Virginia Haldan Tropical House reopens!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 2024 (BERKELEY, CA) –The UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley announces the Virginia Haldan Tropical House will reopen to the public on Saturday, September 7, 2024. Closed since 2021, the Garden launched a successful $1.3 million fundraising effort to complete the vibrant, reimagined interior designed by renowned landscape architect Ron Lutsko, Lutsko Associates. The entire space is designed to be ADA compliant and accessible for all. The public is invited to experience this lush, humid tropical environment filled with magnificent, exotic plants, a living wall, pond and fountain! On the opening weekend of Saturday, September 7 and Sunday, September 8, from 10:00 am–4:00 pm, trained docents will be on hand to answer questions about this fantastic collection of plants. Don’t miss seeing this exciting destination located at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley.

This Garden jewel—the East Bay’s only tropical glass house open to the public—supports our commitment to education and plant conservation. Prior to closing it was a beloved destination for fifty years by visitors of all ages. The replanted interior will eventually include familiar displays of plants important in human uses such as chocolate and vanilla. Exciting new plantings include unusual tropical species of cycads, relocated from the Garden’s research greenhouses and on view to the public for the first time. Rounding out the display visitors will see flowering water plants such as Egyptian blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea). Like all the Garden’s collections, the plants in the tropical house are considered research plants and available for study.

Learn more about the spectacular Virginia Haldan Tropical House plant collection.