"Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden will open its... Orchid Conservatory... in a... $12.5 million glass building...
a... botanical garden set on 380 acres beside Lake Wylie in southeastern Gaston County. ... The conservatory is... 8,000 square feet. The tempered glass walls are 100 percent clear, and the glass on the roof is 85 percent clear... more transparent than some conservatories... within it, trees and walls combine to create shady areas. The conservatory has the latest in technology to keep the ventilation, temperature and humidity just right. It even has its own little weather station that sits atop the cupola five stories up. ... The conservatory has nearly 2,000 orchids... The garden drew 87,000 visitors last year... The garden opened in October 1999 on land that had belonged to textile magnate Daniel Stowe of Belmont. The idea of a botanical garden began to form in his mind after he read about the opening of the new conservatory at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 1989. With his gift of land and money in 1991, the garden was on its way and became his legacy. Stowe died in 2006, age 93. ... James Burghardt, the conservatory's manager... is a tropical-plant specialist who arrived from South Florida last August. ... the garden will offer a series of lectures... Eric Hansen, author of "Orchid Fever," will speak... on the flowers and people he spent time with while studying the history and politics of the orchid trade. Author Steve Frowine will speak on cultivating miniature orchids..., Courtney Hackney will speak on cattleya species and hybrid orchids... www.dsbg.org ... hay-scented orchid... the genus dendrochilum." URL : http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/451586.html photo : [caption : "orchid conservatory at Daniel Stowe Garden in Belmont... is schduled to open to the public on Saturday January 19. Orchid conservatory manager Jamie Burghardt arranges orchids and Spanish moss on the cascade wall" http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2008/01/17/21/519-0118stowe1.standalone.prod_affiliate.57.jpg Panorama / Orchid Conservatory at Daniel Stowe : http://charlotte.com/static/images/pano/011708_orchids/ video : http://videos.charlotte.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1661512 *************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
