The Missouri Botanical Garden has had an exciting year in 2024, full of big announcements, scientific breakthroughs, wonderful community partnerships, and beloved events.
With so much happening at the Garden, we know even some of our biggest supporters may need a refresher of all we did this year.
January 2024
Garden hosts annual Orchid Show
The Garden hosted its annual Orchid Show, starting in late January. This event showcases the Garden’s extensive orchid collection and highlights conservation efforts for the many endangered species.
The show takes place in the Emerson Conservatory of the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center. In 2025 the Orchid Show will open on February 1, with a Members Preview on January 31.
Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson Announces Transition to President Emeritus
On January 23, Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson announced his plans to transition from his role as President of the Missouri Botanical Garden to the role of President Emeritus.
Wyse Jackson served as President for 14 years, overseeing several milestones for the institution including the establishment of a Seed Bank, the restoration of the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum, and the opening of the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center.
Wyse Jackson was honored later in the year with a proclamation from St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones and a day celebrating his legacy at the Garden.
February 2024
Climatron® Get a Tree Trimming
For one week each year, the Climatron® closes its doors to the public for maintenance. During this time, the horticulture team is pruning the plants high in the dome’s canopy.
This maintenance keeps the plants away from the glass, creates air movement which helps with pest control, and allow light to reach the plants below the canopy.
Snowfall at the Chinese Garden
The Missouri Botanical Garden is beautiful in every season, and that includes the winter. We embrace the philosophy that snow can be thought of as the flower of winter.
Garden Celebrates Black History Month
Throughout the year, the Garden celebrates several cultural holidays and recognizes many cultural observances. During Black History Month, the Garden shared stories of Black botanists and horticulturists. The Garden also offered visitors a day of education and celebration at the Visitor Center and the George Washington Carver Garden.
Blue Morphos Take Over the Butterfly House
Every year in February, the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield adds hundreds of vibrant Blue Morpho Butterflies to its Tropical Conservatory.
Blue Morphos will take over the Butterfly House again in 2025 during Morpho Mardi Gras: Bugs, Rhythm, & Blues from January 25-March 4.
March 2024
Spring Blooms Appear
March 2024 was full of beautiful blooms around at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Tulips, cherry blossoms, magnolias, and more bloomed in the early spring.
Butterfly house discovers rare mutant cockroach in collection
This year, the Butterfly House discovered a cockroach with an extremely rare mutation.
Named Harvey after the D.C. Comics villain Harvey Dent A.K.A. Two-Face, this cockroach appeared to be split down the middle with one side being light brown and the other a darker brown.
Harvey was thought to either be a virtually unheard-of male/male chimera or possess a rare mutation in a single cell. He quickly became a celebrity in the world of entomology and in St. Louis.
Garden Scientist describe new orchid species related to darwin’s orchid
Garden scientists and collaborators discovered and described a new orchid species in Central Madagascar with a record-setting nectar spur and close ties to the famous Darwin’s orchid.
The Darwin orchid is famous for Charles Darwin’s theory that a yet-to-be-discovered insect was pollinating the flower. Scientists described the large hawkmoth Xanthopan praedicta, 41 years after his prediction.
Garden scientists and collaborators say this new species, Solenangis impraedicta, expands Darwin’s predicted pollination guild in Madagascar and reveals an unexpected new case of parallel evolution with Darwin’s orchid.
April 2024
Irises and Daylilies bloom bright
As spring continued in St. Louis, irises and daylilies began to bloom at the Garden. These plants are a real treat for those who enjoy taking the time to explore all the unique species names.
Garden partners with PNC to create nature playscape
In April, the Garden announced that it had received a $75,000 grant from PNC to create a nature playscape at the Julia Goldstein Early Childhood Education Center in University City.
This playscape would act as a place for children to connect to nature and plants, and the Garden is working with teachers to integrate nature-based STEM learning. The playscape is set to open in fall of 2025.
May 2024
Spring Wildflower Market highlights beauty of native plants
Shaw Nature Reserve, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden located in Gray Summit, hosts an annual Spring Wildflower Market designed to get native plants in more yards and gardens in our area.
The event takes place at the beautiful Nature Reserve each year, welcoming guests to enjoy the beauty of Missouri while shopping and learning about native plants. The Spring Wildflower Market will take place on May 3 in 2025.
Chinese Culture Days
A tradition for many generations, Chinese Culture Days brings the majesty, history, and culture of China to the Missouri Botanical Garden each spring.
This signature event features dozens of performances, cooking classes, educational opportunities, and authentic cuisine and souvenirs. In 2025, the event will take place May 3-4.
Cicadas Emerge and End Up in Our Frying Pans
Cicadas were all the buzz in St. Louis this summer, with two broods of periodical cicadas emerging across the country for the first time since 1803. St. Louis only experienced one of these broods, but the Butterfly House took full advantage of the extra protein.
As part of our efforts to educate the public on the art and benefits of entomophagy, our Bug Chef hosted a special cooking demonstration using the cicadas as a main ingredient.
Sachs Museum opens exhibition all about maize
The Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum, an on-site museum located in the Garden’s Victorian District, hosted a year-long exhibition titled Kernels of Culture: Maize Around the World which ran May 2024–March 2025.
The exhibition explores what we know as corn, also called maize, in art, farming, foods, tools, and pop culture. A new exhibition will open at the Sachs Museum in May 2025.
June 2024
Green Living Festival offers sustainable resources for everyday living and Beyond
In 2024, the Green Living Festival brought in 50 local exhibitors, experts, and business owners focused on living a more sustainable life and even how to plan for a green burial.
