Plant Gardens 101

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…)