the following your Fryman Botanical Conservatory is called an oasis in the heart of downtown Fort Wayne .

>> This city garden space thrives in an immense glass structure influenced by turn of the 20th century urban greenhouses and is home to more than 500 plant species from across three continents with its seasonal display as its tropical and desert gardens community programs summer music.

>> Yeah, there's a lot growing on at the Botanical Conservatory and we'll discover all that and more on this edition of Prime Time.

>> Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

Our guest this week from Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation is Mitch Shepard.

>> She is deputy director of community outreach for the following year Fryman Botanical Conservatory as well as over at the Falling Your Theater at Franchi Park and Youth Centers.

>> The city is stewarding and of course we'd love to meet you as well if you have a question or comment as our conversation goes along, just call the number on the screen as we widen out and welcome Mitch.

>> There she is.

How are you?

I I'm great.

>> How are you Bruce ?

Very well thank you very well thank you.

And appreciating the opportunity with all things in the seasonal change.

You know the medical environment is a lot better people wanting to get out and in all things at a very high level Fort Wayne Parks and Rec is probably putting out welcome mats at a variety of locations.

>> You have never seen people using their parks like they have since the beginning of the pandemic.

It's it's a renaissance.

It's a resurgence.

It's it's a rebirth of an appreciation for nature and the outdoors and we're lapping up all of it.

We're loving seeing the public coming out to see us and as they're enjoying the outdoors, the conservatory, the Botanical Conservatory for me in brief is the great indoors and it's always kind of fun to be in the tropical room in January, for example.

>> That you know, is a nice experience.

>> But why don't we start with what it must have been like to be connected to a conservative or any indoor space over these last fifteen, eighteen months?

>> Well, we've obviously went along with everyone.

We've had a very tough and a very challenging year.

There were two major shutdowns in our city.

The first shutdown we were shut down and that meant that lonely individual Gardner was going from room to room and struggling to keep the plants alive and keep the heat on and keep everything functioning while everyone else was staying away.

The second major city shutdown we did not shutdown.

I have a great point of pride in our staff and our volunteers and in the fact that Mayor Henry trustor us to keep the public safe by being meticulous and careful and a little open air indoors if you will.

A lot of open spaces, a lot of beautiful plants but also a lot of concern for the safety of our public.

And so we were open during the last major community shutdown.

>> Well, and as we sit here tonight, what is the general atmosphere or protocol for those who would like to still see what's going on and perhaps have a chance to enjoy an encounter with a butterfly over the next 72 hours?

>> Well, there are some secret tips.

First of all, our protocol for public health and safety is the same as that for the city of Fort Wayne.

Masser recommended but are not required and social distancing is recommended and that's usually a comfortable thing at the conservatory anyway.

So if you want to see the butterfly exhibit and you really should um here are some tips about that.

Butterflies are most active when it's bright and sunny so come on a bright sunny day and they'll be fluttering all around you like a cloud come on a weekday if you can and try to beat the crowds.

One of the things with coming out of the pandemic is normally we would be full of school trips in in the early part of the butterfly season Tuesday afternoon and butterflies was a great time.

However, if you want to come do come quickly because we close the exhibit for the year this Sunday and it has become such a point of popularity.

>> I think you were saying in a couple of years it will be celebrating what its 20th anniversary as being something folks are circling dates on the calendar.

That's right.

It is a very special exhibit.

There are only around a hundred of them in the United States.

It's a highly controlled, very specialized program.

We have to be licensed by the federal government to make sure that no introduced species are sent out into the atmosphere.

So imagine if you were the guy who brought the gypsy moth or if the emerald ash borer came in with you.

>> It's really that level of responsibility when we first started doing this, my partner in crime, Rebecca Canalis, our conservatory manager who will be retiring soon bless her heart the two of us and two singer sewing machines actually built by hand the very first butterfly exhibit almost 20 years ago.

It's now become such a fixture that we'll see over twenty thousand visitors.

>> I can't imagine us not having it.

Yeah, the points of interaction as we saw in the images, you know you can't get much more up close and personal with with an encounter of that kind.

>> That's right.

There are basically two types of well three types of exhibit three out there.

They're exhibits where the butterflies are in case and you walk by them there are ones where they are free flying but they're not in any way hampered and they'll be right up at the top of the roof because they love the sun.

We chose to create a tent it's 30 by 30 by thirty and it keeps them close to you and they are indeed incredibly colorful and a little bit like watching.

>> Oh a lake or a fireplace.

>> So there's a certain mesmerizing sort of quality to it with all the botanical regalia as a backdrop for all this, you know, zooming out from the butterflies to look at the structure writ large.

>> How did this specific asset come to be ours?

