By John Michler
In case you hadn't heard or seen, our largest Hackberry tree was blown down by the wind of Hurricane Helene around 10:00 am Friday, September 27th, 2024. The tree's fall crushed the vine covered framings of what were two of our oldest greenhouses, including the greenhouse that surrounds our outdoor Kentucky Native Cafe kitchen and serving area. The tree fell to the left of the cafe building, sparing our newer structure from more serious damage.
The history of each greenhouse at Michler's holds generations of stories and memories, and I would like to take a moment to share a few historic notes about the two that were toppled this week. The larger of the two greenhouses dated to the 1920's, having originally been one of the three curved glass greenhouses located on the historic Elmendorf horse farm. It was told to me that, under this Elmendorf greenhouse glass, gardeners grew and ripened strawberries and grapes off-season for the folks in the farm's big house. The structure was moved to the Michler's Florist greenhouse operation by the men in the Holloway family after World War Two, best I can tell as a gift, as Mary Jean Michler was about to marry Reese Holloway, a handsome uniformed Air Force pilot freshly back from a German POW camp. Many crops of snapdragons were grown and cut, as a staple of our local greenhouse production for decades, to be used in our florist's designs. It is under the long-standing frame of this greenhouse that, a decade ago, we built a small kitchen in the corner and strung a few lights to the frame to become what is now Kentucky Native Cafe.
The second structure impacted was one of our earliest greenhouses, built on-site in 1907 from 100% old growth Bald Cypress wood. For years we called it Bennie's house, where long time employee and friend to many Bennie Million propagated, grew, and sold house plants from the 1960s through the 1980s. Of late, its glass removed for some thirty years, the structure has been covered with wild grapes and Virginia Creeper and has hosted our inventory of shady native perennials.
Bear with us as we feel our way through these spaces. We'll be picking up the pieces of our history, and missing the shade from the old Hackberry.