Just a reminder for those who have never been - The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis has an beautiful Japanese Garden with many maples. Here are a few (beginner) pictures! My only complaint is that labeling of the trees is pretty sparse.
I have never been lucky enough to visit MOBOT--would love to see it. We don't label any of the plants in the Japanese garden here, Nitobe Memorial Garden, although there has been some discussion of how we would do that. It is a matter of aesthetics. I wonder if this may be the case there. If we do label the Nitobe garden, it will be done in a very inconspicuous manner.
Wow, I would someday love to make it up to your gardens! I agree that signs would really not fit aesthetically but I wish there was some pamphlet or key, or even online resource that identify the trees. The Missouri Botanical Garden Website (very nice) mainly has closeups of the leaves. I wonder if as the museums do, portable (quiet)headphone audio units for self guided walking tours would be an option. As a new gardener (can I call myself a gardener yet if I have just planted these trees in the last few weeks?!) I felt like a kid in the candy store at MOBOT. The Japanese Garden abuts a woodland garden that just has to be seen to believed.
A small public Japanese garden I'd expect to be set up as an interpretive trail, say with numbers on posts (or maybe flat rocks would be more harmonious) where you look up in a leaflet or brochure the Japanese gardening concept being demonstrated or object being shown at that point in the walk.
Actually, we introduced audioguides to Nitobe Memorial Garden this year (in six different languages). Visitors borrow a laminated map to help guide them through the garden; it includes the spots where they should access the audioguide.
My own garden, although private, gets many visitors, especially on the internet. I use the above idea on the website Map and Tour This past year I have also introduced small name tags for my Japanese maples (maybe just in case I forget their names myself as age moves on.......)
Apologies for my spelling .... do you know that I never noticed until it was drawn to my attention? Thanks Chimera Proper spelling is, of course, Atropurpureum It has been a long time since I studied Latin ........
I should say for completeness that the garden does have an online map: http://www.mobot.org/hort/gardens/japanese/map.shtml but no way to tell for sure which cultivar you are looking for. To emphasize, a minor complaint. As far as signs go, this is one of the cheaper sources I have found, but I can say nothing about the quality as I have never ordered. http://botanicalsigns.net/botanical_signs.html
I wouldn't call it minor, uninterpreted public collections aren't serving the public that is paying for their development and upkeep. Every variety in that MOBOT display should be identified somewhere in public view.
I certainly agree with Ron, a botanic garden, by definition, must inform visitors on the species and cultivars held and one easy way is to use clear, readable from a distance, labels. For an artistic, theme, garden, I guess that hiding labels can be understood since not all visitors are interested in species or cultivar names. Difficult to make everybody happy. Gomero
Sam, beautifully made and easily read, showing high esteem for your trees. Then there are those public garden visitors that seem to collect labels or worse. Surveillance cameras come to mind.
This has been used as a rationale for hanging tags that give accession numbers only, supposedly with no plant name present there is no incentive to steal the tag. There is also no information displayed of use to anyone other than the staff.
Yes, sometimes the garden library, librarian, or other staff can be quite helpful regarding accessions and location to view. Totally agree it would be nice to see the plants tagged, but some gov't funding seems to usually have other priorities than botanical gardens.
I think it's rare for any politician to advocate on behalf of parks and gardens, particularly so at higher levels of the political chain. One of the projects on the table for Nitobe Memorial Garden is to develop a map of the plants in the garden as a complement to the map / audio guides (in general, the guides interpret the cultural value of the garden) - so we're working to do as Ron suggests re: interpretation of plant material.
Yes, politics in general, and the recent currency devaluation, Ron. I'm getting off topic again, thank you for the pics and links paxi and nice to hear of the project Daniel.
D. Justice has written on the forum about a cherry tree in the Nitobe garden. The Japanese garden in the Seattle arboretum also houses accessions not duplicated elsewhere in the collection.
I live about 3 hours from St. Louis, so I get to the St. Louis Botanic Garden about once a year. I love their Japanese garden and I think the labeling is great. It was there I first saw a large A. Campestre 'Royal Ruby' growing way back under the deep shade of large trees. It was (is I assume) beautiful and made me decide to try Campestres and and Circinatums in my garden. Their Japanese garden is a relatively new addition, although it has probably been over 10 years, time flies. I wish they had a little more variety in cultivars, though. Kay
Are you relatively close to the Anderson Japanese Gardens? This is one of the next closest to me and have been meaning to get up there.
Paxi Is that around Rockford, IL? That is one I have been meaning to get to, also. Haven't been there yet. Lots of conifers, right? Kay
yes in Rockford: http://www.andersongardens.org/ Don't know about the conifers but have heard wonderful things!
