BILTMORE ESTATE Conservatory Tour

So I am back at the Biltmore Estate. I haven't been here in 10 years and when I first came here I absolutely fell in love with this. I think this is one of the most beautiful conservatories I've ever seen. How long have you been working here? So I'm going on eight years here. Yeah. So a lot has changed in 10 years. That's the idea. We don't want our guests to come back and see the same thing every time. Yeah. I mean displays change out about four times a year. Orchids change out daily sometimes based on their boom. So whether you come here weekly as a pass holder or once a year, once every 10 years, there's going to always be something different. Yeah. So what is your role here at the at Biltmore? So my title is the conservatory horticulturalist. So I'm in charge of overseeing the 7,000 square feet we have here and then some of the support greenhouses. And can you tell me a little bit about the history of this conservatory? So the unique conservatory that you see is old, 1896. So right around the turn of the century it's one of some of the older ones in the country. Yeah. You'll see it's built the same time as the house. 7,000 square feet, eight rooms. The largest room which we'll be going into first is the palm room. So it is about 40 foot ceilings so we can have some of our larger specimens in there. Yeah. And then you'll see an exhibit room, an orchid room which is just that, features our orchid collection which numbers around a thousand plus. We have a cactus room, potting room, hot room, cool room, and a sitting room which is just that place for our guests to kind of hang out and enjoy. But what's really unique about this is that it's not all glass. So you probably have to deal with lighting things too because it diminishes the light but it brings in some such beautiful architecture as well. Yeah the lighting is a challenge so we have to put plants based on where their needs are and the orientation like you'll have south facing you know rooms or north facing rooms so you get different light needs. So you've got to kind of shift your plants around but it is still largely a glass house so we do have pretty good lighting. Yeah. Man you really packed it more so than I remember. Yeah it's, it could be my influence. I come from South Florida. I worked 12 years down there so tropicals are my thing. Yeah oh good. I do pack stuff in. I want you to come in. I don't like to see blank space. I like to you to feel like you're walking through a it up a bit. Yeah so right now what you're seeing is our seasonal Biltmore Blooms spring kickoff display so you're going to see a lot of spring bulbs and those will change. We force them in a cooler so we put fresh ones in every week for about the first month and then that transitions to more seasonal flowers like hydrangeas and begonias and things like that. Yeah okay. Are some of these like original to the house or do you have greenhouses off-site? How do you fill this and do you always keep these things here even if you have seasonal displays? Yeah so what you're seeing here is basically seasonal. Everything is in a pot. Everything can be moved. Right. The large portion of it changes about four times a year. Obviously Christmas we have around 1500 poinsettias come in, different trees, so things will change. We have two support greenhouses out back. That's where we have extra stuff that is brought in as it blooms or as needed so things change all the time. You can see a color scheme through here is generally in the cool palette and you'll see on the other side it's a warm palette so things change based on color. Our brunfelsia tree here was just brought in this week just because it was blooming so when it's done blooming it'll be pulled and maybe something else will be featured. I see that your stromonti is actually in flower too which is kind of cool. You can see the flowers. Yeah and I don't think generally people see that when they buy it as a house plant. In the store it's a little you know six inch pot and you really need to see it in all its glory like that when it's flowering. Right. You can kind of see the ginger lineage or cousin to gingers. And then what is this actually? It's actually a salvia. It's a salvia. It's a fall blooming salvia that we use and it was blooming so again we bring out things just because they're blooming. Yeah. People seeing flowers and things like that. Some beautiful begonias. Fatsias. Yep. Fatsia japonicas. And this is a bromeliad. Yeah so bromeliads I use a lot and bromeliads are great for a house plant just because of their their needs as far as light and water. They can be used pretty easily as a house plant. We use them a lot because you can't get anything bigger bang for your buck for color. Right. We can make trees out of them. You'll see a chandelier down here made out of them. It's just a great plant