2025 at the Botanic Garden: A Year in Review

In recognition of the innate joy and benefits of inclusive and equitable community building, we joined our colleagues across Smith College in crafting a departmental Racial Justice Action Plan intended to articulate a path forward that truly reflects our shared values. The plan was shared in June of 2024, and in January of 2025 we published it on our website and as a booklet to share with our community.

Botanical Bodies: When identity blossoms on skin was a student-created photo exhibit like none we have held at the botanic garden before. Conceived of, photographed by, modeled and curated by Smith students, the exhibit explored the intimate relationship between plants and personal identity through stunning photographs and compelling stories of individuals adorned with botanical tattoos. The photos, and tattoos, celebrate the beauty and diversity of plant life as a form of self-expression. The exhibit opened in February and ran through May 30, 2025.

The 2025 Bulb Show Art Installation, which was created by Jamie Marigold Biagiarelli AC ’26J and Congyue (Ella) Wang ’28, added a splash of visual beauty that truly elevated the bulb show experience. The artists created their installations based on a prompt that was inspired by the then concurrently running exhibit Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now.  

As a whole, the bulb show installation project aims to foster collaboration among and between students and the botanic garden, and for the students to meet the dynamic challenges and rewards of designing, fabricating and installing site-specific, commissioned work. And that was exactly what transpired this year, resulting in hugely successful works of art. The installations were a valuable addition to the show, and were appreciated by tens of thousands of visitors during the two weeks of the bulb show.

While our level IV Arbnet campus arboretum is always a lovely sight to take in, it’s during the spring time that the trees really show off. And boy did they put on a show this year! During late April and throughout May it was nearly impossible to walk around campus without coming across a cluster of trees in full flower. And then came the pools of petals below the trees, which is almost just as lovely of a sight. Hats off to our wonderful arborists who take such great care of our arboretum.

At the start of May, Lyman Plant House and the outdoor gardens were brought into the magical land of folklore with the addition of handmade gnome homes created by the Botanic Garden Student Educators (BoGSEs). The homes were tucked away into these landscapes inviting visitors to discover them as they explored our space.

The Gnome Homes exhibit was an end-of-year project co-curated between the BoGSEs, the education intern, and the Associate Director of Education Sarah Loomis. The prompt was to “develop an exhibition that focused on developing a set of gnome homes with the intent of inviting visitors of all ages to explore the greenhouses and gardens from a different perspective.” The BoGSE team set to work creating their own homes that showcased their unique talents and personalities as individuals within the group. Each of those homes correspond with one of the houses in Lyman—and then other homes were created with the intention of existing in an outdoor garden space. 

A Titan arum flowered in Lyman in early June, and we have the timelapse to prove it. The spectacular showing is usually short-lived, typically lasting only a day or two before dying back.

The corpse flower creates a buzz among botanic garden visitors, and with good reason. It is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. And even more striking than its appearance is the odor. Titan arum produces an overpowering aroma of rotten flesh which explains the plant’s common name of corpse flower. The scent—a chemical blend of dimethyl trisulfide, isovaleric acid, dimethyl disulfide, benzyl alcohol, indole, and trimethylamine—lures insects, such as beetles and flies, who serve as its pollinators. It can take years before they flower again, so it is an event worth celebrating. And celebrate we did!

The 2025 cohort of summer interns began officially on June 2, and over the course of their time at the botanic garden they completed a lot of hands-on work, engaged in meaningful research and learning, and experienced thoughtful field trips organized by our Manager of Engagement Anjali D’Souza. This year’s internship was unique thanks to a budding collaboration with Mount Holyoke College, which brought our Smith botanic garden and CEEDS interns together with the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and their Talcott Greenhouse interns.

The educational field trips the interns went on as a group included a visit to Hawley Bog led by our Manager of Living Collections Kady Wilson, a trip to Berkshire Botanical Garden with a tour by their interns, a visit to Pequoig Farm to learn about their farming practices and a trip to Mount Holyoke of course to see the work and landscape of their peer cohort. 

This summer our conservation team looked at the extreme southernmost occurrences of mountain magnolia, a species they’ve been working with for years, in the mountains of North Georgia. This previously-unsampled area was targeted because it is thought to both be the most genetically diverse due to forest dynamics that date back to the last ice age, and because it is thought to be the most threatened by climate change as it occurs on the warm margin of the range.

While in Georgia, Conservation Intern Dina Alam ’27, Manager of Living Collections Kady Wilson ’15, S.M. ’21 and Director John Berryhill collected seeds for the Global Conservation Consortium for Magnolia and DNA samples for analysis by Dr. Lauren Eserman-Cambell at Atlanta Botanical Garden. The team also went on an excursion to the Talladega National Forest in Alabama where they worked with Special Collections Curator Patrick Thompson and intern Allie Stafford of the Donald E. Davis Arboretum to confirm the existence of a small population for mountain magnolia and collect seed. With just over a dozen trees, it is now the only known occurrence in the state. The information they gathered will allow this population to be protected by state laws in the future, a huge win for the conservation of this species.

The Botanic Garden Student Educators jumped into the fall semester with a couple of Learning Garden work parties. General weeding, pruning, transplanting, as well as planting garlic for the spring, were a few of the things this team invited the greater Smith student body to participate in. Additionally, the BoGSEs (with the assistance of botanic garden staff) set up a new farm stand for the garden which will have fresh offerings in the spring such as flowers, edibles and medicinal plant cuttings. 

October was a month of tree tours at the botanic garden. Director John Berryhill offered an in-person and virtual tour of our historic arboretum for our members. (Not a member? Apply today!). He also led a tour for families visiting for Smith family weekend, and to alums who came to campus for Smith’s 150th celebration. 

And, we also planted bulbs. For many years the botanic garden has invited families visiting for family weekend to help plant bulbs around the Capen Garden gazebo. This year was no different! Because family weekend coincided with the Smith 150 celebration, we were able to invite alums who were visiting, too. It was a joy to get our hands dirty on a beautiful Saturday morning with our extended Smith community. We can’t wait to see the tulips come up in the Spring as a sweet reminder of this collaborative effort. 

The opening reception of the Koanbanchinemma (do you see the light (in me)) took place on Thursday, November 20. It was a lovely celebration of this collaborative exhibit between six Nipmuc artists, cultural and land stewards. We were thrilled to have so many people gather to take in this work, to connect with the artists and honor all that the exhibit represents. 

The exhibit will be on display for the 2025-26 academic year. Learn more about the behind-the-scenes of the Koanbanchinemma in this article by Ira Nathan ’27.

In mid December we welcomed the newest member of our botanic garden team, Caitlin Robertson as a greenhouse horticulturist. Caitlin was previously working in South Dakota conducting botanical research for the Rocky Mountain Research Station, and is thrilled to jump into caring for our beloved collection at Lyman. While studying at California Polytechnic State University, Caitlin interned at the botanic garden in 2023, so our spaces are familiar to her.

"Caitlin returns us to fully staffed as a horticulture team in Lyman," said Conservatory Curator Jimmy Grogan. "Dan and I are so happy to have her back in the house after working with her in the summer of '23."

Thank you all for being a part of what has been a great year for the botanic garden. We wish you all a happy new year and hope to see you at the garden often in 2026.