Hollis Malone

The lush Opryland Hotel conservatories are the work of Hollis Malone, 1970 UT graduate of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Malone became chief horticulturist for the theme park Opryland USA in 1972 and subsequently for the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. He worked with the original hotel architects to create a unique indoor landscape and picked out and planted the palm trees and plants for which the original conservatory won national acclaim and designation as an indoor arboretum by the Nashville Tree Foundation. In May 2010, following the flood that left 10 feet of contaminated floodwaters covering parts of the hotel and grounds, he supervised removal of contaminated water, saved the plants he could, redesigned the conservatories, and oversaw installation of the new plants and hardscapes.