Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 07:22:53 -0600 From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg21$foo@default> Subject: Longwood Gardens
Hi, Paul,
Having lived near Philadelphia, PA most of my adult life (I moved
out here to MO three years ago), I'm very familiar with Longwood
Gardens. I know what you mean about their declining cp display, so I
wrote a friend of mine who works there (although the cp's aren't in
her area).
First, your premise that Longwood Gardens has "conservatories" and
should therefore be preserving rare species is flawed... Longwood has
never called itself a botanical garden, nor has it ever purported to be
maintaining or preserving rare plants. It was originally a DuPont
estate, and its mandate is to follow that estate's wishes: it is, and
always has been, primarily a display garden, not a botanical garden. If
they grow cp's, it will be because the DuPonts may have had them,
back when it was in fashion to grow them in hot houses, and/or
because they are beautiful (NOT because they are endangered).
In contrast, the institution where I work (the Missouri Botanical
Garden) IS primarily a botanical garden, and its mission has ALWAYS
included the goal of preserving rare and interesting species... so OUR
garden could certainly be called upon to preserve cp's in any way
possible. That's not to say we're doing a perfect job either: when I
first came here three years ago, our once wonderful collection had
declined to a mere shadow of itself. We had had a curator who was
very interested in cp's, but after she left, the collection slowly
degraded. That is often the case at ANY botanical garden,
unfortunately. I have worked to improve and expand the collection
once again, and have enlarged and improved our display a lot... I hope
you can come see it someday!
My friend did say, however, that Longwood certainly could have a
better cp display, and the gardener in charge of them IS interested in
them, so hopefully things will improve. I think if we want to
encourage them, we shouldn't be on the attack, and should instead
stress to them how LOVELY these plants are, and how interested
people are to see them grown well. Anything that increases ticket
sales, of course, always helps!
Susan
> I stated that I thought things were going downhill back in the
> Spring... "downhill" would be a step up now. I urge everyone to mail
> or email (as I have repeatedly) to Longwood Gardens to reverse this
> trend. Longwood Gardens was reknowned (at one time) for having the
> best selection of Nepenthes in America- they had an entire room
> devoted to them- but now they have two closet sized areas in a
> hallway. For a "Conservatory" to snub the single most
> conservation-needing plants in the world is just plain dumb.
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402
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