A Growing Tradition

Even in the dead of winter, there’s one place on Haverford’s campus that’s always lush and vibrant: the Haverford College Arboretum greenhouse, which is a temporary home to hundreds of student plants over winter break. “About half our greenhouse is student plants,” says Charlie Jenkins, one of three horticulturalists charged with caring for them.

The Arboretum has offered plant-sitting services for more than 35 years, ever since Florence Genser ran it, according to Carol Wagner, a longtime Arboretum horticulturist who worked with Genser and retired in January 2023. “Florence came up with the idea that every incoming student should get a free plant as an introduction to the Arboretum,” Wagner says. “She also started offering to watch plants over winter break.”

The past couple years, this service has been pretty popular, says Jennie Kelly, the Arboretum’s program coordinator, with 407 student plants spending the winter. The all-time high was 500 plants in 1990. “We try not to turn people away,” she says. The Arboretum staff will watch any houseplant, not just those given out at the beginning of the year. The most they’ve ever cared for from a single student was 32.

Services include caring for sick plants, too—just don’t expect a miracle, Kelly says. They can’t revive a dead plant. And students who are dropping a plant off are encouraged to take proper precautions when transporting them, such as placing the plant inside a bag to keep it warm. One of the most common reasons a plant won’t make it is because of cold damage. If a plant doesn’t make it, the Arboretum does have replacements on hand, left behind by students who have graduated and given their plants back.

Others, like Jonathan Lawrence ’93, still have their original first-year plants. “I think it’s called a ponytail palm,” he says. “I brought it back home every summer and it lived with my parents.” The palm survived a year-long trip Lawrence took to Jerusalem, various graduate schools, and, after he returned to Haverford as a professor of religion, even COVID-19. “A week into the pandemic shutdown, they announced that we had to get permission from security and the provost to even come to campus,” he says. “It was the first thing I rescued from my office. It reminds me of Haverford and all the adventures I had there.”

The Arboretum staff has heard from several students who have had their plants for 20 years or more, and one even reached out when their plant turned 18 to inquire if it could apply to attend Haverford. The request was denied, says Kelly, but shows how much students seem to really care about their first-year plants.

“It teaches students to be responsible for something,” says Wagner, and fulfills Genser’s vision of helping the Arboretum staff connect with students. They’re happy to offer re-potting, pest control, and other plant care and advice throughout the year. “It’s nice to see when a student comes in with a really healthy plant,” Jenkins says.

Although sometimes, looks can be deceiving. “Once,” Kelly recalls, “someone gave us a plastic plant.”

—Jill Waldbieser