The Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory at Lauritzen Gardens is opening Saturday with all kinds of new updates — and new plants.
The 17,500-square foot building’s temperate and tropical houses, built to showcase plants that can’t survive outside during Nebraska’s winters, has been closed for nearly a year and a half.
The two-phase, $11.3 million project has allowed the garden to upgrade its internal systems and to diversify the individual plant communities within the conservatory’s collection.
“Modernizing and maintaining the conservatory’s internal and external structures is essential to providing the community with a thriving display of world-class plant specimens,” Ennis Anderson, chief executive officer of Lauritzen Gardens, said in a press release.
First-phase improvements were completed in 2024 and included larger fans, new shade cloths and upgrades to the LED lighting system and the Argus climate control system.
This year, the second-phase was completed, which focused on creating more space for guests, designing dedicated spaces to display special collections, soil improvements and the establishment of new and more diverse plant specimens.
The conservatory beds are now divided into nine distinct regions, showcasing a diverse array of flora from the deserts of California to the lush tropics of Southeast Asia and beyond. Featured specimens include the cannonball tree, gumbo limbo, rose of Venezuela, Joey palm and the iconic baobab, often called the “tree of life.”
“There’s something magical about seeing a plant you’ve only read about in books, thought you’d only ever see in a movie or never even knew existed. By selecting rare and diverse species from around the world, our new conservatory collections will invite visitors of all ages to explore, wonder and fall in love with the incredible variety of plant life that surrounds us,” Anderson said.
Some notable additions include:
• A striking overhead plant chandelier, featuring two tiers of hanging spheres made of orchids, anthurium and moss
• A plant library with hanging terrarium lanterns and a series of wall terrariums for plants that have extremely specialized growing conditions
• A dedicated display wall for the garden’s robust collection of staghorn ferns
• Dedicated spaces for collections of tropical pitcher plants, hoyas, pelargoniums and ferns
• A series of teak roots from Thailand, planted with select orchids and bromeliads to mimic the natural growing conditions of these plants
• An expanded overlook that allows more room for guests to gather and to accommodate small private rental events
• An environmentally-friendly bottle refilling station
Admission to the conservatory is included with paid garden admission and is free for garden members. The woodland trail, the garden’s century-old bur oak forest, has also been closed during the renovation and will reopen alongside the conservatory.
“They say a garden is never finished, and this weekend marks the beginning of a new era of growth for the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory,” Anderson said. “Just as our community once watched the first plantings take root, we now look forward to seeing this new collection flourish, forming a new environment for our guests to connect to and enjoy for years to come.”
marjie.ducey@owh.com, 402-444-1034, twitter.com/mduceyowh
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