Ron Determann, conservatory and conservation director at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, visited Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) to share his experience in conservatory horticulture. Chad Husby, MBC collections manager and botanist, has a long-standing, collaborative relationship with Mr. Determann. Atlanta Botanical Garden and MBC have a history of exchanging plant material.

While here, Mr. Determann presented a public lecture on the flora of New Caledonia in Montgomery Botanical Center’s Nixon Smiley Meeting Room. He spoke extensively about the tropical conifer genus Araucaria. Montgomery Botanical Center has a leading collection of tropical conifers. Conifers were one of Colonel Robert Montgomery’s early interests.

Before coming to Florida in the 1930s, Col. Montgomery developed an extensive private conifer collection at his summer home. The Montgomery Pinetum, located on the Colonel’s former Connecticut estate, is now a National Registered Historic Site. A significant portion of those plants—The Montgomery Ornamental Conifer Collection—also forms the core of the Benenson Collection at The New York Botanical Garden.

Montgomery Botanical Center is open by appointment to students, educators, scientists, historians, botanical groups, and all others interested in scientific plant collections.