for us. So you get to be a little artistic not only just in the setup but you could in the display as well. Sure. What you see here is basically one part horticulture and one part floral. So we have a base planting and then we bring in those kind of creative art elements so the floral part. Do florists work here or do the horticulturalists serve as florists? In here it's just horticultural team. Yeah. And then in the house we do have floral. Okay. Now is this a ginger as well? It is. That's a costus. Okay I didn't see it starting to spiral yet. They sometimes call that pine cone ginger just because of the resemblance. These palms are pretty amazing. So the palms stay here or they're also in pots? Like I said everything's in pots. Even the large bismarck palm is in a box and can be moved off the island if needed. Man you got some cool gingers in here. Yeah that's an alpinia. So that's an alpinia down there as well. Okay. Alpinia purpurata and then this is just a variegata form. And now are you always getting new plants in or new kind of things? I'm the type of person who also likes to pack things and then there's some new plants that come out and you're like oh I got to make space for that. But are you know how do you temper your desires and needs for the space? So a large portion of what you see is a base planting. We have 7,000 square feet to fill so there is going to be a lot of repetition and pothos and things like that for filler. But I'm a plant nerd. I'm a plant geek. So when I'm out and I find something I bought two this weekend. Two new begonias. They're actually in the greenhouse kind of young right now but we're going to do a begonia display. So if I see something when I'm out there's a chance that I may buy it and bring it in. Oh fantastic. And the asparagus ferns are really good at kind of filling in. Yeah it's a great utilitarian one for us. You know both the the foxtail one as well as the regular long asparagus fern. Here you also see one of your peperomias in bloom. Not that fancy of a bloom but you know it is it is a it's a nice little floral spike. The watermelon one. Yeah there you go. This is jenny. This is peperomias are great. Yeah these are all wind pollinated. They're also great for like you don't have to have them in super direct light. This is actually another one. A little smaller leaf. Another great house plant. Oh that's a nice small leaf variety. That's cool. Obtusifolia I think is the one you commonly see. But right the bigger chunkier leaf. They're you know low water requirement. High light but low. They come from central and south america but they're a great house plant. Yeah and then this one looks like it's separating into two almost. Well so a philodendron. So you know they're kind of aeroids and they kind of want to just crawl along the ground. You'll see some of ours are propped up so they look a little more tree-like but in their native habitat they just kind of snake along the ground of the jungle floor. A lot of them snake or they'll find a tree and then they'll pick up it. Yep yeah. Here's some of your begonias. I wouldn't know what cultivar these are. So angel wing is that one. Okay. The maculata. Begonia maculata was the polka dot one back over there that we passed. Big thick. Pretty popular. You can find that. Angel wings very popular as well. And then this is a some type of metanilla right? Sure. Probably the most popular one because thus its name. Mendenia magnifica. Ah yeah. So it is got the biggest and most you know spectacular bloom out of them. We do have about three different species in here. We have comungii over here in Orchid Room as well as Miriantha down the way. But it's definitely a great one. It comes from the Philippines. Not a great great house plant because it needs high humidity and it gets pretty big as you can see. It's nice because you do feel like you're walking through a jungle. You have like your canopy your sub canopy and then you're kind of great herbaceous layer here. And you can kind of see our color palette change. Now we went to more of a hot warm color palette and it's a little shadier back here on this side. Thus the orientation we have to be a little careful what we put back here. Just a little shadier. Well the fact that it's shadier and then you put some of these like neon leaves kind of make it feel like it's a little bit sunnier as well. And then here's your Sanchezia. Yep. This one was in flower. Sure. That was something that I don't usually get to see. This looks like it would be a good hummingbird flower. I think a lot of people don't get the flowers because they don't fertilize enough. And if you understand a plant you know it will not give you like say fruit or flower if it doesn't have what it needs as far as energy. It'll skip that process because it wants to save itself. So it's going to save its roots and its leaves. And