

Greenhouse Manager Chris Phillips ’13: A Steady Hand (With a Very Green Thumb)
For students, staff, and faculty who need a break from the hustle and bustle of campus life, the Morrill Science Center greenhouses offer a lush respite—even during the coldest days of winter. These glass-paned structures filled with plants in various hues have an uncanny ability to bring visitors’ minds gently back to the present moment.
Primarily devoted to teaching, the complex of more than 6,600 square feet of greenhouse space (plus about 1,400 square feet houses a collection of over 680 genera comprising more than 225 families. Of special interest are many species from families considered basal and primitive, as well as unusual representatives of carnivorous plants, succulents, orchids, ferns, non-vascular plants, and plants of economic importance.
Here, among the wild-looking flowers and aromatic leaves, you may also find Greenhouse Manager Chris Phillips ’13—a walking encyclopedia of every plant you see. Phillips very politely and enthusiastically agreed to chat with us about his time getting his hands dirty in these thriving conservatories.
The go-to is obviously the corpse flower—it’s a big hit whenever it blooms—but I am going to go with the most fascinating, which to me is the Dragon Flower (Huernia keniensis). It’s a succulent that produces a small, rich purple flower that looks like it has no business being on that plant. The flower looks like a dragon’s mouth as it starts producing fire. It only flowers here every couple of years, and there is one on our plant right now that I am pretty excited about.
I keep too many plants. I don’t have many flowering plants at home, but I like to sculpt them into a landscape. I do have a number of flowering holiday cacti that I have cross-pollinated, and I have no idea what varieties are going to come out of it. Also, I am experimenting with a poinsettia that is supposed to just be an annual plant, but I’m trying to cultivate it into a shrub.
Once I graduated, the Grounds Department created the Greenhouse Manager position, and I was—boom—a good fit. That was in 2013. I stayed in that position, helping to build more greenhouse spaces to grow plants used all over campus, until this job opened up. By that time, I had realized that I am not really a monoculture kind of guy. Here, in these greenhouses, I feel my work is even more personally rewarding. I’m constantly scanning around, picking up on the diversity of these plants. Understanding the ecosystem that we have kind of forced into these glass boxes is a fascinating thing. I have learned so much through the constant interaction with these plants, and it is always changing. This is a very specialized job, and I am given the freedom to do what I need to do for these plants. I also feel very supported by the people in our department in a way I really appreciate. And, there are opportunities here that you often can’t get in other places. I’m currently going through UWW to get the creative writing degree I never got (and get a discount).
The Morrill Greenhouses are home to the Natural History Collections’ Living Plants collection and are open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you can't get there right away, here are a few other noteworthy plants to check out.
Share your most intriguing nooks, niches, coordinates, or curiosities on campus or anywhere in the region. Email magazine@umass.edu and we’ll investigate!