Horticulture staff comes out at night to create a top Vegas photo op

By Ron Sylvester

Thursday, May 17, 2012 | 2 a.m.

People didn't always stop for photos between the Venetian and the Palazzo.

But thanks to a few tweaks by the horticulture staff, the resorts' floral display has become one of the hottest sites for tourist photo ops — and one of the best-smelling spots — in Las Vegas during the past three years. The difference: adding tons of color and not planting the large flower gardens in neat little rows.

"We used to look very structured, and people would just walk right by it," said Dana Beatty, director of horticulture for the Venetian and Palazzo.

From the Bellagio Conservatory to the Venetian and Palazzo, indoor floral gardens and displays draping behind registration desks have become centerpieces defining beauty along the Strip.

"You can also bring in color with grasses, and so we try to use all that to make it look like the flowers aren't planted, they just grow there," said Claudia Valtierrez, interior horticulture manager.

A dozen gardeners, horticulturists and landscape architects work nearly out of sight during the morning hours, when traffic through the casino is light, to maintain the flowers and gardens of the world's largest resort.

"We're like little fairies: You're supposed to enjoy our work but not know we're there," Beatty said.

Even many of the horticulture crew members' fellow employees aren't familiar with how the gardens change with the seasons and holidays.

"I've had people say they thought some outside company did all this," Valtierrez said. "They don't know we're here."

Their job is simple.

"If it's pretty, we do it," Beatty said.

It's not always a pretty job, however.

This past week, Beatty and her staff began work at midnight Monday to begin taking down the spring display. Over the next eight hours, they removed 10 tons of rock from a water feature underneath the escalator and replaced it with blue hydrangeas, white chrysanthemums and red cyclamen.

"Because we're in the atrium, we're limited, so we had to move all the rocks by hand," Beatty said.

During the next few days, they removed a 1,200-pound mechanical butterfly and replaced it with a 1,500-pound flag for a display that will be used for an annual event honoring wounded soldiers and their families. It will remain through Memorial Day, Flag Day and the Fourth of July.

"When we were planning this, we counted six American patriotic holidays during the spring and summer," Valtierrez said.

Beatty and Valtierrez have desks hidden in corner coves underneath the resort floors. To get there, you have to walk across a loading dock and down a long hallway employees have nicknamed the I-15. Flowers and decorations sit in a warehouse area on the other side of long tables of coffee cups, sugar packs and supplies stored by the catering department.

Two trees stand in pots, their leaves slowly thinning out.

"Those were dying, so when they lose their leaves Claudia is going to use it for the fall," Beatty said. "We recycle just about everything."

Flowers in the Atrium are watered by hand each day. There are no automatic sprinkler systems.

To conserve natural resources, the staff can use artificial plants as filler, just not where people can touch them.

"All the flowers and plants within the reach of the guests have to be real in order for us to maintain our Five Diamond rating from AAA," Valtierrez said.

In the office area, boxes of champagne bottles sit by racks of flowers in a huge walk-in freezer. The champagne and flowers are packaged for hotel guests wanting to celebrate marriage proposals. The staff designs hundreds of gift baskets a month and provides flowers for high-roller suites and for those wanting to order floral arrangements for special occasions.

The department handles flowers for 1,000 weddings or vow renewal ceremonies per year, ranging from a couple repeating their vows in a gondola at the Venetian to a three-day event that includes $1 million in floral decorations. About 10 weddings a day take place in front of the fountains. Couples will call ahead to find out about the displays and plan the color of their wedding around it — even red, white and blue.

Beatty knows about weddings. She walked into a floral shop 18 years ago to get some supplies to make floral arrangements for her own marriage ceremony. The florist asked for pictures. When Beatty brought in photos of what she had done, the florist offered her a job.

She moved to California, then Las Vegas, and took over the horticulture department when the Venetian opened nine years ago. The Palazzo opened in 2008.

Now, the work goes beyond flowers. Next, Beatty is planning a Carnival of Venice theme that will include a 10-ton mask suspended over the entrance to the Venetian. It's detailed on a storyboard in her office. The mask has complied with all county safety codes, including being anchored against 95 mph winds.

If she can just figure out how to hang it.

"We need a crane to get it up there." she said, "but we're not sure if the entry to the Venetian is big enough for the crane."