if it doesn't have enough energy it'll skip the flower cycle. So I would speak for myself that this one got mealy bugs before I could even give it a flower. Yeah that's I mean we're no you know we have the same problem in here even though it's a perfect environment for growing plants but it's also perfect for bugs as well so we have to monitor that closely. Well especially because here you've packed it. Right. And it's much easier for one thing to hop from one to the other. This is a really nice water feature actually. It's very tranquil. Yeah and this will change again there where the fountain was was a seven foot bromeliad Christmas tree at you know if you were here at Christmas time. So that will change you know come this summer it'll change to something else. The water feature may go away completely. You can smell the hyacinths. It's definitely a spring smell in here right now. Yeah. And then here we're transitioning out to that kind of cool. Sure you're starting to see the the color scheme changing. What kind of. Another bromeliad. So this one comes from Brazil. It's an Alcantara odorata. It's phenomenal. A great color. That same kind of structure and color as like agave americana. You know what I mean. It serves that purpose but in a more you know kind of tropical or subtropical environment. That's why you notice we use bromeliads a lot just for the architectural structure of them. Right. The color and the ease of care. You know you see the chandelier up here that we fabricated out of. There's gazmanias. There's bromeliads. Tillandsias. You got the xerograficas which come from Mexico. Yeah. And how tall is this greenhouse because now I'm looking up and I'm like it's actually got quite a bit of height. So this is the palm room that we're in. This is the largest room and this one goes up to around 40 feet at the top. Wow. So we have some pretty good full-size mature specimens. Yeah. And now you can see that that philodendron. Is that just like an Erebussens or like the normal philodendron micans kind of thing that's going up the wall? It is. And then you see what happens. There's that whole phenomenon. I've read different studies as to why is the leaf small in a pot but big on the tree or the wall and it's been described as as it rubs. It releases some hormones as it rubs against the bark or whatever and kind of increases. Interesting. But they definitely change because the upper on that wall looks different than the base. Absolutely. Oh this is kind of cool. What's this? Yeah so this actually comes from South Africa. It's called pycnostachys or witch's hat. Again we want to have flowering plants in here year-round. This one comes from South Africa. So what we do is if you have some plants that are 180 degrees to our climate so this one blooms at an off time and it's blue which is great. Yeah I was just actually I came back from one of the greenhouses and they had a lot of South African bulbs you know that were blooming but it was very lovely to see. Yeah this is a new one for me. Yeah that's new for me too. I've only had this for I think I bought it this last fall so it's new for us but we're always looking for stuff that blooms when we are a little down on flowers so that's a good one. So now this is the exhibit room. So you know again where this is this room's very cool palette. This is a seasonal room that just showcases flowering plants for that time of year. This display is just put up. So this is more of like a Japanese-esque kind of display but this actually gets shifted out. Sure it won't always be a Japanese feel. It could you know there was a Christmas tree in here obviously at Christmas time. This will all go away in about a month and something else will come in. Actually the doors will open up once it warms up so that will you change a little bit. It's such a pretty greenhouse. It's just like I remembered it. Another one from South Africa so you can kind of see that South Africa is nice right now because it's blooming where a lot of things aren't. Yeah and this one changes color as it starts to fade right? Yeah some of the different ones will change color. So yeah this is just a seasonal room showcasing obviously spring right now. Oh look at this guy. Yeah great Vando orchid is a good way to see you know that's a misconception. So people think things grow in pots because that's the way they bought them at the store but right most orchids are epiphytes and that is really shows you how they grow. And are you just watering here? Is there a misting system in here? Are you watering just with a hose? Do you have like an RO system? I'd love to understand that. So what you see here is completely watered by hand by two people every day because not everything needs water. You have to understand the plant's water needs. It may be overcast and cloudy so your water changes from week to week. So we water this