- Angela Fitzgerald: Walk into Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes
and you enter a portal to the past.
- Emily Lambrecht: I think it's all the history
that's behind it.
- Angela: A horticultural conservatory
first stood on this site in 1899.
- I feel like I have a lot of history on my shoulders
to really keep up the legacy that this place has.
- Angela: Emily Lambrecht's mission
is to inspire people through plants
in a revolving display of floral beauty.
- I want everybody to be happy that they really see, you know,
the beauty of the plants.
- Angela: The three magnificent glass domes
are a global gathering of nearly 2,000 plant species,
representing all corners of planet Earth.
- Emily: The other two domes are the desert dome
and the tropical dome,
and those are all permanent collections.
- Angela: The growing season lasts year round
in the expansive greenhouses nestled behind the Domes.
- Emily: One, two, three, four, five, six.
Yeah, so I have seven kinds of poinsettias.
Give them another month and a half.
They'll be going in the show.
- Angela: If the greenhouses are Emily's back office,
the Show Dome is her front office,
filled with holiday botanicals on parade and in full bloom.
[bright jazz music]
- I spend most of my day in there. [laughs]
Let's say we're doing the holiday show.
The poinsettias, they're a lot bigger,
so that would be about 1,500 plants.
- Angela: After each floral exhibit,
the Show Dome undergoes a metamorphosis,
where it is reimagined, resurfaced, and replanted.
- Emily: This dome changes five times a year.
We have two weeks, ten days, to completely transform the dome.
So, first thing that Monday, we rip everything out.
Then, putting in all of the different props,
all the heavy stuff, filling up the pond,
and then just planting, planting, planting.
- Angela: Throughout the year,
the Show Dome represents the essence of every season.
Plus, there's train season.
[whimsical music]
This exhibit showcases one of the largest plantings
of the year, with nearly 2,400 plants
meticulously installed around the inner circle.
- These are stocks or Matthiolas.
- Angela: Backstage, the spring show called "Tea and Tulips"
is on deck.
- These are the Merritt's Supremes,
so it's just a big ball of pink flowers.
This guy right next to it, this is an Ayesha,
and we get these all from cuttings.
So, then, we up-pot 'em and stick 'em outside to grow
for the year.
So, yeah, these all came in like that.
Just little guys.
- Angela: Spring bulbs, like tulips and hyacinths,
are hibernating here in a winter slumber,
waiting for their grand entrance.
- Once you take 'em out of the cooler and they see the sun
and the warmth, I mean, they pop.
- Angela: The vibrant floral tapestry of the spring show
is one of Emily's favorites.
- Emily: When it's just me in the dome,
like first thing in the morning,
I like to sit all by myself on top of the overlook wall.
Just kind of drink my tea, just collect my thoughts for the day.
I just want them to really see
all the different array of colors
and just really getting a sense
of what nature has to offer in colors, textures.
[playful music]
- Angela: Three times a week, the watering wand is out,
and even more in the hotter months.
[bright string music]
For Emily, the summer show "Kinetic Garden"
is about to heat up.
- Emily: I'm just constantly thinking about
what plants to get, what plant goes where,
just the design aspect of it.
We're gonna go on this side.
Any visitor coming here, there are people behind the plants.
We're working really hard in all three domes in the greenhouses.
- Angela: Emily starts mapping out her garden shows
a year in advance. - Emily: Fall show.
So, these are all of our mums right here
because it's gonna be "Mythical Menagerie."
I had to get this Coleus.
It's called Merlin's Magic.
I love that. [laughs]
[whimsical music]
- Visitor: I love that, it's lovely.
- Emily: Oh, thank you.
It's a labor of love, that's what I like to say all the time.
Yeah, labor of love.
- Angela: It takes a lot of labor
to bring a single show to life.
A monumental effort that Emily and her crew double down on,
planting each floral exhibit not once, but twice
to ensure perfection.
- Emily: Mums don't last forever.
About the first week of October or so,
I have to replace all of the mums in the show.
So, there are 500 florist mums over there.
- Angela: The seasons change and the flowers fade,
but Emily's passion stays the same.
- Emily: I feel like I've found my purpose.
It doesn't even feel like a job.
It's just designing, playing, pruning. [laughs]
I'm making my one little part of the world beautiful.
[bright piano music]