From the day-to-day beauty of the Garden to scientific discoveries, 2025 was another remarkable year at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Celebrate the Garden’s 2025 milestones, record-breaking events, and new community programs.
January 2025
Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann Begins Tenure as President, Director
At the start of 2025, Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann officially began her tenure as the eighth president and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. She is the first woman to hold the position.
February 2025
Annual Orchid Show highlights Origin of Shaw Nature Reserve
Each year, the Orchid Show features hundreds of flowering orchids selected from the Garden’s vast collection. The collection features over 5,000 individual plants representing 700 unique species–nearly one in ten are threatened or endangered. This year’s Orchid Show also highlighted how Shaw Nature Reserve helped save this beloved but fragile collection in the 1920s, in celebration of the Nature Reserve’s Centennial.
Living Earth Collaborative Celebrates st. Louis’ tropical forest
In February, the Living Earth Collaborative explored the rich biodiversity of tropical forests, including the Garden’s Climatron. Guests learned from Garden scientist Mónica Carlsen about the Climatron’s history and the unique habitats it showcases as the first conservatory of its kind.
The Living Earth Collaborative is a research-focused consortium dedicated to advancing biodiversity science and education, formed in partnership with Washington University, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo.
Following the presentation, guests enjoyed self-guided tours of the Climatron, featuring engaging biofacts, hands-on experiences, and opportunities to speak with experts from the Garden and Zoo.
March 2025
Youth Career Summit Explores Green Career Paths
In 2025, the Garden hosted its first Youth Career Summit, welcoming over 200 high school students from the area to explore career paths at the Garden. The event provided students with the opportunity to learn directly from Garden staff and explore paths they may not have previously considered. Students were able to engage with Garden professionals through presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and small-group networking.
Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center Receives Buildy Award
The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums recognized the Garden for its exceptional planning, design, construction, and the lasting impact of the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center. Serving as the centerpiece of the Gateway to the Garden campaign, the Visitor Center was funded entirely through private donations.
Butterfly house Receives Prestigious Accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
In March, the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House earned full accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for the fifth time.
This rigorous process evaluates all aspects of operations, from animal care and conservation to education and guest services. The Butterfly House was the first invertebrate-focused facility to earn AZA accreditation in 2003.
April 2025
FLOURISH Luncheon
The second annual FLOURISH Luncheon bloomed in April. Celebrating the beauty of spring, a love of gardening, and the Garden’s vital work, the sold-out event featured Edwina von Gal of Perfect Earth Project. Von Gal, who spoke on the power of natural landscaping to support biodiversity and combat climate change.
Shaw Nature Reserve Partners with Scenic Regional Library to host Outdoor StoryTimes
After 100 years of plant preservation and ecological restoration, the Nature Reserve continues to connect future generations to nature. In partnership with the Scenic Regional Library, the Nature Reserve welcomed early readers and their families to storytimes in nature, featuring hands-on exploration of Missouri’s native plants and landscapes.
Garden horticulturists Search for Endemic Plants in Chihuahuan Desert
In late April of 2025, four members of the Missouri Botanical Garden Horticulture Staff spent 10 days exploring the vast Chihuahuan Desert in search of rare and endemic plants.
As they collected seeds and cuttings of threatened desert plants, their goals were to learn how to cultivate these rare plants for study at the Garden and to help visitors better understand the unique habitat.
May 2025
Garden, Butterfly House help community partners after tornado
On May 16, a deadly tornado swept through the St. Louis area, leaving a trail of loss and destruction. During this devastating time, the Missouri Botanical Garden and Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House lent their time, space, and expertise to support community partners.
The Butterfly House assisted in butterfly rescue efforts at the Saint Louis Zoo, caring for butterflies, chrysalids, and cocoons displaced by the storm damage.
Meanwhile, Garden’s horticulture team aided with cleanup efforts in Forest Park and replanting efforts in Beckett Park and Ivory Perry Park. Garden experts also shared their knowledge and experience with local agencies.
Garden President, Scientist talk plants on Science Friday
Missouri Botanical Garden President, Dr. Lúcia Lohmann, and Senior Curator Dr. Charlotte Taylor took to the national stage to share the importance of plants at a Science Friday Live event in Columbia, Missouri.
The pair talked about plants as the foundation of all life on Earth and the urgent need to study them. They discussed the Garden’s work of identifying and describing new plant species, the importance of plant taxonomy in today’s world, and shared stories of what it’s like in the field.
Chinese Culture Days highlights acrobats, musicians
A cherished tradition for many generations, Chinese Culture Days brings the majesty, history, and culture of China to the Missouri Botanical Garden each spring.
This year’s event featured The Changchun Acrobatic Troupe, a nine-person troupe from Changchun, performing stunts, juggling, and balancing acts, along with traditional Chinese entertainment.
The Garden also welcomed four renowned, traditional Chinese musicians from St. Louis’ Sister City, Nanjing, including Mr. Yu Dongbo, who plays and studies China’s oldest surviving musical instrument.
