Last updated: July 24, 2024
Place
Information Panel: Original Hothouses
NPS / Kelsey Graczyk
Original Hothouses
Steam Heat
The hothouses at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens date to 1913, when the Shaw family operated a flourishing business growing and selling aquatic plants.
The warm environment of hothouses gives tropical water lilies a running start during the winter. They begin in small pots submerged in large tanks of water, heated by a steam system.
By late spring, they are transferred to the display pools behind the building, and then eventually moved to the lily ponds. This was the practice when the Shaw family tended the hothouses and is continued by the National Park Service to this day.