CBC, Greenhouse Club Cultivating New Life at Life Sciences

The Greenhouse Club and Campus Beautification Committee (CBC) have been teaming up to breathe new life and create more visual interest around the Life Sciences Building. As part of the CBC’s continuing mission to beautify all corners of our campus, the committee provided ‘seed money’ and the club went to work recently planting all kinds of native species plants.

From shrubby St. John’s wort (Hypericum prolificum), to Beach Plum (Prunus maritima), to Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana), to Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) and more, greenhouse curator Sean Halliwell said the project is a great contribution to a perennial goal of the greenhouse. Namely, and primarily, to raise awareness of the living science museum we have right here on campus – a ‘best kept secret’ Halliwell would like to reveal more fully to our campus and surrounding community.

Along with the recent CBC-sponsored greenhouse mural, this latest project is another important step in the process, said Halliwell.

Planting Seeds of Beauty

“The greenhouse is attached to Life Sciences,” explained Halliwell. “So the raised beds all around the building were an obvious, and logical, place to not only make things look a lot better but to serve as a continuously evolving learning laboratory and show our commitment to green spaces.”

Weeding began on Community Service Day, a balmy Saturday in late August. “We had a great group of incoming freshmen working really hard to get the beds ready for planting. It was a daunting task as it was a really hot day. We spent at least three hours out there and they were shot by the end, but such troopers.”

Halliwell explained that the native plantings are not only pleasing to the eye and chosen for the way they will each present themselves in different seasons, they are beneficial to the environment in a myriad of ways. “There are so many beneficial reasons to go native versus non-native, be it biodiversity or the fact that most plants native to Long Island or New York or even the United States are, in some respects, drought tolerant,” he said. “So once they’re established, they don’t require as much resources, even fertilizer. They’re pretty much self-sustaining.”

Halliwell added that the new native garden, like the greenhouse, will be used as a living laboratory for science students to learn about plant diversity and adaptability, for example.

“Seeing these plants live in every part of the season is instrumental in terms of identifying how they grow,” he said. “It helps answer questions like why is this plant drought tolerant? And, will it defoliate or go dormant at different periods? To see the different types of trees and shrubs and wildflowers that we could have as native alternatives to non-native landscape plants is a huge game changer.”

Greenhouse Club, Anyone?

“The Greenhouse Club was extremely excited to be a part of the native garden planting,” said Trinity Hausch ‘26, undergraduate biochemistry student and Greenhouse Club president, who created the CBC-sponsored mural. “Projects like these align with our club’s mission of celebrating the life sciences, benefiting the environment, and connecting our students with nature and with each other.”

Hausch added that they hope to maintain the garden “for many years to come, and continue to bring positive attention to an area of campus that contributes so much to research and education here at Stony Brook.”

Want to learn more about, or join, the Greenhouse Club? Email [email protected] or visit them on SB Engaged or Facebook.Want to get involved in the CBC? Please fill out this form.

— Ellen Cooke

View a photo gallery of images courtesy of the Greenhouse Club and Dennis Murray: