On choosing not to write a review of a botanical garden

How was it?

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Orlando: Oddly unimpressive. After the entrance, and a very nice edible garden in a walled garden style in brick, and the African area, everything just seemed featureless. No inspired design. The foliage huddled on the horizon. Nothing towered. Plantings were dumped in clumps.

This was notable...

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Sophia: (checking Tripadvisor): Ratings are 90% positive: 4/5, 5/5. Comments like “gorgeous gardens” and “wonderful walks”. Not so much about the variety of plants. And there is the usual crop of naysayers with comments like, “The place is half dead. Huge disappointment. Love gardens and flowers but this was a long drive to see mainly kids and dogs.”

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Orlando: Personally, I put my negative impression down to the grey midwinter weather and a dose of backpain. So I won’t write any review.

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Voice-over

Comments on attractions are subjective, influenced by disposition, weather, companions and logistics. So it is for gardens. Not all of them can be top-ranked with their numbers of species, provenance and heritage rankings: Kew in London, Orto Botanico di Padova and Singapore Botanical Gardens. But in these days of restricted travel, a local botanical garden is better than a journey around one’s room.

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Singapore Botanic Gardens as Heritage Site

Turning adjectives into numbers...

UNESCO Inspector: Amazing place. The orchids, the healing gardens and the double use of “eco” to mean “ecological” and “economic.”

Lee: It’s a historic place. It’s big. It’s got a lot of variety. It’s very popular.

UNESCO Inspector: How old? How big? How much variety? How many visitors?

Lee: OK. It’s 150 years old, it covers 150 hectares, there are 10,000 species, it gets 4.5 million visitors each year.

UNESCO Inspector: Fair enough. I think it passes.

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Voice-over

Singapore Botanic Gardens applied for and was recognized as a World Heritage site, unanimously, with no opposition. Submission for Singapore Botanic Gardens at 850 pages here.

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Museums, Botanical Gardens and Planetariums

Three scientists discuss purpose…

Museologist: A museum has to have a clear purpose, for example, to collect, study and present artifacts.

Botanist: A botanical garden’s purpose is to collect plant specimens for research, conservation, display and education.

Astrophysicist: A planetarium’s purpose is to educate visitors about the night sky.

Moderator: We might note that museums and botanical gardens collect artifacts and specimens, but planetariums are a kind of theater and focus on presentation and education.

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Voice-over

Stephen Weil described successful museums as having a clear purpose, that they had resources to reach their objectives, that they were effective enough to reach their objectives, and that they were efficient in using resources economically.

So perhaps museums and botanical gardens have common ground, whereas the planetarium is not part of that group. Just as Pluto, the dwarf planet, is not regarded as a real planet.

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