Well, we are I like to say the biggest diamond in the crown of downtown Fort Wayne .

We are a gem of an institution and very unusual for a city our size.

We were part of a redevelopment project.

We are the following year Fryman Botanical Conservator, a wonderful individuals named following her and Fryman were very instrumental in not only funding the facility but socially moving us toward the need to have this really showing people what culture and art could bring to downtown Fort Wayne .

So in nineteen eighty three we were right at the heart of redevelopment.

Now that our city is once again in a major phase of redevelopment here we are again still fresh and still new and still cemented right into the middle of everything a brilliant shining gem our business is change.

We do have our showcase garden that you've mentioned where the butterflies are changes four times a year to continue to be relevant and to continue to be exciting.

This historic treasure has to be a little bit new every time you come and visit it and hence the seasonal change and not too far from butterflies.

>> I guess we can take a peek into the planning and we're going to be Wild West oriented I understand for a while.

>> Can I get a yeha possibly.

>> We're very excited.

The Wild West Show is it's a setpiece show which means it's a highly decorated exhibit.

There's going to be lots of props.

>> You can go to the sluice and mine some gems.

You can knock one back at the saloon.

>> There might even be a graveyard and I heard that there's a mine a cave with a mine down in the cave and a mine car that you can check out well and yeah, it's got to incorporate I would assume that some of the the desert garden you know, showcase or be able to certainly say, you know, we need sagebrush, we need cactus, we need a John Wayne sighting.

We need you know, high noon.

>> We need something going on here.

That's right.

We'll be featuring cactus as well as some bright colorful exhibiter and this particular show is the one that lasts the longest.

It will go on exhibit.

We actually tear down Sunday night and the reopened five days later in the following Saturday but we'll be in there until we put in the Christmas show.

So it's a nice long exhibit and it's kind of cool to go in early when everything's new and freshly planted, come back in a month or two and see what it's like when it's all grown up.

>> Well and I noticed in some of the material that there may even be a little bit of a seasonal change within the seasonal showcase as summer annuals go to some of the fall varieties that'll be available.

>> All right.

The beautiful annuals of summer will make way for the mums of far and the plants that are featured in our facility are actually grown here locally.

They're grown at the London Park Greenhouse and by a wonderful cadre of volunteers shout out volunteers without them we would never be able to have such a nifty and unusual facility and in that regard things I did not know and now do and feel better for it.

The Conservancy the conservatory serving as a plant rescue center for endangered species its work that you don't see but certainly the impact of it is significant.

>> It's quite an honor.

It's a little bit like Agatha Agatha Christie meets a botanist when you go to the airport and they ask you if you're carrying any plants, animals or vegetables, do you know what happens to those plants?

They have to go somewhere.

We are home for seized orchids so orchids that are found out in the wild we have some that in the conservatory that are as of yet even an identified beautiful and truly rare it is amazing to me twenty four thousand square feet of indoor space a just for fun fact for the weekend around the campfire that the a beefsteak begonia was the first plant installed in the conservatory in the gardens and obviously as we heard at the top of the program, there have been a few other neighbors that have moved in since then.

>> I imagine several hundred thousand are going to have seen their way through our building or one other thing that I think is intriguing and speaks to the economic development part opened in nineteen eighty three.

>> I was surprised by that.

I thought it was earlier but I obviously opened just in time whenever that year would be but that in only 13 years it went from first person to the one millionth visitor going through the conservatory doors a million visitors in thirteen years is something that deserves a little perspective.

I wonder if folks expected it to succeed so well, I don't know if they expected it to be as popular in multiple uses and multiple purposes.

Our conservatory is really centered around three basic reasons for being the obvious it's beautiful, it's esthetic, it's restful.

It's a gorgeous garden.

It's also educational institution, formal education.

School children learn a great deal on their field trips, their informal education.

Would you like to grow roses or maybe you'd like to learn how to make soap?

But the third thing is it's fun.

It's an entertainment venue both for your private events you might rent or for the public events where we have all sorts of one special event fun things that happen literally every month there's something going on and I believe it's kind of like a milking stool.

Those three things have to remain in balance for the conservatory to serve its community.

>> Well, there are discovery centers we were seeing some of those videos were images rather special classes.

>> The one that makes me smile is garden railroading the coming together it's like like boys and dinosaurs, you know, if you will older boys and trains and having that in the outdoors a natural setting is also captivating.

>> It is absolutely so and we've had a couple of different railroading exhibits where volunteers who have amazing layouts have come in for our railroad weekends.

You got to catch those are wonderful but railroads in the gardens are a thing that has been growing for quite some time.