This signature event hosted by the Garden’s Sustainability Division is a wonderful way for the St. Louis community to support eco-friendly businesses and programs and learn practical ways to make their everyday lives a little greener.
The next Green Living Festival will take place on June 7, 2025.
Corpse Flower Bloom
In 2024, the Garden had–not one- but two corpse flowers (Amorphophallus titanum) on display from our living collections. The first to bloom was Millie, the Garden’s 15th corpse flower to bloom.
The Garden opened late for visitors hoping to see and smell this unique and endangered plant. As the other corpse flower blooms the Garden has hosted over the years, Millie’s bloom was well-attended.
Garden works with scientists from Tajikistan to protect native plants
The Garden works with scientists across the globe to discover new species and protect native species. In 2024, the Garden was able to create a new partnership with scientists in Tajikistan to protect at-risk plants, including the country’s native irises, tulips, and cherries in their country.
July 2024
Missouri landscapes shine beautifully in summer
Shaw Nature Reserve offers breathtaking views of Missouri’s native habitats throughout the year with daytime visits, guided tours, and classes.
Photographers, birders, hikers, and nature lovers can enjoy exploring this beautiful area which is the result of decades of ecological restoration by the Nature Reserve.
In 2025, the Nature Reserve will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Corpse Flower at the Butterfly House For First Time
The second corpse flower to bloom from the Garden’s living collections was Callie, who also had the honor of being the first Amorphophallus titanum to bloom at the Butterfly House.
This new location gave new opportunities for corpse flower fans who may live a bit further from the Garden to see the plant in person. It also put a special focus on the corpse flower’s pollinators.
August 2024
Nature Speaks During Extended Evening Hours
A new addition the the Garden’s seasonal Extended Evening Hours, the Nature Speaks series, experiential learning opportunities integrating nature, engagement, history, and art.
The series included Nature Speaks…Through Art—A Plein Air Expérience which invited guests to watch several Plein Air painters making art around the Garden.
Japanese Festival Breaks Record Attendance
The Japanese Festival is one of the Garden’s most beloved events as well as one of the most well-attended events throughout the year.
In 2024, the Garden hosted around 54,000 people over Labor Day weekend – a new record for the festival. The events offered visitors a taste of Japan through music, dancing, martial arts demonstrations, artwork, food and more.
Japanese Festival takes place every Labor Day Weekend, and will run August 31–September 2 in 2025.
September 2024
Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann named next president of Missouri Botanical Garden
On September 9, 2024, the Missouri Botanical Garden announced that Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann would be its next president and director.
Dr. Lohmann will be the eighth president of the Garden, and the first woman to hold the position. Lohmann will succeed the current Garden President, Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson, who will transition to President Emeritus on Jan. 2, 2025.
Garden Wins International Water Lilly Weigh-Off
For the second year in a row, our friends at the Denver Botanic Gardens challenged several botanic gardens and zoos around the world to see how much weight their water lilies could hold.
While there was some tough competition from Naples Botanical Garden (135lbs) and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (105.8lbs), the Missouri Botanical Garden took first place in the Water Lily Weigh-Off with our Victoria amazonica species holding 142.1 lbs.
New Visitor Center Gets LEED Gold Status
In the spring of 2023, the Garden completed the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center project, and the following year, the Garden learned the building’s sustainability features earned it LEED (or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design™) Gold® status.
The LEED green building rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.
Shoenberg Arid House Brings Desert Plants back on display
Formerly the Shoenberg Temperate House, the Shoenberg Arid House reopened to visitors in September with a new mission: highlighting the Garden’s extensive cacti collection which were off-display for several decades.
The collection dates back more than 150 years and currently includes around 1,500 taxa.
October 2024
Best of Missouri Market® Hosts Record Number of Vendors
Best of Missouri Market ® is a St. Louis fall tradition, offering visitors the chance to explore handcrafted products, artisan goods, local food and drink vendors and more – all while enjoying the beauty of the Garden in autumn and live music.
In 2024, the market welcomed 149 vendors, the most in the market’s 32-year history. Best of Missouri Market® will take place October 3–5 in 2025.
Cascade Mums Bloom in Japanese Garden
A marvel of horticulture ingenuity, cascade mums are an autumn highlight at the Missouri Botanical Garden. These plants can be found along the walls located on the west side of the Japanese Garden.
November 2024
Garden Glow returns with new plant-focused displays
Garden Glow returned for its 12th year at the Missouri Botanical Garden, adding several new displays throughout the immersive lightshow.
The Lehmann Rose Garden was transformed into the Grand Grove, featuring vibrantly glowing faux oak trees. These colorful trees highlight the Garden’s extensive living oak collection, which contains over 60 species of oak trees.
A new addition to the Victorian District was glowing, golden meadow that beautifully mimics the prairie restoration work the Garden is doing at Shaw Nature Reserve.
Ginkgos Reach Peak Fall Color
In the fall, Ginkgo trees’ leaves turn bright yellow and then tend to fall all at once, creating a short-lived, spectacular display both on and around the tree.
Did you know? Ginkgos are known as “living fossils”. They have remained almost entirely unchanged for millions of years and their closest living relatives are the cycads.
December 2024
Garden Launches Revolutionizing Species Identification project
Just before heading into a new year, the Garden announced that it would be launching the Revolutionizing Species Identification (RSI).
This project will digitize 6 million herbarium specimens over the course of six years, making critical data freely accessible to scientists, conservationists, and policymakers globally.
This landmark initiative made possible by an anonymous $14.4 million grant—the largest to botany in recent years.
Jessika Eidson | Public Information Officer
Thanks to Nathan Kwarta, Senior Digital Media Specialist, and his team of volunteer photographers who help document the history and achievements of the Garden in real time.
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