“Smelling the Bouquet” exhibition explores botanical scents
A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but without roses and other plants, we might not have the perfumes and popular sweet-smelling products we use today.
Smelling the Bouquet, an interdisciplinary exhibition at the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum, explores the botanical, cultural, and olfactive history of plant-based scents – from floral to stinky.
The exhibition continues through March 31, 2026.
Whitaker Music Festival highlights st. Louis’ Diverse music scene
The Whitaker Music Festival returned this summer with a 10-week lineup of free Wednesday evening concerts, showcasing St. Louis’ rich and diverse music scene. This year, the Garden welcomed around 23,000 music fans over the season.
The Whitaker Music Festival is generously funded by the Whitaker Foundation.
Global Fellowships Cultivate Future Scientists
Since opening in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden has been a home for scientific education and training for future scientists. The Garden continues that focus today through partnerships with local universities, internship programs, and fellowships. Since the 1990s, the Garden has offered international botany fellowships, with more than 150 students participating to date.
In 2025, nine international fellows from six countries trained at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Each fellowship has its own focus, and each fellow is paired with a Garden mentor.
June 2025
Secret Garden created at the Sachs Museum
The Garden’s Horticulture team completed work on the new landscape surrounding the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum in June.
The plants in this area pay homage to plant scientists in the Museum’s portraits, as well as modern botanical stories. The team planned nearly 2,000 individual plants. Other additions include Monet trellises, flagstone, and a Lutyens bench that create a “secret” garden, as well as a small water feature on the north side.
EarthWays Center Celebrates 25 years with the garden
While sustainability has become a global focus for public gardens in recent years, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Sustainability Division has been advancing sustainable solutions for decades.
Known as the EarthWays Center, the division celebrated its 25th anniversary with the Garden in 2025. Over the past quarter-century, the EarthWays Center has evolved through many phases, yet it has remained a beacon of sustainability and a trusted resource for the St. Louis community.
Outdoor youth Corps Celebrates 10th anniversary
One program in the Sustainability Division also celebrated a significant milestone. The Outdoor Youth Corps, a paid education and workforce development program that connects St. Louis young adults to green career pathways, celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Garden Scientist Joins Founding Class of Millennium Seed Bank Training Program
The Missouri Botanical Garden became one of the founding institutions participating in the Millennium Seed Bank’s Training Certification program. Garden Seed Bank Manager Meg Engelhardt traveled to London for the inaugural training at Millennium Seed Bank in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Engelhardt was one of the first six people in the world to participate in the new training, which will help her train others in proper seed banking techniques.
The Garden’s Seed Bank holds 9,678 accessions representing 1,511 different species. These collections span 145 plant families and come from 20 countries and 30 U.S. states. This fall, the Seed Bank moved from Shaw Nature Reserve to the Oertli Hardy Plant Nursery.
July 2025
Funga Fair spotlights mycological mysteries
Neither plant nor animal, fungi have fascinated scientists and culinary enthusiasts for centuries. This summer, funga fans flocked to the Garden for the first Funga Fair: A Mushroom Event, hosted by the Missouri Mycological Society. Attendees heard from mycological experts, examined specimens under the microscope, and bought tasty mushrooms from local vendors.
A Flourishing Landscape Takes Shape Around the Visitor Center
The Garden continued to grow the landscape around its Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center in 2025. Horticulturists planted more trees and shrubs to enhance the height and visual impact. The team added perennials specifically chosen to enhance late summer and early fall interest, extending the flowering season.
August 2025
giant corpse flower, Octavia, blooms for the fifth team
Octavia, the Garden’s largest corpse flower, bloomed for the fifth time over the summer. This Amorphophallus titanum was a sight to behold, standing at 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide at peak bloom and drawing around 2600 visitors the night she opened.
Along with Octavia, the Garden had two additional corpse flowers bloom in 2025. Lucy bloomed for the first time in May, and Desi bloomed for the first time in July.
Japanese Festival sets New record for garden visitation
The Japanese Festival is one of the Garden’s most beloved and well-attended events. In 2025, the festival set two new Garden records for attendance: 54,000 tickets reserved for the weekend and nearly 20,000 attendees in a single day.
Shakespeare comes to the garden
Theater fans were treated to an enchanting, live performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Garden. In partnership, the Missouri Botanical Garden and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival presented TourCo’s production of Shakespeare’s classic play.
Earlier in the year, the Garden and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival partnered to bring Gerit Quealy, author of Botanical Shakespeare, and offered small performances throughout the Garden in anticipation of the summer performance.
September 2025
Stories of Enslaved Lives Brought to the Stage
In 2025, the Annual Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Celebration examined the Garden’s history of enslavement through a two-part stage performance, with the first presented at the Garden. The performances highlighted the story of the people Mary Meachum guided in their pursuit of freedom from enslavement by Henry Shaw, the Garden’s founder.
