When building a botanical garden, it’s crucial to have a collection scheme and arrangement that makes sense and is easy to navigate. We will concentrate on building collections that are organized biogeographically. There will be horticultural displays planted both inside and outside the conservatories that showcase naturally occurring plant communities.
The Importance of Arrangement
Within those displays, we’ll feature taxa that are weird, wonderful, significant, and seldom encountered. So many plants and their habitats are critically endangered and we want to give visitors a sense of what they would be missing if they disappear. Building immersive horticultural spaces gives people the opportunity to experience these habitats without leaving city limits.
Weird and Exciting as a Form of Education
The plant kingdom features wonders that have evolved over millennia. We hope that the inclusion of plants with unique evolutionary traits will hook visitors on nature and inspire them to ask more questions. These selections include everything from plants that mimic stones, insects, or bats for protection or pollination, to those that use mimicry for darker motives.
We believe that education leads to empathy and awareness, and we hope that the display of these amazing and bizarre plants will shine a light on the needs for conservation. There will be opportunities and resources that connect to their preservation in the wild.
Outside the Glass
The grounds will feature communities of plants that can be grown outside in our mild Pacific Northwest climate. While there will be a concentration of our own, local and regional plant communities—including grasslands, chaparrals, and woodlands—we’ll also feature their counterparts from around the world.
Geographic Regions
Our outdoor Geographic Gardens will be divided into the following regions:
