I was near the Japanese Maple Garden picking the Spanish moss from a podocarpus (Podocarpus macrophyllus) recently when a couple of ladies stopped to talk. One of them said, “He’s cleaning the moss off the tree?!” I laughed and told them I was indeed and that it was relaxing to me.
The reason I was picking the moss—and I do not climb to the top to get every wiry strand, only what I can reach from a ladder—was a design aesthetic for gardens. I was removing the curly, messy, gray “static” of the moss. When you clean a significant portion of it, stand back and look, you’re rewarded with the true greens of the tree. No more gray static to cloud the eye. No more confusion, however slight. And this lends a calming, pleasing effect. (It also suggests care rather than neglect.)
Have you ever walked into a room in your house and been mortified at its disorganized state? You don’t even want to be in that room, dreading the work involved to organize it. But if you finally do, it’s relieving to find how organization can ease the mind, even give hope and peace.
It works the same way in a garden.
When you walk through Wilmot Botanical Gardens, you may not realize it, but you’re being influenced by our decisions toward organization, whether formal grass and bed lines or the free-growing forest. Each decision made is a deliberate attempt toward the intended effect of relaxation. When a garden has formal lines but they’re buried beneath weeds, overgrown bushes and grass, you may feel disorganized or slightly unsettled. But when all sidewalks are edged, bushes trimmed, yard trash removed, and everything appears to be in its proper place, you feel good. For the visitors who walk the gardens throughout the day, I sometimes wonder if their day is filled with frustration. Did they come to walk because they need to feel organized? It’s our pleasure to help them feel so, and I hope we are achieving this result.
We’ve added new plants throughout the garden. We have a new angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia insignis) beside the middle Healing Garden pool. Also, behind the Richard Christensen memorial rock at the middle pool, there’s a young bat flower (Tacca chantrieri) coming in. Bat flowers have the most unusual flowers and should make a great addition to that pool. Just as you cross the wooden bridge into the forest, we’ve planted several native Florida azaleas on either side of the bridge like Florida Flame Azalea (Rhododendron austrinum)and Spring Sensation (Rhododendron hybrid). They’re finished blooming but will be putting on plenty of leaves for next year’s late winter/early spring season, when they should have lovely flowers on the stems. On the Mowry Road side, near the Conference Center, we’re in the process of creating a bed with plenty of caladiums of varied color and size. Keep an eye on it for more beautiful plants throughout the year.
Summer is a time of bountiful growth that requires attention to form and line, lest overgrowth devolve to chaos—and, therefore, chaotic feelings in the observer. Keep gardening—and stay hydrated!
Steve Pritchett
Gardener