The Secret Life of Plants

“Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, & our lives must be stripped, and beautiful house keeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation, now a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, when there is no house & no house keeper.” Thoreau, pg. 29 of “Walden…”

It was walking into the lush vegetation of the Phipps conservatory that I asked whether or not Thoreau would approve of such an adventure, or simply the concept of a botanical garden in general. It was past the blossoming vines that I caught a glimpse outside and only saw snow falling, and footprints from the brave morning walkers, while I was inside a glass building, in complete awe with how I was in a humid and warm surrounding is. Walking into the Phipps conservatory is a very surreal experience, only heightened when in the middle of a winter day. It was while I strolled along the Amazon room with a notebook in my hand, writing down foreign names from plants found in a different dirt from counties where the people roll their “r’s,” that I wondered how Thoreau would view a conservatory. Traditionally speaking, Phipps conservatory was built to allow for the people of Pittsburgh to “immerse themselves in seventeen different botanical experiences. It is in these glass chambers that, both native and non-native plants form a world that isolates one from the direct environment of Pittsburgh. Although this allows for someone to escape into another realm filled with rare and visually stunning public garden, the conservatory is mostly reserved for the wealthy. (Unless you are a student, the prices of the conservatory are far from being affordable to a wide range of people.) It was while I strolled into the organza room that found myself in complete awe with how brilliantly colorful the plants were, and how through the windows, the snow in the background, I became more aware of how a surrounding can make an “audience” view certain things. I have been in the room with the organzas several times during the beginning of the school year, and usually don’t pay much attention to the flowers. I believe it is such a contrast between environments like the one that I experienced during the Phipps outing that make me more aware of my current surroundings. It was interesting to see that while I was in the conservatory I spent almost as much time looking out side, not out of horror (a mini snow storm was brewing) but because the snow seemed very crisp, almost picturesque. When I stumbled upon the Thoroas quote the night before, I was struck with how poetic the tone of the paragraph was, but as well as how true it resonated within me while I took this particular walk in Phipps. There is something simply awe-filled with something very simple. This feeling of really appreciating your surrounding, in the rawest form was only more striking when I was walking back to flagstaff hill and I peered back and saw how tranquil and elegant the conservatory looked from the hill, the rooftop covered in snow and the red twigs made the conservatory appear as almost mystical place. Everyday since then I walk to flagstaff hill and take a few moments to look at the conservatory in the middle of the city of steel, and find it simply beautiful.