The Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden has struggled to keep many of its medicinal plants alive during the relatively harsh winters of North Georgia since its foundation in 1995.

This past winter, though, the garden, on the corner of Baldwin and East Campus roads, found shelter for the tropical plants it houses in a greenhouse donated by

an 83-year-old Smyrna woman.

Iwee Patterson and her husband, “Pat,” loved gardening, especially orchids, she said.

As a doctor, Pat also had an interest in medicinal plants. After his death, Iwee decided to donate the greenhouse, where he kept his plants, to the University.

“I thought he would be pleased with (the donation),” said Patterson, whose son also graduated from the University.

The greenhouse stayed unused for a year after Patterson’s donation in 2005 before being reassembled and erected last fall with the help of the University’s Physical Plant

Paul Duncan, assistant director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, said the greenhouse has changed the plant prospects for the garden because management issues previously prevented the institute from housing too many plants that could not handle the cold weather. Now tropical plants can be seen year-round.

“It has become a living laboratory of sorts,” Duncan said. For example, the greenhouse holds the bouganvilla, a red-flowering plant from Hawaii, said Brent Berlin, director of the institute.

“We will continue to use (the greenhouse in the summer) for things likely to get burned, but it’s especially important for the winter plants,” Berlin said.

The institute plans to continue updating the garden by constructing a new design based on the layouts of landscape design graduate students.

The new design will include a stucco wall perimeter, an arched entryway and a wall fountain. The updates will be funded by a grant from the Exposition Foundation of Atlanta.