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Conservatory Glass Resources
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Latest Conservatory Glass Information Boston Conservatory - private institution in Boston, Mass. The conservatory was founded in 1867 and grants bachelor's and master's degrees in a variety of performing arts disciplines, including dance, music, opera, theater, voice, instruments, and music education. Students have numerous opportunities to gain performance experience through the conservatory's productions. At Versailles, the orangerie is more than 500 feet in length, 42 feet wide and 45 feet high. The lovely fragrance of orange blossoms must have been a compelling attraction for special parties held by the French court in the orangerie. Orangeries can be seen at many English country houses (e.g. Saltram House (OR1), Plymouth, Hampshire; Sezincote (OR2), Gloucestershire) and on the grounds of several royal palaces (e.g. Kensington Palace, London, OR3), as well as throughout Europe. In Boston, Massachusetts, Andre Faneuil, a well-to-do businessman, built the first known American greenhouse about 1737 mainly to grow fruit. George Washington built a pinery at Mount Vernon in Virginia in which he raised pineapples. A regency-era garden in Washington, D. C., Tudor Place (1644 31st St. NW, Georgetown), survives from 1805, and can be visited today. In addition to the historic house with its fine federal-period furnishings, the garden reflects numerous features found in gardens of the day on both sides of the Atlantic. The Tudor Place conservatory dates from the late eighteenth century. In the style of orangeries, it has three huge windows, and naturally, faces south.Numerous flowering shrubs are kept there during the winter. Another resident of the conservatory at Tudor Place is a sago palm (Cycas revoluta), said to be the third generation descendent of a plant purchased in Philadelphia in 1813. A primary motivation for the improvement of greenhouse design was the English penchant for the collection and study of botanic material from all over the globe. The earliest explorers brought back seeds and exotic species. The damp, chill English climate needed some alteration if these new species were to survive and flourish. Kew Gardens (officially the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew) originally belonged to the royal family. Frederick, Prince of Wales, (son of George II and father of George III) and his wife, Princess Augusta, had a great interest in exotic plants. Their collection is the core of today's 40,000 varieties of plants at Kew. None of Kew's hothouses survive from the Georgian period. One regency-era building, which may have been partially an orangerie, was in a state of considerable disrepair when I last visited Kew. Resembling a Greek or Roman temple, it was slated for renovation, according to guides. Among the more familiar Kew buildings, the vast Palm House dates from 1844; one of the most recent additions to Kew is the Princess of Wales Conservatory, named in honor of Augusta, Princess of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who opened the new structure in 1987. By 1825, greenhouses were becoming increasingly common, many heated by furnaces. The purpose of the greenhouse is to extend the growing season or to replicate tropical growing conditions in colder northern climes. Bloedel Floral Conservatory, Queen Elizabeth Park: The Conservatory is one of the most popular attractions in Vancouver and is open daily, rain or shine. A modest fee is charged. It is dedicated to the wonders of the natural world with an emphasis on plants and birds. As a matter of fact, over 100 birds of various species call the Bloedel Conservatory home and free-fly within its spacious dome. It was constructed through a very generous donation from Prentice Bloedel in 1969. That same donation enabled the Park Board to cover the main reservoir atop Queen Elizabeth Park. ESTABLISHED IN 1910, the Mount Royal College Conservatory has provided instruction to people of all ages and levels of development over much of the past century. The Conservatory is committed to providing quality instruction that sets the standard for similar programs throughout Canada. To this end it has built an outstanding group of instructors, established an extensive visiting artist program, and developed an international presence. Conservatories of today are a far cry from the original glass houses of yesteryear. These were constructed primarily to protect exotic plants from the worst ravages of a British winter and were often found gracing only the magnificent of stately homes. A conservatory is no longer a separate building, an awkward appendage seemingly stuck on to an available wall. It is now a bespoke item, designed and constructed not only to suit individual budgets and tastes but as integral part of the property itself. To some extent, the terms greenhouse, glasshouse, hothouse, orangerie, pinery, and conservatory are used interchangeably, though each has a generally agreed upon specific meaning. Greenhouse or glasshouse obviously has a glass roof and walls. Hot houses have heating elements. Orangeries and pineries have floor-to-ceiling south-facing windows, usually with a roof of solid material. Conservatories are for enjoyment by people as well as the cultivation of plants. All these terms and the buildings they describe existed in regency England, mostly at royal palaces and the estates of the wealthy aristocracy. Leading architects of the time were engaged in building and improving them for conservatories, etc. had become the very epitome of modern design. The Romans, adept at channeling the waters and building for maximum comfort, had many schemes to enhance growing conditions for plants of all kinds. The Roman emperor Tiberius had a sort of greenhouse, called a Specularium, created with mica in small translucent flakes where we would today have glass. Tiberius, it is reported, needed a year-round supply of his favorite food: cucumbers! As the popularity of greenhouses spread, the French developed orangeries for citrus fruit trees. Some of these were quite large, holding up to 300 trees. Many had removable roofs for frost protection. Batey attributes to Sir Humphrey Repton (1752-1818) the "modern improvement, borrowed from the French, of folding glass doors opening into a garden, by which the effect in a room is like that of a tent or marquee, and in summer delightful." The French botanist Jules Charles is attributed by many with the construction of the first really practical greenhouse in 1599 in Holland. The building was used to grow tropical plants for medicinal purposes, such as the Tamarind, used for curative potions.
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