Fact Sheet

EXHIBIT: POTTED PLANTS

Walking back through the east wing and through the dome, visitors enter the west wing and POTTED PLANTS. The Conservatory will present color-themed displays in this gallery, opening with a stunning, autumn-themed display of flowering favorites such as gloxinias and hibiscus. This gallery also features an incredible assortment of decorative urns and containers from all over the world. Visitors can sit on a historic bench under the arbor and admire the profusion of color and the lovely containers.

POTTED PLANTS pays homage to the Conservatory's Victorian roots, recreating an historical development termed by garden historians 'Victorian Pot Culture'. In Victorian glasshouses, visitors encountered a diversity of potted plants displayed on benches, allowing people to stop and admire one interesting flower or plant after another.

POTTED PLANTS houses an incredible array of containers from all over the world. These include:

• Historic Urn
  This large travertine-plaster urn is a legacy of San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
  
  
• Gangalaya Pots
  A whole assortment of these beautiful copper containers with parrot-shaped handles from Karnataka, India will grace the gallery. These antique urns were used to hold holy water from the Ganges River.
  
  
• Javanese Palm Pots
  These extraordinary, tall and slender containers are hollowed out by hand from a single black coconut palm.
  
  
• Burkina Faso Storage Containers
  From Africa come these hand-incised ceramic pots commonly used to store grain or milk.
  
  
• Brazilian Water Vessels
  A collection of ceramic cylinders and a large green-gray urn carved from a single stone come to the Conservatory from South America where modernization has begun to eliminate the need for these traditional water containers.
  
  
• Guatemalan Pots
  An assortment of rustic pots was made by hand in small, traditional villages in this Central American country.
  

ADDITIONAL EXHIBIT FEATURE:
A gorgeous, wooden arbor with hints of Asian design motifs stands in the center of this gallery. This handcrafted structure was created by Gene DeSmidt of DeSmidt Design Build in Oakland, CA.