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Botanical Gardens and Water Fountains

Many living plants are found in a botanical garden as well as dried plants. Most of the plants are grown outside, under glass, greenhouses or conservatories.  A botanical garden consists chiefly of a collection of living plants, grown out-of-doors or under glass in greenhouses. You will also find such facilities as a herbarium, lecture rooms, laboratories, libraries, museums, and experimental or research plantings. 

 

Water  fountains and wall water fountains are often included in the display of botanical gardens.

 

The scientists at a botanical garden will usually arrange the plants in simple subdivisions of botanical science. These arrangements may be by plant classification, by relation to environment, or by region of origin.  Botanical gardens may also be broken down into groupings such as rock gardens, water gardens with fountains, wildflower gardens, and collections of horticultural groups produced by plant breeding, such as roses, tulips, or rhododendrons. A plantation restricted to exhibits of woody plants is called an arboretum. Most botanical gardens will incorporate water features such as water wall fountains.

 

The first botanical garden for studying plants is thought to have been established in Athens, Greece in 340 B.C.   The gardens were founded by Aristotle and managed by one of his students. 

 

1543-Pisa, Italy

1545-Padua, Italy

1635-Paris, France  

1679-Berlin, Germany

1726-Philadelphia, PA, USA

You can find a botanical garden to visit in almost every major city of the world. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens), located outside of London is the largest in the world. Research done at Kew Gardens have led to the transplanting of productive crops for commerce. 

 

There are over 300 botanical gardens in the U.S.   Among the most notable are the Missouri Botanic Gardens in Saint Louis,  the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, both in New York City. The Arnold Arboretum is located at Harvard University.

 

Botanical gardens and arboretums are wonderful opportunities for city dwellers to discover a part of the natural world to which they ordinarily have no access. People can escape from the pressure of dense urban population, and perhaps even develop new interests and hobbies having to do with the natural environment. In these special parks, plants from all over the world are scientifically cultivated, studied, and artistically displayed for the pleasure and enlightenment of the public. Arboretums specialize in raising trees and shrubs (woody plants) in their natural surroundings. They may exist independently or as part of a larger botanical garden.

 

Botanical gardens are different than your typical city park. They are laid out with more than just the beauty of the landscape in mind. They will offer sculpture and outdoor fountains to enjoy.  Although trees and shrubs may be interspersed throughout the area to enhance the pleasant surroundings, plants are usually grouped according to their scientific relationships. Often there are small, special gardens, such as rose gardens, rock gardens, wildflower gardens, or Japanese landscape gardens contained within the larger botanical gardens. Many have sections devoted to plants of particular geographic origins, such as a tropical plant section, or an aquatic plant section. Usually, plants are labeled according to common name, scientific name, and region of origin.

 

Arboretiums are often sponsored by the State University. The garden may contain a few hundred or thousands of different species and varieties of plants, depending upon the amount of land, money, and professional help available. In area botanical gardens range from about 3 acres to over 250 acres. There may be a greenhouse, or more than one greenhouse, in a botanical garden. The greenhouse is used both for displaying plants and, where winters are cold, for growing plants that would not otherwise survive the seasonal change. In temperate climates, certain tropical plants must be grown in greenhouses-for example, tropical orchids and ferns, pineapples, Spanish moss, cacti, African violets, and begonias. Seedling plants that are to be set outdoors as soon as the weather is warm enough for them may be started in greenhouses or in hotbeds, which are beds of earth that are heated and covered with glass.

 

Many kinds of plants need certain climatic conditions at certain seasons, and a botanical garden may need special storage areas for them. Some young plants, for instance, may need a winter growing period but cannot survive freezing temperatures. They must be stored in cold frames, which are unheated, boxlike structures covered with glass. Houses built of lathing may be needed to store some plants temporarily in semi shade and to grow certain plants that cannot stand the hot summer sun.

 

If you are traveling be sure to spend some time admiring the beauty of some of these botanical gardens.  To bring more life to your own garden, try a garden water fountain!