Public Garden Management: a Global Perspective: Volume Ii

By BIJAN DEHGAN

Public Gardens Management: A Global Perspective provides essential information about public gardens and what is involved in designing, managing, and maintaining one. Although suitable as a textbook, its audience will include anyone with direct or peripheral responsibility for administration or supervision of a complex organization that requires scientific knowledge as well as public relations and business acumen. It may also prove useful for homeowners, for there is no fundamental difference between growing plants in a public garden or a home garden, a fact reflected in the extensive reference citations.
The topic is multidisciplinary and as old as the beginning of human civilization when the concept of mental and physical restoration was realized by early man while he/she was in a natural but well-ordered garden environment. Thus began the art of garden making. Many volumes have been written on every applicable subject discussed in this and similar publications. Indeed the voluminous literature on history, design, horticulture, and numerous related subjects is nothing short of overwhelming. Accordingly, anyone involved in management of public gardens, whether as a director or area supervisor, and irrespective of the type and size of such facility, would have to have familiarity with various aspects of garden organization and administration.
However, despite the enormous number and diversity of such publications there are very few books that deal with the multiplicity of the topics in such a manner as to be practical in approach and cover most relevant and unified issues in a single book. These volumes provide the essential background information on plants, animals, management, maintenance, fundraising and finances, as well as history, art, design, education, and conservation. They also cover a host of interrelated subjects and responsible organization of such activities as creating a childrens garden, horticultural therapy, conservatories, zoological gardens, and parks, hence, administration of multidimensional public gardens.
Nearly 500 full color plates representing illustrations from gardens in more than 30 countries are provided to assist and guide students and other interested individuals with history and the fundamental issues of public garden management. The 15 chapters begin with the need for public gardens, types of public gardens, historical backgrounds, as well as design diversity. Numerous quotations are included from many garden lovers, landscape architects, philosophers, and others. The authors primary aim in writing this book was based on the confidence that a relevant reference, between the encyclopedic nature of some and the specific subject matter of others, could be used to provide fundamental information for management of public as well as private gardens.
The boundary between botanical and zoological gardens and parks is no longer as distinct as it once was. In part it is because a garden is not a garden without plants and in part it has become apparent that for all practical intents and purposes all animals need plants for their survival. Visitors of zoological gardens expect to see more than just animals; zoos are landscaped grounds. Moreover, most communities find it financially difficult to simultaneously operate a botanical garden or an arboretum as well as a zoological garden and city parks. A number of public gardens are currently referred to as botanical and zoological garden.
Population density and the publics desires and expectations, as well as financial requirements, are among the reasons for some major city parks, such as Golden Gate in San Francisco, Central Park in New York City, and Lincoln Park in Chicago which integrate botanical or zoological divisions as well as museums and recreational facilities. While this book attempts to provide basic principles involved in public garden management, it does not claim to be a substitute for broader familiarity

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493161836

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Copyright © 2014 by BIJAN DEHGAN. 552676

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PUBLIC GARDEN MANAGEMENT:

A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

VOLUME II

BIJAN DEHGAN

Emeritus Professor of Environmental Horticulture

University of Florida

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 6

CONSERVATORIES AND GREENHOUSES

CHAPTER 7

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, ZOOLOGICAL HORTICULTURE, AND ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

CHAPTER 8

ART IN PUBLIC GARDENS

CHAPTER 9

THE NEED FOR INTERPRETATIVE SIGNS IN PUBLIC GARDENS

CHAPTER 10

ROLE OF PUBLIC GARDENS IN CONSERVATION

CHAPTER 11

PUBLIC GARDENS AND PEOPLE-PLANT INTERACTIONS

CHAPTER 12

TREES IN PUBLIC GARDENS

CHAPTER 13

TURFGRASS IN PUBLIC GARDEN LANDSCAPES

CHAPTER 14

FUNDING AND FUNDRAISING

CHAPTER 15

CAREERS AND EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLIC GARDENS

SAMPLE PUBLIC GARDEN VOLUNTEER APPLICATION

SAMPLE EMPLOYEE APPLICATION

EPILOGUE

PUBLIC GARDEN MANAGEMENT FIELD TRIP REPORTS

GLOSSARY

BIJAN DEHGAN - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

CHAPTER 6

CONSERVATORIES AND GREENHOUSES

Is it true that when a great medieval theologian first raised fruits and flowers under glass in winter, he was threatened with the stake for being bewitched?

