In 2015 the American Public Gardens Association celebrated its 75th anniversary. This article appeared in the Perennial Section: Garden Exhibit in their PUBLIC GARDEN Journal Vol 30, No.2 • 2015. I have incorporated the additional examples of exhibits using words that was provided on their website at the time of publication.

By using words as installations in the landscape, as opposed to solely relying on interpretive signage, we are more likely to pique visitors’ interest so they want to actively explore the ideas behind the words. Examples from gardens throughout Australia are used to demonstrate this.

Janelle Hatherly 2021

As far as public attractions go, botanic gardens rate amongst the highest in terms of visitor satisfaction. Casual visitors to public gardens are impressed by the aesthetically appealing landscapes and the floral beauty on display. Being immersed in nature for even a short time has restorative benefits and, regardless of their reason for visiting, most people are alerted to the fascinating diversity that makes up the plant world.

But how successful are botanic gardens at providing visitors with meaningful engagement with the bigger stories that garden professionals are trying to convey – such as an underlying commitment to botanical science, horticultural best practice, natural and cultural history ... or even more challenging issues like biodiversity conservation and sustainability?

Most visitors are scientific novices. As well as being less familiar than garden professionals with the significance of a botanic garden and details of its plant collections, visitors lack specialised knowledge and ways of thinking that local experts and knowledge holders acquire over a lifetime of experience and practice. Yet this does not mean visitors are not interested in what botanic gardens stand for.

The challenge lies in helping visitors make meaningful connections of their own. Interactions with volunteer/tour guides and garden professionals, or participation in well-structured public programs, can readily address this but how do we help the majority of visitors who prefer to experience the place on their own? How effective are our living collections as stand-alone displays at communicating our organisational mission and values?

Language is a powerful human construct and by using words in the landscape, the familiar is combined with the unfamiliar and thinking and learning are stimulated. Over the years as an educator, I have found the creative placement of carefully crafted words, memes, quotes or poetry within the natural landscape a powerful communication tool.

At its most basic level, language in garden settings takes the form of simple information – provided by a plant label or an interpretive sign, hopefully placed in context of a nearby plant or of direct relevance to the visitor and the place.

A good example can be seen on plant labels and interpretive signage about carnivorous plants in the Sex and Death exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The quote by Sam Llewelyn says: “… in gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death …”

When words are artistically crafted three-dimensionally and form part of an installation, they encompass complex ideas which are immediately communicated. The following examples illustrate some of the ways words have been used in this way in outdoor settings to stimulate emotional connections with the complexity of plants, people, places and issues.

This *Plants=Life* sign was part of an interactive exhibition at the inaugural *Gardening Australia Live* expo in Homebush, Sydney in 2002. Photo: Jaime Plaza

This is a model, created by Julio Himede, of the walk-in display which showcased the life-enriching communal gardening projects undertaken by disadvantaged communities as part of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney’s Community Greening program.

In December 2005 a fabulous new attraction opened at the Sydney Tropical Centre in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Sex and Death: starring orchids and carnivorous plants explained the biological processes of sex and death using examples from the pollination biology of orchids and the nutritional habits of carnivorous plants.

Visitors were attracted to the Tropical Centre, intrigued by the words spelt out in hedge plantings of hardy shrubs of Nandina (Japanese or sacred bamboo). For many years after the Sex and Death exhibition, the fundamental life processes in the garden were still being conveyed on Google Earth.

The pyramid-shaped Tropical Centre glasshouse is being replaced by The Calyx, a structure more suitable for displaying large plant specimens than the pyramid-shaped Tropical Centre glasshouse. The Calyx will open in June 2016 as a legacy of the Garden’s 200th birthday year. Photo: Google Maps

At the Melbourne Garden Show 2012, Jason Hodges picked up a gold medal for his creation, The Sir Walter Spare Change Garden. Featuring Sir Walter grass and mostly recycled materials and reused plants, Hodges clearly conveys a money-saving message. Photo: Catherine Stewart

This sculpture ‘wide brown land’ (viewed from front and back) at Canberra’s National Arboretum, is a quote from the iconic poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, (1908). Based on her handwriting, this is a nostalgia interpretation of the Australian landscape reaches out to all visitors. Photo: John Gollings

Second verse of My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, (1908)

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

http://www.dorotheamackellar.com.au/archive/mycountry.htm

This D. A. R. W. I. N sign (six mirrored letters, each two metres high) was installed in the evolution garden bed at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in 2012. It was a draw card for the year-long celebration of the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and 150 years since the publication of his book On the Origin of Species. Photo: Simone Cottrell

Key words (Evolution, Extinction, Variation, Inheritance, Adaptability, Selection and Divergence) and quotations by Darwin and other great minds, including contemporary scientists, offered viewers insights into the theory of evolution by natural selection. Photo: Simone Cottrell

Engagement can also be created by visitors themselves. A small child made her own connection with a garden she visited as part of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. Photo: Catherine Stewart

On Sydney Harbour foreshore on 27 April 2015, a Twitter-friendly floral sculpture #KEEP HOPE ALIVE was spontaneously erected as a backdrop to a public gathering calling for mercy for two convicted Australian drug traffickers on death row in Indonesia.

This ‘say it with flowers’ message was coordinated by Amnesty International Australia with over 15,000 flowers (@ $3 each) being donated. Amnesty International Australia’s Facebook post received 14,500 likes; 5,000 shares and had an impressive reach of over 650,000. Photo: Amnesty International/Sitthixay Ditthavong

I have always been fascinated by the creative use of words and symbols as artistic installations within the landscape and thematic garden displays. Using the familiarity of words in a surprising or novel way in an unfamiliar setting can lead to inspirational outcomes and personal fulfilment.

By piquing the visitors’ interest and stimulating all their senses, concepts are more readily understood and ideas can be shared with companions. It’s like sowing a seed on fertile ground. The trick is to convey just enough of the story to inspire follow up ... so easy now with social media and online references.

Louder than Words

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