We do not have a permanent one because we change quite a bit but the particulars of gardens and railroads and dinosaurs and little boys and quite frankly being outdoors in the indoors those are things that will never get old.

>> They'll always be special.

>> Yeah and a great way to discover so much of this the first Thursday of every month is like a multicolored light special.

>> Well, the first Thursday of every month first of all, we want to serve all of our community so we have night we have special activities that you do not need to preregister for .

You can just drop in.

You might learn what does a cactus taste like or what makes a flower open and close with the sun.

Wonderful scientific facts, tasty treats interesting and unusual things about some behind the scenes tours always something a little different.

>> Yeah.

And as you move through the conservatory it is interesting the space is broken out and you can share with it.

We've touched on the garden area, the desert area as one the showcase at the other end and in the middle it's the great escape to the tropics.

>> That's right.

If you have any seven year olds in your life but they'll be telling you we went on a field trip to the rainforest and they'll be talking about the tropical garden at the Botanical Conservatory where they can walk under a waterfall.

They can see koi fish as big as a cocker spaniel and experience a wide variety of lush tropical plants now well, our desert garden was loosely patterned after the Sonoran Desert.

So many if not most of those plants are of one region and of what type the tropical garden is free for all from all over tropical biomes.

>> Well, you know, you're relishing the economic development aspect of and it does seem like only yesterday but you had a little more of that with economic connections between the conservatory and the embassy theater.

>> That's right.

There are next door neighbors and our very best friends.

>> We actually share a garden just like people in big cities right across from each other.

The embassy had a renaissance as much as downtown Fort Wayne has had a renaissance and it's a wonderful integration of the various cultural opportunities we have never ever been in a position where other facilities were competing for customers.

If I if I owned a store that sold cupcakes and you owned a store that sells cupcakes, we might see each other as competitors.

But if you have an attraction downtown and we have an attraction downtown, all the better because that attracts people to and spend an entire day make an afternoon of it.

So we've been partners with them.

I believe probably since nineteen eighty three or at least since they began doing some of their larger concerts.

Yeah and the connecter pretty much as one parks in the parking garage or makes other shortcuts you can make your way without encountering the elements for a good portion of what you need to do around that that particular ring of downtown activity you can park in a sheltered area and go to somewhere around the neighborhood of seventeen businesses without ever once putting your toe in the snow.

>> Now I understand August is a snowless month.

Let's just go with that.

But August will also be a musical month.

It will be preceded by a musical night of sorts complete with fireworks.

Let's touch on the the melodious portion of it all so that you can be looking at gardens while hearing tunes.

>> Well, sometimes it's all about location, location, location and the conservatory is a remarkable location to hear a fabulous piece of music.

We have a couple of musical offerings.

We have the Jazz under the Stars offering which happens when the three Rivers Festival fireworks fire off.

You're right underneath them and we have the botanical Roots Concert series which is something very unique and special for our venue roots music.

It's a little hard to describe right.

>> Roots music has the feel of of something that is indigenous ethnic but yet still exotic and we bring in performers that are national touring acts or at least major regional touring acts that you would not normally see in other Fort Wayne venues.

We pair them up with a local opening act, local music.

We put it out outdoors under a starry summer sky.

>> What more could you ask ask for maybe a cold beverage we can provide that to.

Yeah, that worked out all right.

And this is indeed through all Friday nights in August all Friday nights in August so August 6th the first one is Nikki Hill solo performer.

She has the voice of an angel.

>> You've got to hear her with a little bit of a smoky undertone actually on the 13th we'll have Zion Lyon there are you reggae band you will be on your feet August 20th is a blues band called Mississippi Heat and we close out the season with Dwayne Deepsea and the Zydeco Hellraisers.

>> And if you've never heard Zydeco music, if you saw the movie The Big Easy, close your eyes.

Listen to the soundtrack.

That's what it's all about.

It's the sound of New Orleans.

>> Oh, all right.

Well that that that's the aha moment and we'll share this again toward the end of the program.

But if we can if you'd like to find out more about those individual performers, the upcoming series, any of the classes or exhibits, things that you've been hearing throughout the program Botanical Conservatory Dog is the way to find it on a computer near you or you can call the number that you see there 47, 64, 40 and yet we have not left the world of flowers because there are some big dates coming up on weekends.

>> I believe we've got daylilies special show in July and then an Irish sail toward the end of July.

>> That's right.

We are of course a botanical institution and and we have wonderful partners in the community, the individual flower societies have made us their home for their events so folks are invited to come and enjoy The Daily Show or the Irish sale and also visit the conservatory, enjoy all of the flowers there, the things are really wonderful when you're working with these clubs, the hobbyist gardeners in their love to share their information.