by hand every day so we can go through and monitor what needs it and what doesn't. That one obviously the Vando orchid behind you gets watered every day. And are you using just like kind of well water? Like what's the watering like is it reverse osmosis? Are you taking rain water and filtering it or is it just like straight up? Nothing fancy as far as the water we're just pulling it straight out of the reservoir but we do fertilize and use an injector system. So it depends on the time of year. Obviously this time of year the fertilization is backed off and as things progress in the summer we're watering and fertilizing once a week. Great. So all right you've seen a lot of tulips and very coral colored hyacinths. Another hyacinth. Yeah that one's called Gypsy Queen. That's a really pretty color. There's a yellow one Gypsy Princess. That's kind of like the color of the pollinator garden that I have. So we'll take a note of that cultivar. And here's some of your Aglaonemas and some Aspleniums. And here's a slightly larger leaf pepper. No this is a Clusia. A little yes the little dwarf. That's the little one that they'll often use in bonsais. Yeah that's fascinating because that threw me off for a second. It is you know you kind of see that resemblance. Yeah there's another one of the Peperomias there. So that's the obtusifolia. Just the variegated one. It's going really variegated right there. And I see you have some Plectranthus and your Coleus coming in here now too. Yep so again we're going for some color trying to mix it up. Coleus is great. You can't get a better plant for color than Coleus. Yeah you can't and also for cuttings they're so forgiving. Sure we have an entire master plant in the support greenhouse over here that you can see. Probably 40 to 50 different varieties and those are our master plants so that if we need something in the design we can go in there and take cuttings off of those. Yeah that's great. So we have that whole kind of an art palette to work with. I like how you call it a master plant because some people call it a mother plant. You know what I mean? Master mother it's all good. And this is another ginger. Which one is this? That one it's another alpinia. Yeah I'm not exactly sure on the genus of that one but it's a great burgundy variety. Yeah people would love this because that dark leaved with like the red or contrasting bottoms is something that people really gravitate towards in the houseplant world at the very least. And then here's one of your euphorbia millii types. Yeah and that's that one's from Madagascar. So it's Madagascar is an interesting place because now you see you'll have some very arid kind of desert looking plants but yet you saw the palms at the beginning which were from Madagascar as well. So it's interesting. A lot of things from Madagascar look pretty evil. Very you'll see some in the cactus room over here that have those spikes and stuff. So what do you have growing right here this kind of tree? So that is a langolain. So if you know chenille number five right that is one of the base ingredients of chenille number five is langolain. Now that is not conanga odorata. That is the conanga fruticosa. So it's the dwarf form. We can't obviously grow the other one in here because it's too high. We'll go right through the ceiling. That's a dwarf species so we can kind of keep it small and in here. But the conanga odorata it's you know 40 foot tall and very large. Now is this still a ginger or? Heliconia. But again cousins. Bananas, heliconias, gingers, all kind of cousins akin to one another. This color is something I haven't seen either of this. Sure. This is a type of. Well I'm going to see if you get this right because it does not resemble what it actually is. It looks a little more dracaena like or something but it's actually a bromelia. I was going to say it's I think it's a type of bromeliad but it's uh because some of those bromeliads have those like the acneas have those spikes. And it is. It's a tionensis. So you can look that one up. I love it because it's a little bit different structure than typical bromeliads. Most of the bromeliads have more of that spiky look. Yeah. Where that one has a little fatter leaf and a little more. I like that you purposely put it next to the yellow dracaena. It actually reminds me of the red. I think it's called red feather or something. It's a hosta that has the same kind of color top and it has these red petioles on the bottom. It kind of reminds me and I do that sometimes too where I'm like these kind of all look alike but they would never maybe grow next to one another so. You'll notice a lot of color in my designs because my original background is an art student. I was not always a horticultural student but now that I am you'll see the painting with flowers so to speak. You would be surprised maybe or maybe not how many