Wright, 1934

DEFINITION: Conservatory greenhouses are museums of living plants. They display a diversity of rare or endangered, unusual, delicate or less hardy plants from around the world under environmentally controlled, intensively cared-for settings. The primary objective is education about their ecological importance, and as representative growth forms of the natural environments in which they grow as well as their aesthetic, economic, and in some cases therapeutic values.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The art of forcing plants to grow, bloom, and set fruit in heated structures seems to have first appeared in Roman gardens around 30 BC, created by the Emperor Tiberius (42 BC-32 AD). The structure began as a pit and eventually grew into a building. As sheet glass was not known until third century AD, the roofs were covered with painstakingly fabricated small translucent sheets of mica. The soil of Tiberius’ greenhouse was kept warm with animal dung or fires burned along the sides to provide the necessary warmth. Grapes, roses, and lilies were forced to grow in the specularium (pl. speculararia), as it was known. Having been ordered by his doctors to eat cucumbers everyday to control his illness, or perhaps to simply satiate his passion for cucumbers, Tiberious surprised his friends all winter long with fresh cucumbers from his specularium. Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca or Seneca the Younger, born ca. 4 BC, a Roman philosopher and statesman) condemned forcing unseasonable production of flowers, vegetables, and fruits, believing it to be against nature. In fact, Albertus Magnus (Paduan Dominican friar and bishop, 1206-1280), a medieval scholar who wrote about plants and successfully revived the Roman art of forcing flowers and fruits under glass, was charged with witchcraft.

The first wooden greenhouse with slate roof (metamorphic rock) was built by Jacob Bobart the younger (1646-1719), at Oxford University Botanic Garden in 1670. The greenhouse was heated by burning baskets of charcoal wheeled around by gardeners. The greenhouse at Chelsea Garden has been described as having been heated by subterranean heat conveyed by a stove under the conservatory, hence the name stove plants. These greenhouses were primarily used for production of citrus and other tropical fruit trees which were then wheeled outdoors during warmer months. In what might be considered commercial production, bedding plants for seasonal garden flowers and colorful foliage plants for indoor decoration were produced around 1825, first in France and subsequently in England and elsewhere in Europe.

As new exotic plants reached Europe in the 1800s, kings and private collectors established magnificent botanical gardens such as St. Petersburg, Kew, and Paris and grew subtropical plants such as palms and citrus in orangeries. Although orange trees were grown in the municipal gardens of Heidelberg by using shutters above and around them, it was in the palace of Versailles that the first true orangerie was built. This is a large structure 42 ft (12.8 m) wide and 45 ft (13.7 m) high, with a solid roof and is heated primarily by sun’s rays. It is built around a very large open courtyard where plants are situated during summer months. In 1714 when King George I became king of England he had cucumbers at Christmas. Between 1801 and 1805 in St. Petersburg Russia, Czar Alexander I also had fresh cucumbers from his enormous structures that were heated with wood-burning stoves. With further introduction of tropical plants and glass roofs in the early parts of the 19th century empty halls of orangeries were transformed into landscaped interiors. This was followed by construction of true conservatories as we know them today.

The Wardian case, a miniature greenhouse, the prototype of modern terrariums and aquariums, was the invention of Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868), a London physician, who was a collector of butterflies. One day he placed a butterfly chrysalis in some soil in a wide-mouthed glass bottle and covered it with a lid. Small ferns and grasses soon began to grow on the soil. By using a closed glass structure he was able to ship two cases of ferns and grasses from London to Sydney, Australia. They landed safely and the cases were filled with plants and returned to England; a travel duration of eight months without addition of any water.

