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| If all the campus is a garden, a sanctuary for students, alumnae, and dedicated college staff, then the Conservatory is the centerpiece of this garden. A favorite destination for all who enjoy its world flora display, it was also my daytime home for seven years. As Curator and Assistant to Directors Richard Munson and Kim Tripp, I saw thousands of new plants enter the college collections, computerized recordkeeping and label engraving come into use, and hundreds of students develop a deep affection for plant science. As an alumna, I have always felt the gardens at Smith were mine…not to own, but to enjoy. It was, therefore, with great personal satisfaction that I witnessed the launching of the Friends of the Botanic Garden just prior to the Lyman |
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on board to coach volunteers and oversee group visits. The landscape master planning process was launched during my time at Smith, and student summer internships were established with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. I had the great pleasure of introducing high school girls enrolled in the Summer Science Program to the plant collection for five consecutive summer sessions. Over the past seven years, the garden has become an even busier place-filled with growing plants and growing minds. In my new endeavors with academic publishing, I will continue to consult with faculty members involved in plant science. Textbooks about plant physiology, plant taxonomy, and plant ecology will be my primary focus during the next few years. Visits to the many wonderful plants and horticulturists on the Smith campus, however, will always hold special meaning for me. Thank you for all you have done, as friends, to help the garden grow. All the best,
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  The 1997-98 Site Index Seminum (Latin for seed list) of the Botanic Garden of Smith College listed 1,112 different species of seeds available for exchange. During the summer and fall of 1997 these seeds were collected by members of the Botanic Garden staff in the greenhouse, on campus, and in nearby habitats. |
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| The staff cleaned the seeds (a laborious process in many cases) and stored them in refrigerators. With the help of the volunteers, who spent one morning stuffing and labeling envelopes, the Botanic Garden seed lists were mailed to over 300 botanic gardens around the world. In March, requests for seeds started to come pouring in. So far, we have heard from 155 botanic gardens, and still the requests for seeds keep trickling in. There has been great interest, especially among European and Asian botanic gardens, in seeds that have been collected in the wild. Trillium, maple, viburnum, gentian, and jack-in- the-pulpit are among the most popular. |
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The volunteers have provided much invaluable help in filling seed orders. Joyce Ketcham entered all the addresses into a computer database, which lets us update them more easily and prints them directly onto mailing labels. Anne Keppler came in to the office once a week to prepare seed envelopes for filling. And on Wednesday mornings, a small but dedicated group filled each envelope with seed. This help is very much appreciated and has enabled us to complete filling seed orders well before the deadline of October l. Since this is a seed exchange, it should be noted that we have received seed lists from almost every botanic garden that has been sent our Site Index Seminum. So far this year, we have ordered and received seed from 54 of those gardens. In this way we are able to acquire rare and (in some cases) otherwise unobtainable plant material.  |
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