people I've met who've transitioned from art to horticulture. It's like they're like cousins like you say like even these gingers are cousins with the heliconias and whatnot. That's an interesting Boston fern. I think most everybody thinks of the green form but that tiger you know variegated one's kind of interesting. Yeah it kind of looks like when it's like a little oil spill like that kind of coloration. Now how about this guy? Oh here's another. Yeah another Brugmansi. Again it changes as it comes out. It'll actually get a little more darker pink peach color as it ages. We have your formerly known as Calathea but now that's in Geoportia. Yeah that's a struggle to keep up with all this changing. You learn the names and then they reclassify them but. Very quickly. They call it rattlesnake, Calathea, however you want to pronounce it. And then this is a zebra plant and it's I'm trying to remember the scientific name. Philandra. Yeah yeah Philandra yeah. Squarosa. Exactly. Another Central America, South America. This one is not flowering. I think there is somewhere on here. There's one right behind here that either had flowers. Yeah that's past. It's a yellow flower. It kind of comes out of here. And they do get kind of leggy like the Decanthachias and everything so. But that one actually responds very well to pruning. So if you cut it, it will branch out from a node really quickly and you can propagate that cutting and start a new one. Perfect. Or plug it into that plant and make it fuller by you know adding another trunk. Perfect tips. This is also like the Plectranthus correct? Yep we use a lot of that. You know the guacamole one is a little more popular just because of its color. But a great easy care plant that we use in our containers for summer around here. Phila. Teeny weeny Narcissus. That's Tate-a-Tate. Tate-a-Tate. A little dwarf one. Oh it's so adorable. A nice little full delicate one. We use that one a lot. Another Philodendron Salome. Again I think when people see them in Florida and places like that, they see them as shorter. See these ones are being propped up and held up. So they're more tree form and you can see the height. Yeah. But in the wild if you got underneath and looked they kind of just snake along the surface of the jungle floor. What kind of Coleus is this? That's that under the sea collection. So because it's supposed to look like an undersea plant or coral. That's pretty neat looking. It's like a little feather. Coleus again you know just an endless variety of color and texture. Some Clivias that are in bloom. Yeah again South America. So that's that South America influence for us right now. You get a lot of use and a lot of color using those South American plants. Yeah and what about this? This is new for me. So it's another Fuchsia. That's an upright one. It's called Gartenmeister. But we have a variegated form of it as well. So the there's some pinkish variegation in the leaf. We're going to use that in our designs this year. We just got that. We're growing it in the support greenhouse. This one's also new. It looks like it's past bloom but what is this? That's Bolivian Sunset. So it goes into what I would call a semi-dormancy. Right. So right now actually you can kind of see it's starting to put out its new growth. Yeah. But it it kind of slows down and doesn't do a whole lot in the winter. But it's really striking when it's blooming. So again our rooms we have eight different rooms. So this is the cactus room. As you can see we kind of highlight the different succulents and cactus. Look at how you stack these in here. You're such a brave man. This room you cannot work in without shedding some blood. But yes again back there that's a Madagascar plant. So you see that's Ocotillo. Madagascar Ocotillo. It's in kind of a dormancy because that's a monsoonal climate. So you see right now it doesn't have any leaves on it. But as the rains come or water comes. Right. It will start leafing out. It's interesting because it has the species name of Ocotillo like the Ocotillo in the out west in the southwest. So because there's a there's a plant out in the southwest which is kind of looks similar to that similar-esque. So you have the golden barrel over here. Sure. And then you have some jungle cacti as well which you would find in a different part of the world. But this is the dancing bones I think it's called. And that's it was a Ripsalis but now it's Hattiora. Hattiora. Exactly. They've been reclassified. And then you have another Ripsalis over here which is the Pilocarp I believe. The little fuzzy one. Yeah. Another one of those that comes I believe that one's Brazil. Grows epiphytically up in the trees. And then you even have some of your sedums. Yeah. I think you know that's a big big family of sedums. Yeah. There's a lot of different varieties both. Those have also been shifted over