The establishment of the Indian tea industry was also the result of successful shipment of 20,000 seedlings in Wardian cases to the Himalayas by Robert Fortune. Banana and rubber plantations were established by the same method in Malaya and other tropical countries through Kew Gardens. This was a clear indication that glasshouses would function equally as well as Wardian cases, but with a larger scale and increased exposure to direct sunlight greater care would be required. Plants sent back by Robert Fortune were further propagated and sold by such well-known nurseries as those of James and Robert Veitch and Sons and Conrad Loddiges.

Conservatories which are a garden in a building and a building in a garden remain one of the truly exciting areas for collaboration between architects, engineers, landscape architects, and horticulturists, and one of the most genuinely demanding design challenges of our time.

Anthony Walmsley, FASLA, in Cunningham (2000)

The Oxford English Dictionary credits John Evelyn (1620-1706, a wealthy English writer, gardener, and diarist) with first having used the word conservatory in reference to a place for conserving delicate tropical plants in winter. The word greenhouse was used in the same context to mean a house for evergreens.

Conservatories were a successful achievement of the industrial revolution and often superb works of architecture. In concert with aesthetics, light and heat became the two primary considerations for growing a diversity of plants; readily provided by glass covers. Construction of greenhouses with wood was impractical since this would have required thickness that could support the glass.

Thus began construction of orangeries. Early orangeries were designed with more attention to structural design and aesthetics than to function. However, many of the later structures that were built in botanical gardens required not only an architect and a builder, but talented landscape architects to arrange and organize the plantings while working hand in hand with experienced horticulturists who know how to grow the plants. In practical terms it is the plant collector-taxonomists that also play the more basic role of providing and/or identifying the plants, hence the name "botanical conservatory.: It should be clearly noted that cultivars (= cultivated varieties) that are the result of selection and/or hybridization are often used for color and decorative purposes in conservatories, as well as outdoor landscapes.

With the founding of the Horticultural Society in 1804 (which become Royal Horticultural Society in 1861), and the end of the Napoleonic wars, travel to countries beyond Europe became less restricted and exploration for exotic plants increased dramatically by such people as Robert Fortune (1812-1880). Travelers contributed many new plants such as azaleas and rhododendrons, peonies, chrysanthemums, and roses to gardening enthusiasts. Invention of the Wardian case and informative horticultural publications contributed to further interest in exotic rare plants, such as ferns, orchids and succulents.

SELECTED EXAMPLES

With improved cast and wrought iron frame construction by John Claudius Lauden in 1816, glass-making techniques of the late18th century, and abolishment of the tax on glass in 1845, it was possible to manufacture and erect elaborate greenhouses and conservatories. The theory was that maximum light would be made available by curvilinear design. These are known as Victorian glasshouses or conservatories. Although many of the older structures, such as Chatsworth in Derbyshire in England no longer exist (destroyed in 1920), several other extraordinary large conservatories are still intact and in use. Most of these were designed by Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), including the Crystal Palace Exhibition Pavilion in Hyde Park that was constructed to accommodate the universal exhibition of 1851. It was built primarily to avoid cutting down the trees on the site. The dome structure of the hothouse at Alton Towers, built in 1827 by Robert Abraham (1774-1850) as part of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s pleasure garden and now part of a theme park, is a splendid example of conservatory architecture. And yet another example of early conservatories was designed and built by William Burn at Dalkeith Palace in Scotland in 1832, as a center for the formal garden. It was a 12-sided building with Doric columns (heavy grooved columns with plain top and without a plain top and without an enlarged base).

There are several older and newer conservatories and glasshouses at Kew Garden. The Palm House was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron maker Richard Turner, between 1844 and 1848. While no longer the largest glasshouse structure, it remains the largest surviving Victorian conservatory. It is logical that such tall plants as some palms would require structures tall enough to accommodate their height at maturity. It was constructed with strong wrought iron founded on principals of ship building, including ship beams and with hand blown glass pieces. It was heated by means of underground tunnels. The first restoration became necessary in the 1950s and was undertaken in 1955-1957. A more comprehensive restoration took place in 1984-1988, and the conservatory was once again opened to the public in 1990. Upon reopening, plants that had been kept in containers in the past were planted in ground beds.

