Plant Gardens 101

(1915–1979)

The author of many practical gardening books and the original host of the PBS-TV show The Victory Garden.

(1892–1962)

English poet and novelist famous in her lifetime for her writings (and her associations with other women) and today—at least among gardeners—celebrated for the gardens she created at Sissinghurst Castle, in Kent, England. With her husband, Harold Nicolson, she transformed a weed-filled Elizabethan ruin into the ultimate English garden. Perhaps her most famous planting is Sissinghurst’s White Garden.

My time at The Lost Gardens of Heligan ( http://www.dancing-bee.com/heligan.php ) began in the autumn of 1993 when the restoration was in its infancy. I had just come back from a lengthy trip to India where I was helping on another restoration project, this time a redundant coffee estate which had fallen badly into disrepair. The garden at Heligan was also in a very poor condition but plenty of work had been done by the time I arrived and gardening, rather than slashing and burning, was all set to get under way.

The vegetable garden had been cleared of all the undergrowth that had engulfed it over some 70 years of abandonment. Following that a great deal of it had been sown with potatoes, ostensibly to ‘clear the ground’. An interesting concept this and one that I have never quite been the right side of. The process assumes that the ground has already been cleared of perennial weeds because the only weeds that ridging up will clear are annual ones, perennials such as docks and or nettles will only re-root and possible multiply if chopped up. (more…)

Bush Gardens is located in the middle of a housing community in North Tampa. The enjoyment theme park introduces different wildlife and exciting rides. In fact, this amusement park is begun as a bird sanctuary. Today, Busch Gardens has about 300 species of animals. Acquire Busch Gardens Tickets and watch the alligators at the pools that are placed at the close nearness to the park entry. The pleasant scenery of white rhinos may also be observed in safari escapade of Rhino Rally.

These gardens opened by Anheuser-Busch brewing empire in 1959. Later Adolphus Busch made an enormous animal park and gave the entrée of 65-acre Serengeti Plain. (more…)

For the past year I’ve been compiling a list of Public Gardens for a gardening website I run. These gardens all look like fantastic places to visit, but what are the most popular? I’ll continue with this list for the Southeastern region of the United States. The Southeastern states are states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and also Washington DC.

The most popular public gardens (based on online chatter) in the beautiful Southeast are:

10. Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, Virginia
9. Botanical Gardens at Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina
8. Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, Alabama
7. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida (more…)

Extensive plantings on over 200 acres in San Marino, California, featuring a huge landscaped display of cacti and succulents, plus roses, camellias, and many other ornamentals.

Founded in 1986 by the Worcester County Horticultural Society, a 132-acre Massachusetts site featuring an orchard with 119 varieties of heirloom apple trees.

As is the case with most major American cities, St Louis, Missouri, underwent rapid industrialisation over the course of the twentieth century. However, unlike many of these cities, St Louis also managed to preserve a large amount of its natural parkland: today, it is home to just under three million people, yet it houses a staggering total of 105 open parks. These include Forrest Park, which is one of the world’s largest urban parks and is even larger than New York’s Central Park; the Saint Louis Zoological Park; and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a 91 acre national park situated on the riverfront along which the city was first established in 1764. However, the most interesting and perhaps the most widely applauded of St Louis’ many parks is the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

One of the oldest of its kind in the United States, the Missouri Botanical Gardens is a National Historic Landmark and has continued to live up to its mission statement – “To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment, in order to preserve and enrich life,” – since its inception in 1859. Founded by Henry Shaw, a nineteenth century botanist and philanthropist from Sheffield, England, it is often affectionately known as ‘Shaw’s Garden’, and is today one of the leading botanical research sites in the world. When Shaw built his estate, the Tower Grove House, in 1851, he saw the great potential of turning the grounds surrounding his estate into a botanical garden, and spent years planning and funding its development. (more…)

The former du Pont estate, located 30 miles west of Philadelphia, which is one of the outstanding public gardens in the United States. Of its 1,000 acres, 350 are devoted to outdoor gardens and 3 1/2 acres are under glass in its spectacular conservatories. Another 20 greenhouses are open to the public.

A 127-acre garden that includes many educational demonstration plots of plants that grow well in southern California.

See Kew Gardens.

Talking about China, you will think of the images of Chinese classical garden. Suzhou, a cultural and historical city in east China Jiangsu Province, is celebrated around the world for its elegant gardens. If you are a Chinese Gardens lover, don’t miss to go there.

Suzhou is also known as “Gusu city”, having the fame of “Oriental Venice” with more than 2500 years history. As the world of garden, Suzhou offers the best museum to show its ancient gardens which are the gem of classical garden architecture in south China and has been included in the UNESCO heritage list.

Local chronicles reveal that Suzhou city held nearly 200 gardens during its heyday. As the saying goes, gardens to the south of Yangtze River are the best in the World and Suzhou gardens are the best among them. These gardens attain their high reputation not only for their vast numbers, but also for their charming natural beauty and harmonious construction.   (more…)

A botanic garden comprising 40 distinct gardens, located just a few miles from the city’s downtown skyscrapers. Notable are the Rock Alpine Garden, with more than 3,000 different plants, and the Xeriscape and Plains Gardens, which feature plants native only to Colorado.

See Royal Horticultural Society.

An organization formed in 1989 for the primary purpose of preserving exceptional American gardens by facilitating their transfer from private to independent, nonprofit, public ownership and management.

Located in Madison, a leader in the field of restoration ecology, containing the world’s oldest restored tall-grass prairie. Its 1,270-acre site is connected by 20 miles of trails and fire lanes and also includes a deciduous oak forest, a conifer forest, and wetlands as well as more-traditional arboretum collections.

A 950-acre arboretum in Newark, Ohio, featuring more than 2,000 kinds of woody plants, including major collections of crab apples, pines, maples, oaks, hollies, and rhododendrons.

A vast, beautifully landscaped park in Pine Mountain, Georgia, with outstanding collections of native and exotic azaleas, hollies, and magnolias, plus seasonal displays and greenhouses, including a special greenhouse designed as a butterfly garden, complete with countless live butterflies.

An institution founded in 1890 by the university’s Botany Department. Its outstanding collections include cacti and succulents, orchids, rhododendrons, and California native plants.

A government arboretum situated on 444 acres along the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It contains many noteworthy single-genus collections, including 700 species and cultivars of hollies, 500 kinds of crab apples, and 70,000 azalea plants. The 2-acre National Herb Garden features a knot garden and a historic rose garden.