Kristen Natoli
Connecting people and plants at San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
Kristen Natoli grew up in a flora-friendly family — both her grandfathers had greenhouses in their gardens. But it was fauna that originally captivated the Conservatory of Flowers’ chief nursery specialist.
“I went to college pretty intent on being a veterinarian,” Natoli says, but a plant anatomy class at Cornell University changed everything. “It absolutely blew me away to see how fascinating plants are — how fundamentally differently they work from the way we, as animals, work.”
Natoli graduated from Cornell in 1991 with a degree in plant ecology, then headed west for a career in horticulture that eventually brought her to Golden Gate Park.
Q
How did you end up at San Francisco’s iconic Victorian greenhouse?
A I particularly liked taking care of plants under glass in containers. That’s kind of a particular path in horticulture. I love how greenhouses work — how they function. They are a building that is also a piece of engineering. So, I pursued work in various greenhouse situations.
The Conservatory sponsored a reconstruction and reopened in 2003, and some positions opened up here. I was here for about four years, then I went over to the Academy of Sciences to help them open and manage the rainforest exhibit over there. When a supervisor position opened up here — the chief nursery specialist position — I came back, because this place is all about plants. I realized that is where my heart is.
Q What does a typical day look like at the Conservatory?
A There are four of us on the horticulture team. Each of us walks through, checks our spaces. We have climate control equipment we want to monitor all day. We water all our plants by hand. We have an enormous diversity (of plants), and each plant has different needs. You can’t automate that. Watering is a very slow, meditative thing. It’s a great time to be looking and evaluating and building your projects for the day. Does something need repotting? Does an area need cleaning? We do a lot of cleaning — this is a white building full of heat and humidity.
Q Why do you think it’s important that places like the Conservatory of Flowers exist?
A We are connecting people and plants in a place of exceptional beauty. Plants are fundamental to everything — everything we are, everything on this planet. We bring (guests) two things they can’t have in their living room: an enormous diversity and certain plants that you can’t grow in your house. Like, we have a philodendron that is 40 feet tall. You just can’t have that in your living room.