into different genera now so. Look at this little spider he's like I'm just gonna be like that. That's an interesting plant that's a Assisis actually. Yeah. And it gets in the summer it gets kind of grape line grapevine looking leaves coming out of it. So it's kind of an interesting plant. Those kind of throw throw me off when uh you know there's some grape plants in the vitaceae that you're just like that doesn't look anything like your normal grape that you would be accustomed to. And then you have some agave and some aloes as well. Yep. We'll put everything in here again when we're out visiting other gardens or shopping we always try to bring some things back that we don't have. Yeah. Kind of an interesting one probably for someone who is wanting to grow the Euphorbia millii perhaps. Now this is Giroldii. Huh. So this is a thornless crown of thorns. What? So how great is that? Yeah that is just a Euphorbia Giroldii. But not so mean as the millii. I don't know if I've ever seen that one. No. That's pretty cool. All right well good to know. I know a lot of Euphorbia millii collectors because they really focus on those colorful bracts. Sure. You know there's a lot of uh variation. And is this like a mimosa behind here? That's acacia. Acacia. Okay. And it is flowering. You see the little palms up there? Yeah the little yellow flowers. Yeah. Which are actually popular in like florist displays as well when it's like in full bloom. Very cool. Smallest room of the house I wonder. It is actually the smallest room. Yeah. What are you what's the heating situation here? So it is run by a computer system and we do have it set. So it is run by a heat that's under the bench here. So it's boiler hot water. So set about 65 which we you know the optimal temperature for tropical 65 to 80 degrees. Nice. So we usually don't let it dip below 65 degrees. Yeah. So you can kind of hear it running right now because it's still a little cold outside. Yes it is. Still running some heat. This is a good area probably to show you the the epiphytic nature of the orchids. Yeah. Just as we talked before that people don't. How are you uh affixing them? Is it just wires or? Yeah. So at first until they take hold we wire them on there and then once the roots take hold then you can take the wire off. It's a good way to show people how orchids really do grow. Now there are terrestrial orchids but a large portion of them are epiphytic. So then they buy that in the store that you know Phalaenopsis and it's in a pot. Yeah. They assume that's probably how it grows but you can kind of see how the roots go up and down the trunk. Should we walk around this way or there's wait is that a papaya? It is. You're actually getting some fruit on it. It's a smaller variety. Yeah. Wimanalo solo. Solo in the variety that doesn't have to have a male or a female. Yeah. It's hermaphroditic so it doesn't require the cross-pollination and it's a smaller one. Fruits quicker because it doesn't have to be as big or tall. Does it have a smaller fruit then as well? It is a little smaller. Okay. Should we uh see some of those other houses? Sure we got plenty. So this is the sitting room. Yeah so this this room as you can see with furniture is set up just like a traditional Victorian sitting room. Yeah. And it is an area where people can after walking around the conservatory kind of come in and relax. We will feature musicians in here for spring so they can listen to some music and just relax. I feel like you'd get a wet butt if you sit down here. Right now you would because we you know the first two hours of the day are spent watering so yeah it's pretty wet until things dry out. And these are your calamondins you were mentioning. Do you know what kind of cultivar these are? That is a cross. It's a hybrid between a kumquat and a tangerine I believe. Right but they have some that are like I can't remember the names of them some that are more round and then some that are a little bit more ovate. Well that's the kumquat lineage. Yeah. So the miyawa is the round and I think the nagami is the oval. That's right okay yeah something like that yes. Okay you got some nerve plants. Yeah fetonia. Yep and then some of the muscari again. Yeah it's nice to see you know everybody I think generally thinks muscari is purple or blue so throw some white in here. And that's a little bit more of the theme here it feels very bright it feels white you have the the spathophyllums here. This is a neutral color room. We do sometimes do weddings in here so keep it kind of neutral white and neutral colors so that this blends with whatever the brides may be using for color. I love this display this is one of the displays that I remember last time this is packed more full right then I think I had I remember a photo I took and I think it had like a fern coming out of it or whatever but I love this use of