Scenery within the greenery

Dane Sheehan

Flowers, vines, shrubs and more stretch from ceiling to floor in the Tropical Greenhouse of Upham Hall on the UW-Whitewater campus.

Dauntae Green, Lifestyle Editor
January 24, 2021

Have you ever explored the greenhouse on campus?
Tucked alongside Upham Hall is a glass house that serves as a garden, a place for community and an important space to study plant biology.
Most work is focused from February – May in preparation for the growing season ahead. The greenhouse on campus is growing, expanding and is hoping to become an unique area of nature for everyone to go there.

A banana tree is prominently featured in Upham Greenhouse 2 which houses tropical plants, previously the tree was used to produce bananas however since then it has had to re-grow. (Dane Sheehan)

“Upham Greenhouse is a great place for students to get some hands-on experience working with plants and learning more about plant care. We have a wide variety of plants in the botanical collection,” said Sustainability Office Director Wes Enterline. “We work with the Biology Department and usually you can find something in bloom throughout the year. It is a great place to visit in the middle of winter since it is warm and full of plant life, which is not something we can enjoy in January and February.”
The Sustainability Office cooperates with campus organizations for preserving plants, doing projects and volunteer work, and helping on the environment.
“We have a tropical greenhouse, a desert greenhouse, and then a regular greenhouse. Students can rent out space and do projects or experiments with plants. I think it’s a great opportunity for students because they can explore a different plant species,” said Garden Club President Caroline French.

Located to the right in this photo is a type of euphorbia plant which looks similar to a cactus however is different in that it has leaves, this plant is located in Upham Greenhouse 3 which features desert and aquatic plants. (Dane Sheehan)

The collections are open for the campus community to browse, but research must be registered with the Sustainability Office to reserve bench space.
“SAGE and the Gardening Club use the space as a “home base” for club activities of all kinds. The Gardening Club in particular helps us take care of the plants in the greenhouse, helps us plant seedlings to use in the Campus Garden each spring, and comes out in fall to help harvest vegetables from plants they helped establish the previous semester,” said Enterline. “These two organizations do a great job keeping people involved in the greenhouse and makes the environment fun and engaging by not just working on the necessary tasks, but a lot of fun projects too using plants in crafts and other hands-on activities.”

Upham Greenhouse 1 located inside Upham Hall includes plants being grown for student research or organizations. (Dane Sheehan)
The Upham greenhouses are located on the south end of the first floor of Upham Hall and include plants grown for students research and organizations, tropical plants, desert plants and
aquatic plants. (Dane Sheehan)

You can go check out the Greenhouse at the Upham building located on campus. Anyone wanting to do volunteer work at the Greenhouse can see the Sustainability Office with more information. If you want to join the Garden Club, or join SAGE in their efforts of environmental activism, you can contact them if you have any questions: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].