m from Napa, California, and I started my somatic/meditation observe with Robert and Alyssa Hall on the Lomi School in Mill Valley in 1970. That expertise led me to Spirit Rock after which to IMS. In 2003, I joined the housekeeping staff after a two-month retreat on the Forest Refuge and have been right here ever since. Today, my function includes housekeeping on the Teacher Village, helping IMS co-founders Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, and taking care of all of the crops at IMS.
How did caring for the crops develop into a part of your job?
Jeanne Demers, who was the housekeeper on the Forest Refuge after I first arrived at IMS, began my coaching with the crops. She launched me to the specialists on the Hadley Garden Center who I additionally realized rather a lot from. I coated for Jeanne on the Forest Refuge when she was on depart after which joined the staff on the Retreat Center and started to assist with the crops there. For a few years, I shared the plant care with different members of the housekeeping staff. During the pandemic, I grew to become the principle plant individual for all of IMS.
Do you have got a favourite plant?
I created a Bodhi tree for Joseph that’s considered one of my favorites. I made it from the Bodhi tree on the Forest Refuge that was donated by Amita Schmidt, considered one of our former resident academics. I’ve realized rather a lot from that tree. For one factor, a tree is just not a home plant, so that you solely have to water it about as soon as a month. Michael Freeman, who initially made this Bodhi tree, got here on retreat one time when it wasn’t doing too properly. He taught me the best way to take care of it. It wanted much less water and extra solar. He additionally taught me new methods to make Bodhi bushes from current ones, giving me extra religion within the course of.
Since then, I’ve made about 10 Bodhi bushes, together with the one I made for Joseph. I made one for Sharon, too, and that one is now virtually as massive as the unique. I put all of the Bodhi bushes exterior in late spring and summer time as a result of the solar and the weather actually strengthen and empower them.
What are a number of the challenges you face with caring for the crops at IMS?
The warmth and the air-con within the buildings are massive issues. The warmth dries the crops out within the winter and the crops don’t just like the air-con blowing on them in the summertime. Many of the crops we’ve tried on the stage within the Retreat Center meditation corridor have needed to be moved due to the air-con. Though we’ve received a monstera there now that’s doing properly.
Some of the crops develop scale, that are tiny bugs that appear like armadillos. They feed on the sap of the crops they usually’re arduous to do away with. Mealybugs can be an issue. They appear like cotton sweet and likewise feed on the plant’s sap.
Are yogis in a position to assist with the crops?
There have been instances when yogis have helped me with a plant, and I’m so grateful to these folks for his or her care and help. Generally although, it’s finest if yogis depart plant care to me, notably with watering them. Yogis are welcome to go away me notes with the entrance workplace at both the Retreat Center or Forest Refuge if they’re frightened about one of many crops, and I’ll be sure that to verify on it.
What’s in your want listing for the crops at IMS?
Many of the crops are donated by yogis and workers, and we’re grateful. But what’s donated doesn’t all the time work properly within the spots now we have. It could be good to have a finances to have the ability to purchase crops with the precise circumstances of a selected spot in thoughts.
For instance, the hearth and the windowsills within the Retreat Center higher strolling room are difficult. That room will get scorching from the heating within the winter, and there’s not plenty of daylight. As one other instance, the Retreat Center eating corridor doesn’t get sufficient solar, so we’ve stopped placing crops on the tables in there. But within the Forest Refuge eating corridor, now we have an aglaonema on the desk that likes low gentle, so it’s doing properly.
The crops at IMS should inform a number of the historical past of the place?
In the Retreat Center meditation corridor, there was a dracaena. We referred to as it the “dinosaur” as a result of it had been there so lengthy. It was there when His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited [in 1979], and all these different wonderful academics had taught in that room in its presence. Knowing that it was there when all these academics have been there too is deeply shifting. There are cuttings of it all through IMS as we speak.
Any closing ideas on the crops and your work with them?
There’s simply one thing about crops. I believe they assist us acknowledge our interconnectedness, they usually’re like mild bodhisattvas. They emanate this peace and love. It’s one thing very constructive. You have the troubles of life and the world and you then see a flower and it’s so uplifting.
It’s been so rewarding taking good care of them, and I’m grateful that the crops deliver pleasure to everybody. I’m completely satisfied after I could make the crops completely satisfied, though caring for them may be difficult at instances. Plants train us about endurance, magnificence, awe, and impermanence. Afterall, there’s a discourse by which the Buddha taught the Dharma with a handful of simsapa leaves.
