Dolly Parton’s plant of many colors dazzles visitors at UNC Charlotte gardens
LeVan McLain knew there was only so much time to see a plant once owned by Dolly Parton at the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens and get what she needed for her mom’s 83rd birthday gift.
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That’s because “Dolly the Bromeliad,” a tall red and green plant that leans against the wall near the entrance of the botanical gardens, is in its final bloom, meaning there’s only so much time before she dies.
“I was curious just to see what it looks like in all of its splendor, and knowing that it’s just so special,” McLain said at the gardens Monday while holding her grand baby Mia. “The fact that it’s from Dolly Parton, and she just passed, and that this flower also is at the end of its life, so the timing of that is really something. And she was such a spectacular woman.”
McLain has been one of hundreds of visitors who have visited the bromeliad — also known as Alcantarea imperialis if you prefer Latin — since the passing of the country music legend on Aug. 25.
Employees at the garden, which is in its 60th year, estimated Dolly only had a couple a few months before reaching the natural conclusion of her life as a plant. They also estimated she’s about 15 to 20 years old.
Given the limited time, McLain said she wanted to make sure she made time to visit and pose for a photo in front of the plant with her granddaughter. The pair were recreating a photo of McLain and her mother when McLain was a baby.
The photo, printed in a local daily newspaper in Mississippi where McLain’s family is from, showed her mom holding baby McLain in her arms and looking up at a tall plant in her mother’s garden.
“I have a strong legacy of women and men who love flowers. My grandfather … had an exquisite rose garden,” McLain said.
With baby Mia in her arms, and a newspaper clipping in Mia’s hands — and occasionally her mouth — the pair stood in front of “Dolly the Bromeliad” to recreate the photograph. The photo will be gifted to her mom for her birthday, McLain said.
She said being able to share the experience with her granddaughter was special.
“I hope that one day, 61 years from now, for her, it’ll be something,” McLain said. “Just like it is for me.”
Dolly the bromeliad was a part of Parton’s plant collection at her home in California before making its way east to the Appalachian region, said Jeff Gillman, director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens.
“It’s not unusual for celebrities to have large collections of plants,” Gillman said.
Dolly’s exact path to North Carolina isn’t known, but it eventually ended up at the Mountain Paradise Nursery in Creston.
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In May, while attending the International Carnivorous Plant Symposium and Expo in Kernersville, a man with the nursery was trying to see if any other gardens might want Dolly. Most declined or didn’t get back to the man, said Josh Munn, a horticulturist at the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens.
“It was totally surreal actually because I did a little bit of a double take whenever he asked us about it,” Munn said. But “he really wanted it to go somewhere where it’s going to be enjoyed and looked at because he was just sitting in his greenhouse the whole time.”
Despite not expecting to bring anything the size of Dolly — which currently stands at just under 8 feet tall — to transport the plant back to the botanical gardens, Munn agreed. He and the man fit Dolly into the back of his Subaru Forester.
The spikes growing from Dolly, that are turning into light yellow flowers, are one of the clearest signs she’s at the end of her life, said Mariah Huffman, director of education and engagement at the gardens.
The other is beneath the large green leaves at the bottom of the plant, which, when lifted, show the bromeliad is dying off, Huffman said.
However, while she might be in her final bloom, Dolly is still growing. In about a week she grew almost a foot, Huffman added. And Dolly is considered a “mother plant,” Huffman said, meaning she will grow offspring.
The hope is Dolly will continue to follow her natural plant cycle and produce viable seeds to grow new plants.
“The entire point of a plant is to reproduce and spread their offspring, and so that’s what she’s doing now,” she said. “So instead of sending all of her energy into her leaves, all of it’s going in to try to reproduce via seed.”
For Huffman, as well as Munn and Gillman, having Dolly around has been extra special, not just because of the connection to the singer, but because it’s brought an influx of visitors. Many who have come to see the plant, take a photo with her, or simply mourn the passing of the bromeliad’s namesake.
In a way, Huffman said, Dolly the plant accomplished much of the same Dolly the person did with connecting people.
“Dolly [Parton] really brought everyone around the world together, and we feel like that’s what we do here at the botanical gardens,” Huffman said. “We like to say when you visit the greenhouse, you visit the world because we have species from all over the world here, and we feel like Dolly did the exact same thing.”
The UNCC Botanical Gardens will host a 60th anniversary celebration on Friday, Nov. 13.
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This story was originally published September 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
