Wearing stylish tortoiseshell reading glasses, a black v-neck sweater, and faded blue jeans, Jacqueline Fazio sat in her office talking about “the collection.” At 55 years old, Mrs. Fazio laughs easily and her blue eyes sparkle – but second-guess her use of the word “collection” in reference to the plants at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and all mirth disappears. The term might smack of pretentiousness to the uninitiated, but it has currency in botanic garden circles.

It makes the garden sound like a museum. “It is,” she said, folding her arms, suddenly quite serious. After all, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, people have jobs titles like “curator of orchids.” The bonsai collection alone contains 500 specimens, 90 of which are on display at any given time. She said, “It’s a fulltime job for one person.”

Ms. Fazio has been the director of horticulture for more than 10 years. But she has been at the garden for almost three times as long: “My first job was in 1977, working in the gift shop,” said the Little Italy resident, of her then, fresh arrival out of horticulture school. “I took care of the plants.” One of them is in her office. “I’ve had that clivia since I’ve been working here,” she said. It’s 28 years old and thriving.

Venturing outdoors despite the winter chill, the scent of spice hung in the moist, cold air.

Ms. Fazio recognized it immediately. “It’s the spice factory,” she said – no, not some exotic bloom. “It’s hard to find that kind of smell in the dead of winter.” As for the factory, she said, “I’ve never been able to locate it.” Its existence is just “one of those pieces of information passed down from generation to generation of gardeners,” she explained.

So what’s a professional gardener to do in the depths of winter? Ms. Fazio knows a bit about off-season duties – she signed on as a fulltime employee with the Brooklyn Botanic garden in January, 1978, perhaps not ideal timing for a gardener in the Northeast.

“There’s a lot of snow shoveling,” she said, adding “clearing off the roadways.” Recalling her first months, she said, “The winter jobs weren’t so fun, but they were helpful in building body-strength, because they were very labor-intensive. Our furnaces used to be coal and produced a lot of ash that we had to put in barrels. The boiler guys filled the barrels. We had to get the barrels from down below and take them away.”

Now there’s no ash to remove, but “As long as there’s no snow, we have plenty to do. We fine-tune, tend to maintenance issues, work on beds, clean out streams, inventory and clean tools, perform repairs. We do a lot of planning. We’re very schedule-oriented. I have 28 employees and nine interns. In January we review our schedules,” she said. Referring to the lack of clutter and the order in her office, she explained, “I’m a very neat person. I’m very detail-oriented. I’m very organized. For me, it’s a necessity.”

In the tropical house, Ms. Fazio pointed out the fresh quality of the air. “It’s all the oxygen.” In another pavilion, she explained, “This house just had a renovation.” A sweet fragrance permeated the space. “This house has some of the most fragrant plants. Hunting for the source, she crouched near several possibilities. “Usually, it’s something inconsequential,” she explained. In the last minutes of dusk, she had no luck.

Although Ms. Fazio grew up on Central Avenue in Bushwick, she was unaware of the plant treasures in her home borough. She was studying horticulture at a college in the Catskills, when another student serendipitously planned a trip to the garden.

“While I was in college, a friend wanted to come home with me for the weekend so she could visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,” she said. That eventually unlocked the secret to her future. “I enjoyed horticulture. I didn’t have a clear idea of career path. I didn’t even know the Brooklyn Botanic Garden existed. I missed New York. I knew I wanted to come back. It was a struggle to figure out what I wanted to do in horticulture. Back then, there weren’t that many opportunities.”

After graduation, the garden was hiring for summer positions. She signed on but got laid off at the end of the season.

A few months after having been laid off, two entry-level positioned opened up. “There were five applicants. Myself and Daniel Ryniek [who is still on staff] got the gardener’s aide positions.”

Ms. Fazio’s love of nature developed early. “I was always interested in outdoor stuff,” she said.

Her parents, Leonarda, known as Lulu, and Joseph Fazio, are “still together, she said. “Always were, always will be.” She has a brother seven years her junior.

Her family built a summerhouse on a Long Island dirt road in 1949, the year she was born. Her grandmother, who was born and raised in Italy, grew roses and vegetables there. “She was the gardener,” Ms. Fazio said. “She was heavy into gardening and always had vegetables. The plot was 100 by 200. I can still see the footprint of – we used to call it “the farm” – I can still see the imprint of where the vegetable garden was. She used to let us harvest the potatoes. We used to grow potatoes, tomatoes, mint, basil, peppers, and eggplants. She was an incredible cook. So was my mother, and unfortunately,” Ms. Fazio, chuckled, “the buck stopped there. I was spoiled. I’m trying now to develop a talent for cooking. Fortunately, a lot of the recipes were passed to my mother and aunts. So fortunately, there’s still time to capture some of her great recipes.

“I would go out for the summer,” she continued. “My grandmother took care of us. It was fun. It was really a great time.”