like the Victorian birdhouse as a as a display tool. Yeah there's actually another up here if you want that we oh yeah it's like it's like bearded it's a great use of you know an item to repurpose it. And make it into a plant display the Tillandsias work great on it. I think I actually sourced some of my bird cages after I came in and I saw this and I was like that's cute and I think I sourced like maybe two or three little white bird cages that I still have at my place in Brooklyn I'll need to bring it to my new place but like and I just had little pots in them as well not not as of a green display here but it's great it's just like it's like any old epiphyte you could grow right on it. Well that's good I mean a lot of what we do we don't do just for ourselves we do for our guests so it's nice that you took something that we did and and took it home yeah and redid it. And I should say the Norfolk pine which is like quite common around Christmas time but it is a much more tropical kind of plant. Yeah it's nice texture I mean when you when you run out of color sometimes you switch to texture so you'll see a lot of different leaf sizes and textures mixed in that's a good good spot in that room. The direction this way? Yep we've already gone that way so we're kind of snaking our way through. This one is the orchid room. Right. So where we're going to showcase our orchid collection. Yes and we're going to do a separate episode on the orchids so we'll only briefly show you a little bit of orchid space. Little bromeliad display over there to kind of showcase in some of the different amazing colors of bromeliads that you can get as well. And look at that shaflera my goodness. Yeah that's crazy. That one that one's days I would say are numbered unfortunately maybe what you see here has a roof height and yeah eventually things get too tall or too big I mean the ficus have already hit the ceiling a couple times and we pruned them back so eventually we're going to have to bring in new ones that are smaller. Right. This is I remember this is one of the other plants that I had seen growing here and I had no idea what it was at that at that time I thought it was so beautiful and so unique. It is an orchid and that is the flower right along the midrib there you can see the little flowers. Oh you're strong eloden vine. I know perfect timing. Oh my gosh. Only blooms you for about a month a year and you happen to be here. There's so many times where we've been to a place and it is never in bloom and yours is like full in bloom right now. This is incredible look at that color isn't that it looks like it's tie dyed or hand dyed. That's one of those plants that your challenge is to find another plant that color in the world because it's really unique there isn't I've never come across another plant that jade green. No I guess thus the name jade vine but yes that is just so phenomenal. I think maybe the last time we saw this flowering was at Logee's greenhouse in Connecticut. That one's pollinated by bats and it's from the Philippines so Philippines you'll see a lot of the plants come that come from there like nepenthes and stuff like that high humidity and right grow up in the canopy of the trees. And are these like is this a loqualla? It is loqualla grandis. Definitely one of the more showy fan palms. I always wish that was like a better house plant it could be I just I'm afraid to kind of venture into it and lose it because they are phenomenal plants and they seem to be okay in the understory but I don't know if I would be able to give it the right things that it needs. This is a chamidoria. Yeah it's that metallic they call the metallic palm or it's you know you say house plant I think that is the important thing to remember you know a lot of guests will come through well what do I do how do I go this or how do I go back I say your first thing to remember is there's really no such thing as a house plant. Yeah that's true. They all came from these tropical places and what you're trying to do is find one that best adapts to your environment. That's correct. That's why some things like dracaenas or you know things like that. A lot of these became house plants because they are in that kind of 65 to 70 degree temperature that we like to keep our house but you walk through these and you recognize how much more humid it is sure than you would typically have in a place at least for an extended period of time. Maybe it gets that way a little bit in the summer months and whatnot and you can you know cheat a little bit and put them outside but in a shady place but you don't have that often in the winter months. Here's another one that's actually in bloom. And that's a velvet leaf one. You can kind of feel it. It has a little bit of a texture to it. Phenomenal to see that this is in bloom and actually when you see them in bloom you could