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January 31, 2007

A peek at the city's new Botanical Center

Journal photo / Andy Dickerman
Landscape architect Mary Ellen Flanagan, Providence Mayor David Cicilline and city Parks Superintendent Alix Ogden welcome members of the media during a tour of the new Roger Williams Park Botanical Center today.

With plants still arriving, the press got a peek today at the new Roger Williams Park Botanical Center. Like all gardens, its beginnings are modest, but by the time the greenhouses open to the public March 2, the 40-foot tall conservatory should be teeming.

Displays in the main conservatory will change constantly, maintained with the help of local garden organizations. The first, with a red and purple Valentine's Day theme, will pair red anthuriums with purple glory trees.

You'll be able to get married in the adjoining Mediterranean room, framed by a stucco and terra cotta moongate against the backdrop of a modest waterfall. A 68-foot linear pool runs the length of this greenhouse, which will house collections, including camellias and carnivorous plants, and a fish pond. Teak benches are arriving soon from Smith & Hawken nurseries, according to Mary Ellen Flanagan, landscape architect for the center.

Just a single carnivore, a nepenthes, hangs in a white pot there now, its bladders hanging down about eight inches. Priscilla Purinton of West Kingston, vice president of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society, said that in the wild these bladders grow to three-liter size and can catch rats and lizards. Feeding time at the greenhouses could be a must-see show for kids who have seen the movie Little Shop of Horrors.

Two other greenhouses, milling with workers today, will serve as educational spaces and can host small flower shows.

There's no wi-fi in the plans, but Parks Superintendent Alix Ogden said it has been discussed for the future.

If the original, crowded greenhouses, with narrow aisles and the ambience of well-stocked potting sheds, had a nostalgic charm, these airy buildings of light and glass are more obviously public spaces, with wide areas of cement walkways to accommodate lots of visitors. These aren't anywhere as artificial as those at the flower show, and once the plants get growing, they'll introduce their own wildness.

The new facility is scaled way down from the original vision Journal reporter Karen Davis wrote about in May 2003:

A seven-story, glass-encased replica of a landscape in Papua New Guinea, a conservatory with artwork by the late actor Anthony Quinn, and a replica of the 12th hole of the Augusta National Golf Course will be focal points of the new $15-million botanical gardens at Roger Williams Park, scheduled to be completed next year.

None of that came to pass. Mayor David Cicilline, who came along on the tour, scaled back the project to make maintaining it more manageable with the money actually available, rather than depend on private fundraising. The $7.7-million facility was constructed by Gilbane Building Company with federal, state and city money and and major support from the Champlin Foundations.

Among the partners, who'll collaborate on the rotating displays, are:

University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners

Rhode Island Orchid Society

Rhode Island Rose Society

Rhode Island Wild Plant Society

Rhode Island Nursery & Landscape Association

New England Carnivorous Plant Society

The American Hosta Society

Gardening for Good

Rhode Island Bonsai Society

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:58 PM | Permalink