With 52,528.32 ft² (4,880 m²) the Temperate House at Kew is twice as large as the Palm House. Although Decimus Burton was asked to prepare a design for the Temperate House in 1859, for financial reasons construction was delayed until 1898. The structure houses plants from the world’s temperate zones, predominantly Mediterranean regions (see geographical scheme). The third conservatory, named in honor of Diana, Princess of Wales, was opened by her in 1987. It is a computer controlled modern conservatory consisting of 10 micro-climatic zones predominantly occupied with succulent and xerophytic plants and some from the lowland tropics.

The orchid and other plant collections are also housed in appropriate climate zones of this conservatory. In contrast to the modern Princess of Wales conservatory, the Nash conservatory, previously known as the Architectural Conservatory, at first sight appears to be an earlier 19th century orangery, in the style of Greek temples with columns. It was originally designed by John Nash (1752-1835) for Buckingham Palace but the designs were not approved apparently because it did not conform to the palace architecture. It was moved to its current location in 1836. It is a historically significant structure that is currently used as a school center.

The most recent addition to Kew Gardens is the Davies Alpine House which opened in 2006. The first two alpine houses were constructed in 1887 and 1939, respectively, but were later demolished. This, the third version, operates with a state-of-the-art computerized system and functions with minimal energy consumption. The automatically operated blinds open and close depending on the weather: open when sunny and hot and close when cold and cloudy. This is actually a common concept in many modern commercial greenhouses. A stream of cool air originates from pipes deep underground and blows over the plants to emulate the high elevation alpine conditions.

In addition to the conservatories and the Alpine House, other greenhouses include the square-shaped Waterlily House which was also built by Richard Turner in 1852 with wrought iron. At the time it was the widest single span greenhouse in the world. It was specifically constructed around a pool to exhibit Victoria amazonica (the giant Amazonian water lily) but now contains other aquatic plants as well. The Evolution House, the second largest greenhouse at Kew, was a gift from the Australian Government in 1952. However, unlike earlier iron structures, the Evolution House was a prefabricated aluminum construction. It is an interactive exhibit arrangement demonstrating plant evolution.

Two other notable Victorian style conservatories and greenhouses in European countries merit special mention. One is located in Vienna, because it was the last of its kind to be constructed and the other in St. Petersburg, Russia, in part because of its historical significance but also because of the exceptionally large number of species housed in a single structure.

The last Victorian conservatory to be built in Europe was the massive iron structure, the Palm House (Palmenhaus) and two associated structures in Vienna, Austria. This facility was erected by the order of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916), designed by Franz Xaver Segenschmid (1839-1838), and erected in 1881-1882 by Ferdinand Hetzendorf (1732-1816) on Schönbrunn Palace grounds. It is 113 meters (378.7 ft) long and 28 meters (91.86 ft) high at the center pavilion but somewhat shorter in the two lateral pavilions. The pavilions are connected by means of tunnel-like passages.

A somewhat similar structure (Wüstenhaus) adjacent to the Palm House was also commissioned by the Emperor Franz Joseph and designed by the architect Alfons Wilhelm Custodis (1850-1924) for Australian and South African succulent and xerophytic plants. It was completed in 1904 but extensively renovated in recent years. It now houses various dry-adapted Madagascan, African, and New World plants, as well as a few small desert animals. Both structures are adjacent to the beautifully designed and maintained labyrinth garden, with borders in annual flowers rather than hedges. And yet a third conservatory in Victorian style is known as the Butterfly House (Schmetterlinghaus), also known as Burgarten Palmenhaus or Jugendstil Palmenhous. This is now a part of the Hofburg Palace in central Vienna. It was designed by the architect Fredrich Ohmann (1858-1927). Renovated in 1988 and opened to the public in 1998. Essentially it is a humid tropical glasshouse of tropical plants and live butterflies.