understand why the calatheas have been put into geportia because they do have two different kind of flowers. So I just think it took a while for the taxonomist to catch up with that. See there's a lot of anthurium types here. And then what is this? So that comes that is a rose. It's Panama rose. Rhondolidia. It works really well for us. It kind of it resembles pentis. So they call it bush pentis as a common name. You know common names are a little misleading sometimes because it's not a pentis. Rhondolidia is its name or Panama rose. But it's a great one for us because it flowers off and on all the time. Are these the parrot tulips? It's a fringe. Fringe. So fringe would be the class that it belongs to. That one's called joy of spring. It almost looks like I don't I'm not a drinker but like those fancy drinks where they put the sugar crystals on the edge of the drink cup. It reminds me of that. So there is your yesterday today and tomorrow. So that's brunfelsia possiflora or grandiflora. So when they come out dark purple the following day light purple final day almost white to pale purple. And here's some of your rex begonias right? Yeah and we're just starting to bring those back out. They go a little bit semi-dormant for the winter. So most of those are kind of in our support greenhouse and once they start showing off again we'll bring them out. This looks like a spider lily in a way. It is. So crinum americanum is the spider lily you see growing in Florida along the marshes and the swamps. That's crinum americanum and crinum asiaticum. It's so tree crinum. Yeah. So that's the variegated form. Wow really impressive. One last room. Yeah we skipped part of that room but we'll go here. So this is our basically our final room that we've gone through but this is our little potting room. What do you think? Do you think these are nice and sugary? Oh it is. It's like a little candy. This is your pubicalex I guess is in full bloom. Those are from Mexico you know like a dryer. I think that's probably why it's such a popular houseplant to the houseplant collectors because they can be grown pretty easily in a house because of that dry need. Yeah and here's some of your jades. Is this like the jade golem? I believe that is. Yeah it's a more dwarf compact variety. And is this still your magnificum? It's another magnificum yeah. You kind of have three cycles of those when they first come out they look more like the sheath and then they bloom and then they almost look like grapes in their final cycle. Yeah the grapes they really do. They do call it rose grape sometimes for short. Now is this a ficus? It is and it's actually the New Zealand Christmas tree I think is the common name. Comes from New Zealand and Australia. We just use it for that great color that it has that blue green. Yeah and it's very large that's a small one that we've been growing and training but it gets to be a very large tree. Your amaryllis kind of surprising a little late. Yeah this is really if you think about it the time that they would naturally bloom. Yeah right. We do a great display at Christmas and yeah of course for Christmas. So these ones are just blooming naturally at their spring time when they would normally do it. Here's another wonderful peperomia. Yeah that's a great blue green color. And then here is one of your hastatums right? Philodendron hastatum. The sword kind of silver sword. This is about to bloom though. Yeah yeah look at that. Not something that you see every day. Yeah that's this one's where we're kind of trying to train it to grow up the facade of the building there. Give it a little place to hang off of. Well this is just phenomenal. I mean we have a whole other section down here but I think we we got the sense of the conservatory here and again one of I still stand by the statement at least it's my opinion but I think it's one of the more beautiful greenhouses and conservatories that I've been to. Just the outside inside and you've done a phenomenal job like packing it all in here. Well thanks we appreciate you coming and seeing what we do. Yeah. Hope to come back and see it when it's different and come at Christmas time. It's never going to be the same I promise. Yes seasonal displays so if anybody's in Asheville definitely check this out. If you missed the historic garden tour at Biltmore then check it out on our sister channel Flock Finger Lakes. And if you enjoyed this video and continue to enjoy what we produce then do give us a like and a follow. It really helps the channel grow and allows other folks to find us as well. And if you're interested in more plant filled information visit our website homesteadbrooklyn.com and also houseplantmasterclass.com for online courses. And of course there's always my book How to Make a Plant Love You Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart. See you in the next episode.