“Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d, more rare.” —William Shakespeare
January is the depth of winter. The solstice has passed. We are returning to the light, slowly, surely. As I listen to the weather forecast on the radio in the morning, I am relieved to hear the earlier hour of sunrise and the increased number of daylight hours.
Many New Englanders get away to warmer climates for a break from our long, cold months. An easier and less expensive option is available nearby. The Lyman Plant House and Conservatory, also known as the Smith College Greenhouse in Northampton, is open to the public daily from 8:30 am – 4:00 pm. At Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, the Talcott Greenhouses are open from 9 am – 4 pm on weekdays and from 1 pm – 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. They are centers of learning and research for young women, where the pursuit of knowledge and the pleasure of plants are evident and greatly appreciated.
Entering these indoor gardens offers a welcome respite on a cold, gray winter day or even a cold, sunny day. Not only is the warmth heady as you enter, but the smells of moist, warm earth and fragrant blooms bring back the sensory pleasures buried in winter. At Smith, hanging carnivorous pitcher plants, Nepenthes x baulforian, are at face level, greeting visitors with their pendulous sculptural blooms. Plants of the tropics, the desert, and temperate zones are grown in separate rooms. You can swelter in a jungle environment with banana trees and tropical vines, then pass through a door and enter the desert, hot, dry, and full of spiny creatures. I recently marveled at a small cactus from South Africa, Euphorbia obesa, commonly known as a gingham golf ball. I love the descriptive quality of the Latin, obesa, as well as the folksy colloquial name. All winter long, the beautiful white, frigid landscape is outside the conservatory’s panes of glass. Inside, the gardens flourish.
One of my favorite places in January is the fern room at the Smith greenhouse. It is a small, intimate space full of textured greenery. In the center of the room are two miniature glass houses that are beginning to crumble with age. In the next room, two fragrant olive plants (Osmanthus fragrans) with tiny white flowers fill the air with a sweet scent. In their native China, the blossoms are used to flavor tea. I remember many years ago when I first walked by these shrubs and was amazed that these insignificant blooms held such a powerful perfume.
Because the greenhouses are educational sites, plants are labeled with their Latin names, plant family, common names, and place of origin. Sometimes plants are organized by their botanical family, in the systematics scheme. There are benches of salvias, orchids, pelargonium, and you can see the surprising variations within a single family of plants.
From the 3rd of March until the 18th of March, both greenhouses have exhibitions of flowering bulbs. Although usually very crowded and a bit overwhelming, the bulb shows offer a preview of spring at the end of the seemingly endless winter. They also provide close-up introductions to new varieties of flowering bulbs, and a chance to take notes on what to plant next fall.
The rejuvenating power of plant life is welcome during our barren winter. It is especially poignant at this moment in history as our contrarian government reverses the progress achieved since the 1970s, protecting the earth.
Our gardens are tiny bits of a huge, fragile ecosystem on this planet. In our rural location we are not removed from the pesticides, habitat destruction, and air and water pollution that harm organisms large and small, plant and animal.
“Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”—Rachel Carson
Gardens are our refuge. But when the earth is assaulted, when nature is dismissed, when scientific knowledge is denied, our refuge is endangered. Let us hope, with the return of the light, that there will be a return to a renewed respect for our earth, our garden.
The local college greenhouses offer us opportunities to enjoy warmth and beauty and gain new knowledge. These experiences also revitalize our spirits when the winter seems long and hard, and life’s burdens feel insurmountable. The gardens soothe as the light slowly returns. They are open to the public every day.
“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.” — Yoko Ono
January 2018
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