Wright Park’s glass palace turns 100 years old this year, and the staff istaking those themes (100 and glass) to the fourth annual Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show on June 6-8.

Mary Anderson, manager of the venerable W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory, said this year’s garden, “Celebrating 100 Years in Bloom,” will celebrate the diversity of tropical and subtropical zones, creating a retreat that echoes the beauty and the tranquility of the conservatory.

Tropics in Tacoma? Well, it is kind of a fantasy garden, Anderson said. But, then aren’t all display gardens? Still, she says you could incorporate the plants in a summer garden if they lived as houseplants during the cold months or, “If you had your own greenhouse.”

A century plant will be the centerpiece of the garden. “That’s going to be the homage to the 100 years,” Anderson said.

In addition to the three zones of plants – succulents and desert plants; lush foliage and jungle plants; flowering plants – the garden will display art glass from the Hilltop Artists in Residence. Glass from the program has been gracing the conservatory for the past several months but the ones at the show will be all new. Anderson also let me in on some interesting news: Later this year, a piece by Dale Chihuly, who founded the Hilltop program, will be installed in the conservatory.

I asked Anderson what she and the other employees and volunteers who will put in long hours on this display garden will get out of it: “It’s the love of the whole gardening experience. And anything that can help the conservatory is a good thing.” As for show attendees Anderson hopes the reaction will be, “kind of just ‘Wow!’ ”