The conservatory in the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, also known as Botanic Garden of the Komarov Botanical Institute, or Komarov Botanical Garden, is significant both for its Victorian structure and size and for the very large number of species it contains. The garden was founded by Peter the Great (Peter 1, 1672-1725) in 1714-1715, and the main central conservatory (Palm Greenhouse) together with the other greenhouses, were built in 1823-1824. There are 25 greenhouses of which 22, including the central large Palm House with its height of 23.5 m (77 ft), are connected and encircle the southern and the northern yards. These are used for display of the many species. Although perhaps somewhat exaggerated or inaccurately translated, the total length of the greenhouses is said to be nearly two miles. Despite destruction of 80% of the plants during the siege of the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1941-1944, out of 6,367 species 861 survived. The number of species has since been augmented to more than the prewar original. Similar to other major conservatory-greenhouses, the collection ranges from terrestrial to aquatic and from temperate to tropical plants, some having been there since 1857. There are also some individually designed sections, such as the small Japanese garden.

AMERICAN CONSERVATORIES

The European glass houses had their counterparts across the Atlantic. However, even though New York’s Crystal Palace was impressive and more elaborate than its London parent, the erection of public buildings for plants did not proceed in America with the tornado-like momentum evident in Europe. This is attributable to the slow growth of the American urban public park; in the 1850s, America was much more interested in taming the wilderness and securing its borders west of the Mississippi than in creating urban gardens.

Woods and Warren (1988)

EARLY AMERICAN CONSERVATORIES

The large conservatory built in New York’s Central Park in 1899, and the Victorian Fairmont Park’s Horticultural Hall built in Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition of 1876, were both demolished in 1934 and 1955, respectively. The large number of conservatories built in the United States in late 19th and 20th centuries, in concert with the surge in number of public gardens, is evidence of the rapid advancement in horticultural and botanical interests.

Phipps Conservatory was a gift from the steel and real estate philanthropist Henry Phipps (1839-1930) to the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was designed and built by the New York greenhouse firm of Lord and Burnham at a cost of $110,000. It is a Victorian glasshouse of nearly two acres with nine interconnected, individually-controlled display houses. When it opened on December 7, 1893 it was the largest conservatory in the United States and had the finest collection of tropical plants which it had acquired from the Chicago Columbian Exhibition (Chicago World Fair) of 1893. With the addition of educational programming and other activities under private management and restoration of the small but attractive outdoor garden in 1997, the board of trustees changed the name of the organization to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. However, in 2001 the conservatory merged with Pittsburgh Garden Place (renamed the Phipps Garden Center) and began to undergo significant renovation and expansion. With recent additions of the 11,000 ft² (1021.9 m²) Welcome Center (the first public garden structure to be certified as LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the 36,000 ft² (3344.5 m²) greenhouse growing area, and the 12,000 ft² (1114.8 m²) multilevel display space specifically designated for thematic representations, Phipps Conservatory is now one of the largest glasshouses of its kind (http://phipps.conservatory.org/).

The large Victorian Enid A. Haupt Conservatory of the New York Botanical Garden was inspired by its first director-in-chief, Nathaniel Lord Britton (1857-1934) and his wife Elizabeth after visiting the Kew Gardens. It was designed by William R. Cobb of the Lord and Brenham Firm and built by Hitchings and Company from 1900 to 1902. This structure was a 512 ft (156 m) long and 42,430 ft2 (3941 m2) complex modeled after the Palm House at Kew. It included a 90 ft (27.43 m) high central pavilion dome and two smaller 80 ft (24.38 m) domes on each side. It opened to the public in 1902 and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1973. Renovations and restoration took place in 1978 with financial support from Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906-2005), in whose honor the conservatory is named. Architect Beyer Blinder Belle was responsible for the 1993 renovation that involved modernization of the environmental controls to a state-of-the-art computerized system and redesign of the exhibits. Haupt Conservatory is the largest early Victorian glasshouse in the United States and by all measures a treasure house of useful scientific and practical botanical and horticultural information. It is a well maintained glasshouse where there is a complete representation of all plant types and growth habits, from varying biomes; terrestrial to aquatic, tropical and temperate to desert. Ample detailed interpretive educational signs are provided throughout the conservatory. The facility houses more than 3,000 specimens contained in four environmentally controlled pavilions: lowland and upland tropical forests and American and African deserts.

