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On September 20, the historic Victorian glass house in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was finally reopened to the public after an eight-year, $25 million restoration. Celebrate the occasion at an extravaganza featuring live performances, horticultural demonstrations, and kids' activities. Inside the 12,000-square-foot conservatory, visitors can view 1,500 species of rare and unusual tropical plants from more than 50 countries; the plants are displayed in six different climate chambers. Of particular interest is the Plant Explorers Exhibit (in the Lowland Tropics dome), which tells the stories and displays the gear of plant explorers past and present. While common in Europe, conservatories are now beginning to increase in popularity in the U.S. as homeowners discover a variety of uses for these one-of-a-kind "glass houses." Many conservatories, are used as breakfast rooms or additions to gourmet kitchens, while others serve specific purposes, such as a music room or natural bridge between the house and garden. Conservatories have a rich history, going back to the days when wealthy families of Victorian Europe would travel the world and bring back rare spices or lemon and orange trees. They needed warm climates to survive the colder months, so the idea of a glass-enclosed conservatory was developed to nurture the exotic plants and specimens from the homeowner's world travels. Since the first purposeful cultivation of plants, humankind has struggled to improve growing conditions by altering the environment. For the plant to thrive, is it too cold? Too dark? Too rainy? Too arid? Too windy? How can the plant's living arrangements be improved to give it maximum light, water, air circulation and fertility? How can we improve on Mother Nature? Further developments in specularia included ducts carrying hot water or cool air, typical of Roman engineering. Among the plants grown in this mica-roofed structures were grapes, peaches and roses. Do You Want a Conservatory or a Liberal Arts Program? If you're a high school student who has his or her heart set on working in the theatre, you have an important choice to make--one that can complicate even further the frenzy of picking a college. And it's a decision in which you may find yourself on the opposite side of the fence from your parents: will it be four years in an intensive, preprofessional conservatory situation, or four years in a liberal arts school with a strong drama program? Many of the vegetables available today in St. Petersburg, Russia, for example, are grown under glass in acres of greenhouses that rim the city, a necessity for the climate. The St. Petersburg greenhouses date from shortly after the founding of the city of Peter the Great at the dawn of the eighteenth century. By the middle of the 19th century, the popularity of greenhouses had grown exponentially. What's more, materials became less expensive and more readily available, so greenhouses and growing plants under glass were no longer a pastime only of the wealthy. Small greenhouses and conservatories of many designs were added to middle class Victorian houses. There was also competition by cities and countries to build conservatories as part of grand public parks. These housed exotic, non-native plants as well as common varieties, and remain popular today. One of the most famous glass buildings in the world was the Great Exhibition's Crystal Palace, built in London in 1850-51 for the Great Exhibition. Chief architect was Joseph Paxton (1803-65), former gardener to the sixth Duke of Devonshire (the Bachelor Duke). It contained all kinds of exhibits, not only plants. Nonetheless, the design of the Crystal Palace influenced decades worth of greenhouses and conservatories. Paxton was influenced by the achievements of Knight and Loudon in creating more efficient greenhouses. The St. Petersburg Conservatory is a music school in St. Petersburg, Russia. Its current full name is the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory (SPbGK); formerly it has also been known as the Petrograd Conservatory and the Leningrad Conservatory. It was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. It later became a centre of the New Russian school of composition, led by Rimsky-Korsakov. In 2004, it had around 275 members of staff and 1400 students. We have no idea when some farmer got the idea of choosing a site protected from the wind, with an exposure to the longest hours of sunlight, or who first carried water to nourish that plant. Today we take for granted the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers in computer-monitored locations that bring us year-round production. Obviously this is the result of centuries, perhaps eons, of experimentation and invention. Two hundreds years ago, our ancestors had a very good idea of what was needed for maximum production, and they were quickly developing the technological requirements for success.
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