October 2025
Best of Missouri market spotlights small businesses, artists
Best of Missouri Market ® is an annual celebration of small businesses and artists from across the region. In 2025, the market featured over 150 vendors, offering handcrafted products, artisan goods, food, and drinks, all set against the Garden’s beautiful autumn backdrop.
RSI Digitizes half a million specimens
In October, the Revolutionizing Species Identification Project hit its first milestone with 500,000 Herbarium specimens digitized. With the support of an anonymous $14.4 million grant, the RSI project aims to digitize the Garden’s nearly 8 million Herbarium specimens, train the next generation of botanists, and find ways to use new technology to accelerate plant species identification.
The Garden added 21 jobs in 2025 through the RSI project. Many of these positions are for aspiring scientists early in their careers. Through a curatorial mentorship program, RSI staff attend lectures and seminars and partner with the Garden’s taxonomists on independent projects in the Herbarium.
By the end of 2025, staff had imaged more than 700,000 Herbarium specimens. Additionally, Garden scientists scanned more than 7,000 specimens for hyperspectral reflectance data, which will be used in combination with AI to develop automated species identification tools.
Linnnean House Reopens After Renovations
Built in 1882, the Linnean House is the oldest continuously operating greenhouse west of the Mississippi. Its most recent renovations aimed to restore it to its original purpose as an orangerie.
Notable upgrades include new trellises added to the north wall that will allow for a display of climbing plants without harming the historic brick. New botanical wall panels create a stunning artistic element, showcasing plants with historical connections to orangeries and examples of species important to the Garden work, displayed in the style of Victorian ironwork. Custom Wardian cases and two display cases showcase unique artifacts that tell the story of botanical collecting in both 1882 and the modern era.
Missouri botanical Garden Press Publishes First Children’s Book set at Garden
Rosie & Pogo Visit the Missouri Botanical Garden is a new children’s book from the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, exploring the Garden through the eyes of Rosie, a girl who is blind, and her seeing-eye dog.
It is the first children’s book set in the Garden and was written by Therapeutic Horticulture Coordinator, Liz Byrde, and illustrated by her husband, Matt Byrde, a wildlife artist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
November 2025
Herbarium Director Recognized for 40 under 40 award
The St. Louis Business Journal recognized Herbarium Director Jordan Teisher at its 40 Under 40 Awards on Thursday, Nov. 6. The nomination committee, which comprises the Business Journal’s editorial team and a team of five judges who are previous winners, selected Jordan from more than 300 nominations for the 2025 awards program. Teisher was recognized for his instrumental role in launching the Revolutionizing Species Identification project.
Garden hosts first Día de los Muertos Celebration
Celebrating the rich cultural traditions of Día de los Muertos, the Garden’s educational event featured a community altar assembly, face painting, tissue-paper flower crafts, and performances by Panama Pacifico folkloric dancers and The Dance Society of St. Louis. Guests also enjoyed The Monarch Butterfly Experience, a pan de muerto tasting, and insights into Día de los Muertos traditions from local artists and cultural experts.
Annual Art Show Highlights Beauty in Nature
Showcasing the inspiring beauty of nature, Shaw Nature Reserve’s Annual Art Show invites local artists to display and sell their nature-inspired artwork at the rustic log cabins of the Dana Brown Overnight Center, nestled in the Nature Reserve’s colorful woodlands.
This unique extension of St. Louis’ art scene offers an opportunity to explore local talent while enjoying the natural beauty on display at the Nature Reserve.
Member Appreciation Days welcomes 9,200 new, returning members
Member Appreciation Days 2025, held November 10–16, were a great success. Members enjoyed special events, shopping and dining perks, and a 20% discount on new and renewed memberships.
The promotion resulted in the sale of more than 9,200 memberships, generating $1.1 million in revenue to support Garden operations and research. The Garden’s membership community now stands at 52,000 households.
Garden Glow returns with Interactive Features, Nature-inspired Pieces
Garden Glow, St. Louis’ beloved holiday lightshow, returned for its 13th year with new nature-inspired exhibits, interactive features, and an updated show on Tower Grove House.
Visitors could create their own holiday light show at the new Brilliant Blooms interactive kiosk.
New nature-inspired pieces include the Linnean Lights, a festive homage to the beautiful water plants, and Beaming Butterflies, inspired by the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House.
Garden Glow continues through January 3, 2026.
December 2025
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Board of Trustees voted on Dec. 11 to appoint June McAllister Fowler. Ward M. Klein and Tina Hrevus were named vice chairs.
Fowler joined the Garden’s Board in 2023 after retiring from BJC HealthCare in 2022. Fowler succeeds Dr. Michael K. Stern, who has served on the board since 2013, including four years as chair, and will continue as a trustee.
The board also elected two new trustees: Robert Wagner, Chief Risk Officer at Bunge, and community volunteer Kitty McDonnell Pipoli.
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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