It isn’t difficult to imagine how Joseph Paxton must have enjoyed life with an overdose of zest.  He was enriched by life because he gave back to it in so many ways.  “You reap what you sow” is an appropriate way to describe his horticultural tasks, because the Crystal Palace has been acclaimed by many as a piece of architectural art that is unsurpassed. 

A gardener for large estates in England, Paxton stumbled upon greenhouse design and construction.  The Crystal Palace, which was his creation, was as long as 18 football fields and as wide as 8, and beat other greenhouses that were built in the twenty years preceding the birth of the Crystal Palace.

Mr. Paxton built another greenhouse for the purpose of housing and preserving only one plant – the giant Victoria Regia lily.  The Duke of England at that time wanted to bring the flower to England and propagate it to be given as a gift to the queen. 

It was in the greenhouse that Paxton built where the plant had produced 126 blooms during the following year.  Mr. Paxton must have been ecstatic for earning such admirable brownie points.

Greenhouses have made people who don’t own these structures green with envy; many have gone ahead to build one in their back gardens.  Most important of all, greenhouses have made people appreciate the meaning of life, bringing them closer to the soil that nurtures the food that keeps them alive.