The conservatory is facing the risk of closure amid university budget cuts
By RIVERS STOUT— campus@theaggie.org
In late August, the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory competed in the Waterlily Weigh-Off, an international competition between gardens, greenhouses and botanical conservatories to see whose plants can hold the most weight. UC Davis’ submission earned 10th place, with the conservatory’s 46-inch diameter waterlily holding 80 pounds.
Ryan Booke, a sixth-year plant science major and conservator, oversaw UC Davis’ participation in the competition.
“I [originally] started this by myself, with my own money,” Booke said. “I just donated the plants; that’s how I got the pools and all.”
The project began in fall 2023, with Booke growing the Victoria amazonica lily pads — known for being difficult to grow and which serve as a sign of prestige among conservatories — from seeds. He was later able to better their conditions and grow larger lily pads by working with the conservatory.
Booke eventually took over the conservatory’s social media accounts; After posting a video of a lily pad holding water, he was invited to participate in the competition, organized by the Denver Botanical Gardens.
“We were asked through a direct message ‘Would you like to join?’” Booke said. “I’d love to join to show [that] we at [the] UC Davis Botanical Conservatory are able to do this and put our name on the map even more.”
The contest’s ultimate winner was the Bok Tower Gardens in Florida, whose waterlily held 183 pounds.
Participating in this endeavor was part of the conservatory’s larger educational mission of providing a space for people to enjoy the greenery. To do this, Conservatory Curator Marlene Simon said that they turned their focus on outreach to bring in more visitors.
“We have people who come almost everyday: it’s their regular route to destress,” Simon said. “Everyone knows that green spaces are calm. Science shows that being near plants [relieves] stress. We have students from different countries who will come in and see a plant from there, and, if they’re homesick, they say they feel a little less homesick. The climate there is very soothing — just being there with the plants in a quiet space.”
Simon estimates that some 30 to 50 people pass through the conservatory every day, with an additional 900 student visitors from a biology course quarterly and some 1,500 on Picnic Day.
But the future of the conservatory and the refuge it provides to these visitors has been threatened by university budget cuts and reductions in federal funding, with administrators now considering closing the facility.
“To clarify, no budgetary decision has been made regarding the conservatory’s future,” Dean Mark Winey of the College of Biological Sciences said via email. “The recent discussions about its potential closure stem from an exercise designed to provide a clearer financial picture of the College of Biological Sciences’ budget as UC Davis prepares for severe budget cuts in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.”
In since deleted Reddit and Instagram posts from earlier this year, conservatory staffers asked community and campus members for support, which Simon notes they have received.
“There’s budget cuts going across the board so I’m not surprised by anything, but everyone rallied,” Simon said. “We have an incredibly good support system. I believe we were the fourth most donated-to entity on campus [during Give Day]. It also coincided with our plant sale and we sold most of our stock — way more than I could have ever thought.”
Still, the conservatory’s funding is not guaranteed.
“This is a challenging time,” Winey said. “While our commitment to providing an excellent education — including hands-on learning opportunities like those the conservatory offers — remains steadfast, the landscape of the college and the university as a whole, will likely change as final budget decisions take shape.”
In the meantime, while the conservatory remains operational, Booke will continue to care for the waterlilies.
“We hope to get to 100 pounds for next year’s competition,” Booke said.
Written by: Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org
