Kristen Natoli grew up in a flora-friendly family, with her mom spending much time in the garden and both grandfathers building greenhouses in their gardens. But it was fauna that originally captivated Natoli.
“I went to college pretty intent on being a veterinarian,” says Natoli, the chief nursery specialist at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. “I was in the life sciences college at Cornell University, studying animal biology, and I wasn’t enchanted by the classes. So, I took a plant anatomy class and it absolutely blew me away to see how fascinating plants are — how fundamentally differently they work from the way we, as animals, work.”
Natoli graduated from Cornell in 1991 with a degree in plant ecology, then headed west for a career in horticulture that eventually brought her to Golden Gate Park.
Q How did you end up at the Conservatory of Flowers?
A I particularly liked taking care of plants under glass in containers. That’s kind of a particular path in horticulture. I love how greenhouses work — how they function. They are a building that is also a piece of engineering. So, I pursued work in various greenhouse situations.
The Conservatory sponsored a reconstruction and reopened in 2003, and some positions opened up here. I was here for about four years, then I went over to the Academy of Sciences to help them open and manage the rainforest exhibit over there. When a supervisor position opened up here — the chief nursery specialist position — I came back, because this place is all about plants. I love the Academy. It’s about a lot of things. This place is focusing on plants and engaging people with plants. And I realized that is where my heart is.
Q What does a typical day look like at the Conservatory?
A: There are four of us on the horticulture team. Each of us walks through, checks our spaces. We have climate control equipment we want to monitor all day. We water all our plants by hand, so watering is a big part of every day. We have an enormous diversity, and each plant has different needs. You can’t automate that. Watering is a very slow, meditative thing. It’s a great time to be looking and evaluating and building your projects for the day. Does something need repotting? Does an area need cleaning? We do a lot of cleaning — this is a white building full of heat and humidity. Are their health issues related to plants? Does it need nutrients?
Q Do you have a specific area that specialize in?
A My home away from home is the aquatic gallery. Sometimes I’m getting in the ponds and taking care of the plants in there. The featured plants in the aquatic gallery are giant water lilies. We grow those from seed.
Q Why do you think it’s important that places like the Conservatory of Flowers exist?
A We are connecting people and plants in a place of exceptional beauty. Plants are fundamental to everything — everything we are, everything on this planet. Being animals, we tend to be drawn to other animals and understand the perspective of other animals. It’s easy for us to ignore, or forget to look at, plants.
Q What about those people who are already sold on the importance of plants?
A We bring them two things they can’t have in their living room: an enormous diversity and certain plants that you can’t grow in your house. Like, we have a philodendron that is 40 feet tall. You just can’t have that in your living room. So, we’re taking their interests to a whole other level by giving them the opportunity to get up close up with plants that they would not otherwise get to see.
Q What’s the biggest challenge that the Conservatory faces in drawing new visitors?
A The common misconception is that plants are boring. They are anything but. Being animals, we look at things from the eyes of animals. Animals are active, and they are moving. That catches our attention. So, you come into our museum of plants and you don’t see the action, right?
But that is, to me, what makes plants the most fascinating. One of the things that fundamentally separates plants from animals is that plants cannot run away from their problems. They have to adapt and respond to whatever comes to them. When you think about that and you look at the plants — the color and the shape and the size and the size of the leaf — all those things are the ways in which the plants have to deal with their problems in place.
5 plants Kristen Natoli has at home
After caring for tropical plants all day, Natoli says she carefully select plants for her house that “require minimal care with maximum return on investment, providing color, interest and atmosphere.”
Begonias (Begonia sp.): “Begonias are my absolute favorite house plants. Their growing needs are very compatible with temperature, light and humidity in most homes, they are fairly forgiving with watering and you don’t need to wait all year for a bloom to get color! Begonias are available in an almost endless variety of leaf color and leaf patterns.”
Ferns: “Ferns are a must to create a soft, friendly atmosphere in my home. Many tropical ferns in the Asplenium, Microsorum or Adiantum genera make excellent houseplants, given plenty of water. They maintain a manageable size, tolerate lower light and add a nice green accent against flowering plants.”
String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii): “I always have one of these hanging at my kitchen window. Mine thrives on neglect! They require little water, do well in low light and have lovely, stylish leaves. They are easy to propagate and great plants to share with friends.”
Sinningia (Sinningia sp): “I like house plants that stay small, so I can have more of them, and still leave a little room for furniture. There are endless varieties of pretty Sinningia, and many are dainty, compact and bloom without a lot of fuss. They are in the same family as African Violets (Saintpaulia sp.) but for me, they are a bit less finicky.”
Sundew (Drosera capensis): “How about a house plant that works for you for a change? Sundews are carnivorous plants that trap small flying insects on their sticky leaves. Great in a kitchen window to catch nuisance gnats. This is one of the simpler and more forgiving carnivorous plants to grow, compatible with Bay Area climate and a fascinating plant to observe.”
