IU greenhouse features variety of exotic plants
BLOOMINGTON — Bloomington is far from any rainforest, but Jordan Hall Greenhouse offers a glimpse of that landscape — within city limits.
Inside Jordan Hall on the Indiana University campus, you’ll find nearly 1,000 lush, exotic plant species housed in temperature-controlled glass rooms.
One room is dedicated to varieties of cacti and desert plants. Other rooms are packed full of plants such as orchids, waterlilies, ferns, hanging vines and even a type of spiky tree called a Hura crepitans, or sandbox tree.
“We’re always busy here,” gardener John Leichter said.
Leichter said plants need extra care in the summer months, often because it’s hot or the plants are not getting enough shade.
He especially enjoys taking care of the scores of orchids in the greenhouse, he said.
“This summer has been extremely hot,” he said.
On a recent afternoon, Leichter was putting small lipstick plants into the dirt of the propagation table in the front entrance of the greenhouse, which actually is four attached rectangular buildings and one dome-shaped room.
The exterior of the oddshaped campus building is visible from East Third Street, where broad leaves can be seen pressed against foggy windows.
The building opened in 1956 and has less ventilation than some of the university’s newer greenhouses, which are on East 10th Street near Hilltop Gardens. Before Jordan Hall was built, a scenic landscape called the Sunken Garden was located there.
“I spent many hundreds of happy hours in the greenhouse this year,” biology professor Lynda Delph said. “They’re great greenhouses, and we have a great greenhouse staff.”
She has been researching plant genetics, growing hundreds and hundreds of plants.
“You can do really carefully controlled experiments in the greenhouse,” Delph said.
Delph also teaches undergraduate courses, including evolution, advanced population biology and plant population biology.
Greenhouse supervisor John Lemon has worked in Jordan Hall for 46 years; he was 20 when he started.
“You have stuff to do every day, just cleaning the place,” he said.
When he’s not cleaning or taking care of plants, he gives tours to groups, including elementary school students and small gardening groups.
A recent morning saw 30 young children from Kid City, a city summer camp, visit the greenhouse for a self-guided tour.
“They were really amazed,” said Garrett Godsey, one of the camp counselors.