Henry Shaw, the founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden, built an orangery in 1882 and dedicated it to Carolus (Carl) Linnaeus (1707-1778), the well-known father of binomial biological nomenclature. Although not exactly reminiscent of the grand Victorian structures of Britain and other European countries, the Linnaean House, as it is called, is the only remaining significant greenhouse-conservatory structure of the period in the United States. Similar to the European orangeries, tender plants such as citrus and tree ferns were moved outdoors during summer months. The roof of the orangery was replaced with all glass after World War I, but subsequent to the storm of 1927, it was once again changed to ⅓ slate and ⅔ glass, as it is today. Several camellias, including the rare yellow flowering Camellia chrysantha are housed at the Linnaean orangery, as are a number of other plants, including colorful annuals.

However, one of the most striking conservatory structures, known as the Climatron, designed by architect and author Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), was built at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1960 under directorship of the well-known plant physiologist Fritz Went (1903-1990). A large climatically computer controlled geodesic dome without any internal support, it covers an area of 0.5 acres (0.202 ha; 2023.4 m²) and houses 1200 species, including palms, cycads, ferns, and orchids as well such economically important tropical crop plants as coffee, banana, and cacao. There are also two attractive and well-suited waterfalls. It is considered one of the most significant buildings of the 20th century by the American Institute of Architecture.

A second conservatory constructed in 1990, the Shoenberg Temperate House, is adjacent to the Climatron. This 8900 ft² (826.8 m²) glasshouse was designed by the Christner Partnership, Inc. of St. Louis, with interior displays by Environmental Planning & Design of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The seven distinct sections house such diverse plants as pomegranate and grapes, 40 plants listed in the Bible, carnivorous plants, and others from many countries with temperate Mediterranean climates such as South Africa, Australia, Asia, among others, as well as California. The attractive features of this conservatory include a stone portico designed by Barnett, Havynal, and Barnett in 1902, and the Moorish Garden which is built with colorful tiles. A desert house built in 1913 was demolished in 1975 but one is planned for the future.

MODERN AMERICAN CONSERVATORIES

New botanical and horticultural gardens currently far outnumber the earlier gardens. As expected, not only the number of greenhouse conservatories increased, but the various greenhouse environments and management methods for growing plants have also improved.

The United States Botanic Garden, in Washington D. C., was created by the founders of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences in 1816. The South Seas Exploring Expedition began on August 18, 1838. This organization visited several countries such as Brazil and many islands, including Hawaii and Fiji. They brought back 50,000 herbarium specimens of 10,000 species and 250 living plants. In late1842, a greenhouse was added to accommodate the live plants. By 1854 the living collection included plants from China, Japan, India, and Ceylon (= Sri Lanka). The small Gothic greenhouse, with its circular staircase and a hidden brick chimney which was part of the heating system, used for exotic plants, began attracting public attention, soon after it was built. Congress officially named the United States Botanic Garden in 1856. William D. Brackenridge (1810-1893) was appointed stewardship of the Garden and in 1853 he hired William R. Smith (1828-1912), a Scotsman, as the first superintendent. The conservatory rotunda built in 1867, contained more than 300 palms, and included a whole host of other plants from several countries.

In the 1920s, the greenhouses and more than 200 trees were destroyed and the garden was relocated a short distance to allow opening of the Washington Mall. The new conservatory constructed by David Lynn (1873-1954), Architect of the Capital, with its impressive glass and aluminum dome to house the extensive plant collection, was opened to the public in 1933. Under George Wesley Hess’ directorship the educational exhibits included medicinal and other useful plants, as well as plants of the Bible. The conservatory consisted of 28,944 ft². However, structural deteriorations were discovered in the 1970s, and by 1989 it became apparent the entire structure had to be rebuilt. In 1992 many plants were shipped to Florida to assure their survival and in 1997 the conservatory was closed to the public.

