Conservatories: What's the big deal?

Conservatory is essentially another word for greenhouse. The main purpose is to protect your plants from weather, pests, and diseases. Our conservatory here at the University of Florida is filled with an assortment or spectacular plants ranging from our massive Cocoloba to tiny air plants. Majority of these plants need protection from the frosty winters and are considered tropicals. This gives facilities like us the opportunity to have plants on display year round. When maintaining a conservatory things that need to be considered are repotting, fertilization, irrigation, pest management and many more. Routine scouting and prevention for pests is always the best IPM strategy regardless of where plants are growing but very pertinent in enclosed structures like these because an outbreak can occur quickly. Plant growth can also become an issue depending on the size of the structure so propagating and trimming/pruning is very important.


Pictured below are some beauties we have in our conservatory