botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
.
Made up of 3,426 glass panes fit into a wood and iron framework, this Victorian-style greenhouse structure is modeled on London's
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
. Inside, the Volunteer Park Conservatory is divided into five display houses: bromeliads, ferns, palms, seasonal, and cacti/succulents.
Collections and programs
The conservatory built up its specialty plant collections through donations from individuals. Between its glass ceilings and walls, the conservatory displays thousands of living specimens for public viewing, while thousands of additional specimens are cultivated in the adjacent greenhouses. Four of the conservatory's five display houses – bromeliad, fern, palm, and cacti and succulents – feature plants from a single plant primarily along with other accent plants. A fifth house, the seasonal house, features different plants based on the season.
Display houses
Bromeliad House
The name "bromeliad" refers to plants in the family
Bromeliaceae
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot
Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain o ...
. More than 2,400 bromeliad species grow worldwide. Bromeliads are commonly
epiphyte
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...
s, which grow by attaching themselves to another surface such as a branch or rock. The conservatory's Bromeliad House features its epiphytes on a special iron display tree holding dozens of different ''
Tillandsia
''Tillandsia'' is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of northern Mexico and south-eastern United States, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to ...
'' species. The conservatory also displays terrestrial species of the bromeliad family, such as the pineapple (Ananas comosus).
Fern House
A
fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...
is any plant classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta (also known as Filicophyta), a group composed of roughly 20,000 species. The conservatory's collection features a number of
cycad
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...
s. Other featured plants in the Fern House include a Mexican breadfruit (''Monstera deliciosa'') and tropical flowers including passionflower (''
Passiflora
''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae.
They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They ...
'' sp.) and hibiscus. This house also features
bog garden
A bog garden is a type of garden that employs permanently moist (but not waterlogged) soil to create a habitat for plants and creatures which thrive in such conditions. It may exploit existing poor drainage in the garden, or it may be artificiall ...
s with a collection of carnivorous plants including Venus fly traps (''Dionaea muscipula''), sundews (''
Drosera
''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...
'' sp), pitcher plants (''
Sarracenia
''Sarracenia'' ( or ) is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera '' Darlingtonia'' an ...
'' sp).
Seasonal House
This house within the conservatory does not feature a single plant family, but is instead changed over completely six times per year. The featured flowers for each change include poinsettias, mums, late winter flowers, azaleas, early spring flowers, hydrangeas and fuchsias.
Palm House
The 2,500 species of the
palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
family,
Arecaceae
The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...
, are typically found in tropic and subtropic regions. Notable palms in the conservatory's collection include the Windmill Palm (''Trachycarpus fortunei''), donated by Hiram Chittenden Locks circa 1953. A featured Sago Palm (''Cycas revoluta'', not a true palm, but a member of the Cyadaceae), was about 80 years old in 2009. In addition to palms, cycads, and orchids, visitors will find banana (''
Musa
Musa may refer to:
Places
* Mūša, a river in Lithuania and Latvia
* Musa, Azerbaijan, a village in Yardymli Rayon
* Musa, Iran, a village in Ilam Province
* Musa, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran
*Musa, Kerman, Iran
* Musa, Bukan, West Azerbaija ...
Anthurium
''Anthurium'' (; Schott, 1829) is a genus of about 1,000Mantovani, A. and T. E. Pereira. (2005)''Anthurium'' (section ''Urospadix''; subsection ''Flavescentiviridia'').''Rodriguesia'' 56(88), 145–60. species of flowering plants, the largest ...
'' and
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...
(
Zingiberaceae
Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Af ...
) in this house.
The conservatory's
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
collection, which began as a gift from Mrs. Anna H. Clise in 1921, is also found in the Palm House. Orchids are a large and diverse flowering plant family composed of more than 20,000 species. The conservatory's collection includes representatives of the largest genera – ''
Bulbophyllum
''Bulbophyllum'' is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is the largest genus in the orchid family and one of the largest genera of flowering plants with more than 2,000 species, exceeded in number onl ...
'', ''
Epidendrum
''Epidendrum'' , abbreviated Epi in the horticultural trade, is a large neotropical genus of the orchid family. With more than 1,500 species, some authors describe it as a mega-genus. The genus name (from Greek ''επί, epi'' and ''δένδρο ...
'', and ''
Dendrobium
''Dendrobium'' is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is a very large genus, containing more than 1,800 species that are found in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, i ...
'' – as well as commonly cultivated genera such as ''
Cattleya
''Cattleya'' () is a genus of orchids from Costa Rica south to Argentina. The genus is abbreviated C in trade journals.
Description
Epiphytic or terrestrial orchids with cylindrical rhizome from which the fleshy noodle-like roots grow. Pseu ...
'' and ''
Phalaenopsis
''Phalaenopsis'' (), also known as moth orchids, is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots, short, leafy stems and long-lasting ...
Cactaceae
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...