In 2001, the reconstructed conservatory was once again opened to the public in 2001, with state-of-the-art environmental controls and full accessibility. Indeed it is one of the world’s most unique and beautifully designed and built conservatories. The plants are meticulously maintained in environmentally appropriately controlled sections. In addition to exhibit halls and many other features, a large area is maintained for official functions and activities.

While the United States Botanical Conservatory is a superb example of design and construction, as well as expert management and maintenance of plants, the enormous Longwood Garden’s conservatory is a model of overwhelming splendor for species and cultivar diversity and richness in concert with impressive design. Each of these two conservatories represents a unique and perhaps unequal organization in terms of garden art. Whereas the U. S. Conservatory may best be described as Gothic-Victorian architecture, Longwood’s architecture is more akin to the European orangeries, but with significant modernism in design and environmental control of each sector.

The first Longwood greenhouse was built in 1912. It was 132 ft (40.23 m) long and intended for growing flowers, vegetables, and grapes. The second constructed in 1914, was designed as a garden living room, planned for growing plants but also for entertaining guests. The final true conservatory was originally designed by architect Alexander J. Harper (1829-1906), but completed by J. Walter Cope (1860-1902), and the DuPont Engineering Company. It opened to the public in November 25, 1921. As one enters the central building it appears as an inverted T-shaped structure. It is 181 ft (55.17 m) wide, 204 ft (62.18 m) deep, and 40 ft (12.2 m) high. This main pavilion is flanked on each side with two long greenhouse compartments. Control systems, including heating and watering elements, are hidden in tunnels below the floors. In other words, there are no visible heating units or water faucets. Planting of the central unit includes two comparatively large expanses of lawn bordered with beds of colorful seasonal flowers. Another unique feature of this conservatory is the addition of the elegant music room designed by J. Walter Hope and built in 1921. There was an immense 3,650 pipe organ in the room.

Yet other additions were to come. These included the Azalea House with two rows of structural columns and three sections of ridge-and-furrow roof (first used by Paxton at Chadsworth, in England, with furrows and ridges oriented at right angle to the morning and evening sun), and a new concert hall-ballroom with a 10,010 pipe organ installed in nine chambers, all designed by the well-respected Delaware architect Edward William Martin (1891-1977). This astonishing conservatory of beautiful structure filled with beautiful expertly maintained plants surrounds the outdoor pool of aquatic plant collections. In short, Longwood Garden Conservatory includes 20 units containing 5,500 species and cultivars in 195,668 ft² (18,178 m²), including nursery and research greenhouses.

There are many other conservatories of note in the United States and Canada, one of the most notable of which is located in Montreal Botanical Garden. Also see illustrations and captions for additional conservatories.

IMMERSION LANDSCAPES

These are large conservatories landscaped in such manner as to represent natural habitats for animals. See Chapter Seven on Zoological Gardens.

GREENHOUSES AND PLANT COLLECTIONS AT UNIVERSITIES

It is a fact that nearly all colleges and universities with botany or horticulture departments, as a matter of necessity, possess significant number of greenhouses. These often include plant collections for teaching and experimental purposes. In several institutions plant science departments are associated with botanical gardens or arboreta, such as the University of California at Berkley and Davis campuses, Harvard University and Arnold Arboretum, among many others too numerous to mention. As noted earlier, most botanical gardens are and have been either owned and operated by universities or are otherwise associated with one. This is also true in many other countries, such as the Botanical Garden and its greenhouses at the University of Vienna which has one of the most impressive plant collections under glass in a series of interconnected greenhouses (see accompanying figures).

CHAPTER 6 – REFERENCES

Bryan, L. 1993. Conservatory Gardening: A Complete Practical Guide. Lansdowne Publishing Pty. Ltd.,