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History of the Gardens

Initially, the 1965 planning commission designed the UC as three separate buildings connected by a courtyard. The gardens of this first plan were designed to tie the three structures together. But before the building opened in 1969, the roof and glass entrances were added to the project due to concerns of drifting snow and the cold Hellgate winds. The planters in the atrium were landscaped with plants indigenous to Montana and other temperate plants. Those plants died shortly after their first year because they didn't receive the cold period they needed for their buds to break dormancy.

Between 1971 and 1972, a change to the interior plants was made, and new plants from more tropical climates were planted. Many of the tropical plants, including primitive Cycads, the banana like Heliconia (Lobster Claw), and the South African Strelitzia nicolai (Giant Bird of Paradise) were donated to the UC by the University of Texas. They also donated the now three-story tall Ficus lyrata (Fiddle-leaf fig tree). The tree was planted in 1972 when it stood only 8 feet tall.

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