Horticulture - Seasonal Operations
Autumn at Missouri Botanical Garden
The colors of Autumn are spectacular at Missouri Botanical Garden and Shaw Nature Reserve. Guests enjoy long walks and day-long visits at the Garden and the Nature Reserve on crisp fall days. Ornamental grasses are showy throughout the Garden. Roses and water lilies bloom into early autumn. Watch for ripening bright red berries on numerous holly trees.
Outdoor horticulture staff remain active, busily preparing for winter and the coming spring. Annuals are replaced with chrysanthemums and pansies in every color imaginable. Non-hardy bulbs and water lily tubers are pulled and prepared for winter storage. 70,000 to 75,000 bulbs are planted for next year's awesome spring display.
An important practice performed at this time of year is mulching. Fresh mulch gives the landscape a clean look and throughout fall, mulch will help to suppress seasonal weeds. Later in autumn, leaf pick-up becomes a major activity for the outdoor horticulturists.
Inside, our Floral Display department has long been working on sensational props for the Holiday Show and for the Orchid Show. The Holiday Show runs from the day before Thanksgiving to January 1st. The Orchid Show is one of our longest shows, running from mid-January through mid-March.
The permanent indoor plant collections (research, orchids, tropical foliage, and cacti and succulents) are maintained year-round by the greenhouse crew. Additional autumn duties include propagating plants for outdoor spring displays, ordering seeds and plants for the summer displays, ensuring the holiday plants are at their peak, and helping to install the Holiday Show in November.