>> Nothing makes them happier than teaching a newbie how to grow wonderful daylilies.

>> That's an interesting question too.

I know there way of the extension office with other things but it seems that there is a bonding almost maybe something therapeutic about talking to someone who is a master gardener or do you say how come you have my pen?

>> It looks like this you know and try to find a way to to get get the backyard back to life from trees to tremendous.

>> We do have a wonderful cadre of volunteers and you often see the volunteers who are most involved with plant advising have taken place in our Mothers Day plant cell which has had a bit of a metamorphosis itself but we've always retained a cadre of volunteers that know their stuff but haven't forgotten what it is like to be a beginning gardener themselves.

>> Yeah, it's just all a matter of finding balance and trying to convince these fingers to cooperate.

So as you putting something in the backyard that you know, three days later it's still as alive and well as it was when you brought it home in the first place.

>> We're hoping for more than three days so you can do 60.

All right.

I'm a slow grower but with proper care and watering almost anything would be possible.

I don't want the show to end this evening with a couple of moments about the museum access pass that I saw information on on air or online rather for museums in the Fort Wayne area for the price of one.

>> That's right.

I want you to close your eyes for a minute and imagine you live in a major city.

You live in a wonderful city that has incredible assets and you're able to go from museum to museum to museum with one mission pass just like you might say in Chicago.

Well, open your eyes and now you live in Fort Wayne and that big city as it does exist here.

Several years ago the museum groups in town got together to create this initially it was kind of a marketing thing but it has ended up being much of a collaborative thing too.

It draws us together and how we program and how we work with one another and it's a fabulous, fabulous thing to keep if you happen to have guests who come to your home and every time that you have a guest you can trot out to a different museum and enjoy it throughout the year each one of our museum access past members have the benefits of being a member of each of the museums involved, each of the four museums but also all of the affiliated members.

>> So there is I I've lost track but we were well over seven hundred various affiliated members conservatories everywhere, history centers everywhere, science museums everywhere.

We're all part of this.

So if you if you have people travel to you fabulous thing to have if you travel the country even more fabulous thing to have and this is the reciprocity I guess is the fancy term being able to have that advantage.

>> But for folks who are receiving family from out of town, either spontaneous or planned and are wondering what to do, this is a way to answer that question quite clearly you've already had that investment and the encouragement of people in our community to understand that collective investment that the city has not just the conservatory but you know, following your theater and all of the city parks the golf courses and so it seems a very diversified portfolio for as they say, not just a city of our size as if that explains it away but for a city of our size in that it's it's kind of like we we've got things you should you should come kick our tires.

Cities of our size don't have conservatories.

If you look around you will find we're very rare in that regard.

It's special and it's unusual.

It's also unusual for the type of conservatory that it is if you go to other cities and you visit their conservatories there in acres of rolling gardens twenty feet from our door there's pavement.

We are a very urban institution and we embrace that when children visit our daycare we tell the parents your kids are going to go home having skills that you never had in your life .

They're going to know how to read a map.

They're going to know how to take a city bus somewhere.

They'll use public transportation and they're going to learn the importance of green spaces in very, very tiny important clusters in an urban setting they'll understand their carbon footprint that makes us special.

It sets us apart but it also makes us I think incredibly valuable as environmental citizens in Fort Wayne .

>> Yeah.

And that that economic engine of it all to whether you're using the museum access pass or just coming in on your own your your engaging with downtown somebody wonders, you know, how to make these these points of connection for you know what it is that makes the community special being the tourist in your own hometown and what a better time in fact, if you will with a final moment or to tell them what I'm holding up here in my hand in front of the camera are fun Times is a quarterly publication that has literally everything that we do in the park department and each one of them has literally hundreds of programs from itty bitty sports programs to making stained glass to railroad gardening to concerts talks about nature walks, features all of our facilities and all the places that you can go.

>> It is absolutely free of course and also available online at Fort Wayne Park Steg.

>> And let's show that contact information if you need to grab a pen pencil, get that down.

A computer can be your friend and it's nice to have the online version of what is available here a botanical conservatory dog.

>> You can see two zero four 27 sixty four forty and always a good time of year to see what's going on with Fort Wayne Parks and Rec and the following your Prime and Botanical Conservatory Shepherd.

>> Thank you so very much for doing this program here tonight.

>> Be sharing what's going on.

Thank you Bruce .

It's my pleasure.

>> Miss Shepherd is the deputy director of community outreach for the following year from a botanical conservatory in the full theater at Franchi Park and Youth Centers as well.

>> I'm Bruce Haines for all of us with the program.

>> Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your Friday evening.

Take care and we'll see you back here next week.

Have a good night