, native to the Americas, are known as
cacti
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...
or cactuses. All cacti are
succulent
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...
s – plants which have adapted to arid climate or soil conditions and store water in their leaves, stems, and/or roots – but not all succulents are cacti. The conservatory's collection includes cacti genera such as ''
Opuntia
''Opuntia'', commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as ''tuna'' (fruit), ''sabra'', ''nopal'' (paddle, plural ''nopales'') from the Nahuatl word f ...
'', as well as succulents from other genera such as ''
Pachypodium
''Pachypodium'' is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Genus characteristics
All ''Pachypodium'' are succulent plants that exhibit, to varying degrees, the ...
'', ''
Haworthia
''Haworthia'' is a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa
(Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa).
Like the aloes, they are members of the subfamily Asphodeloideae and they generally resemble mi ...
'', ''
Agave
''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...
'', ''
Aloe
''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...
'', and ''
Euphorbia
''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...
''. Grown from a cutting taken in 1916, the Jade Tree ('' Crassula argentea'') is one of the oldest plants in the conservatory.
Art installations
Several sculptural features and artworks adorn the conservatory.
The ornate beveled glass lunette window found just above the entry is original to 1912. In 1981, the conservatory added a hand blown and stained green glass canopy designed by Richard Spaulding and entitled “Homage in Green” to the entry vestibule. Additional green glass pieces, also designed by Spaulding, were added in 1982 and 1995. The lunette or "peacock window" over the main entry is the only original wood and glass piece remaining from 1912 after two renovations. It was restored in 2000.
A wrought iron display tree designed by Randy Benson and crafted by local iron artists holds tillandsias in the bromeliad house.
Audience
More than 150,000 people visit the Conservatory annually.
Public programs
The Conservatory is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, 10am to 4pm. Docents offer tours providing information on Conservatory plant collections, architectural history, plant acquisition and production, physical facility operation, and behind-the-scenes news.
History
In 1878, the City of Seattle spent $2,000 to acquire approximately on north Capitol Hill from a sawmill engineer. Originally named City Park, it was renamed Volunteer Park in 1901 to honor the volunteers who served in the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
. From 1904, this acreage was improved using plans designed by the
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...
, with
John Charles Olmsted
John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920), was an American landscape architect. The nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, he worked with his father and his younger brother, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in their father's firm. After their fat ...
as the principal designer for this project
The conservatory was among the earliest additions to City/Volunteer Park. After the project was proposed in 1893, the City of Seattle purchased the conservatory design and framework from the Hitchings Company of New York. The conservatory is a Victorian-style greenhouse modeled on London's Crystal Palace. The City's Parks Department staff erected the building, completing the work in 1912. In 1922, the conservatory added growing greenhouses in order to grow and propagate plants.
By 1978, the Conservatory's glass panes and framework of wood and iron had deteriorated and, during high winds, the building was forced to close. Citizens campaigned to restore the physical shell of the Conservatory. As a result of this effort, the Friends of the Conservatory (FOC) became established as a non-profit organization in 1980. Working in partnership with the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, the FOC sponsored an architectural restoration of the Conservatory that took place between 1980 and 1985. In 2003, a Gift Shop/Resource Center opened. In 2004, the FOC led a successful community drive against a proposed mandatory $5 admissions fee.
In 2005, 2008 and 2014, the Conservatory witnessed the rare flowering of a corpse flower (
Amorphophallus titanum
''Amorphophallus'' (from Ancient Greek , "without form, misshapen" + ''phallos'', "penis", referring to the shape of the prominent spadix) is a large genus of some 200 tropical and subtropical tuberous herbaceous plants from the ''Arum'' family ...
). Seattle mayor Ed Murray honored the 2014 blooming by proclaiming "Corpse Flower Week". Not only are corpse flowers quite large plants, they are only likely to bloom two to three times within their 40-year life spans. Before it bloomed on July 27, 2008, the specimen at the Volunteer Park Conservatory, nicknamed ''Waldo'', had grown to a size of 47½ inches tall, 30 inches wide, and 52½ inches long.Waldo (Amorphophallus titanum) /ref>
Organizational structure
The Volunteer Park Conservatory is owned by the
City of Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of N ...
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
repository for confiscated plants. As such, it acquires, quarantines, and later displays restricted orchids, cycads, and other plants seized by USFW agents.
As of 2017, the conservatory employs 6 staff people – 2 senior gardeners, 2 gardeners, and 2 greeters – to maintain the collections and the facilities. Public programs are largely supported by the Friends of the Conservatory.
The Friends of the Conservatory's mission, in cooperation with the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, is "to support and advocate for the Conservatory by encouraging preservation, public participation, and education with respect to the Conservatory and its plant collections." The Friends of the Conservatory (FOC) was established in 1980.
The FOC provides both financial and educational support to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. Its efforts include funding descriptive tour materials and environmental education, helping to build the Conservatory's orchid collection, and contributing to the Plant Acquisition Fund. The FOC also assists the conservatory in organizing and hosting events, such as open houses and plant sales. Over 100 volunteers provide over 2,500 hours of service to the conservatory annually.