The Ira Nelson Horticulture Center
All proceeds from Festival des Fleurs de Louisiane go to support UL Lafayette’s Ira Nelson Horticulture Center (INHC), which has a long history as an educational resource for the students, faculty, and the community. It is the primary fund-raising event for the Center and supplements its annual budget.
The profits go towards repairs, renovations, and equipment for the Center. Past funded projects have included new mower equipment, AC/Heat for the classroom and lab, complete flooring replacement for the main building, greenhouse glass repair, and new greenhouse benches to name a few.
With your support, we hope to continue improving the Ira Nelson Horticulture Center for years to come.
History of the INHC
The Ira Nelson Horticulture Center includes nearly 17,000 square feet of greenhouse space which houses a decades-old to a recently acquired diverse collection of plants from throughout the world.
Originally dedicated as the Ornamental Horticulture Center in 1960, five years later the center was renamed to honor Professor Ira S. Nelson, who was instrumental in its design and construction.
The adjacent grounds serve as a living laboratory and include many mature species of both native and introduced trees and shrubs, as well as numerous display and demonstration beds. Typical classroom, lab, and office space are housed within the 7,000 square foot head house. Also included in this main building is the vast herbarium collection comprised of dried, pressed ornamental plant samples collected throughout Louisiana over several decades.
The horticulture center staff is dedicated to maintaining the collection of plants housed under glass and on the adjacent grounds, balancing the horticulture center’s history with its future use by faculty, students, and the community, ensuring its role as a teaching resource for a variety of educational opportunities in horticulture.