Photo courtesy of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Anyone who knows me, or has been reading my columns in The Sun all these years, knows that I am a Pittsburgh girl.

Though I haven't lived there for more than 30 years, my children actually think they were born there. When they talk about going "home" for the holidays, they mean Pittsburgh and all the aunts, uncles and cousins who still live there.

This news, then, from the 'burg. The lovely and historic Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will host the G-20 Summit on Sept. 24.

The Phipps is where Pittsburghers have, for generations,  gone for an early spring flower fix at its wonderful Easter display. The G-20 leaders and their spouses will tour the botanical gardens and the leaders will remain for a working dinner.

The gardens were founded in 1893 by steel and real-estate magnate Henry Phipps as a gift to the city of Pittsburgh. Its purpose is to educate and entertain the people of Pittsburgh with formal gardens (Roman, English, etc.) and various species of exotic plants

The Victorian glasshouse is located in the rolling hills of Schenley Park, and its recent renovations have earned it a reputation as one of the "greenest" public gardens in the country.

Schenley Park itself has a scandalous history. It was donated to the city of Pittsburgh in 1889 by Mary Elizabeth Croghan Schenley, whose elopement at the age of 15 with an English captain many years her senior caused her father to faint -- and demand that the federal government send a ship after them.