The Missouri Botanical Garden: this large, 79-acre garden is a living museum devoted to plants - St. Louis, MO - includes visitor information

Flower & Garden Magazine, August-Sept, 1994 by Ellen Henke

A Short Distance From The Signature arch i downtown St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the most facinating gardens in the country. The Missouri Botanical Garden is actually a collection of may small gardens combined to create one spectacular whole.

Among the oldest botanical gardens in America, the Missouri Botanical Garden affords the visitor many choices. Entering The garden from Spoehrer Plaza your first view is of the Climatron, resembling a giant sci-fi movie prop. The crystallike dome of this great greenhouse has become a symbol for the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Constructed in 1959, the climatron replaced founder Henry Shaw's Palm House. The design based on the ideas of R. Buck-minster Filler and his geodesic dome, eliminates any internal supporting columns and leaves unobstructed room for plant displays. The aluminum superstructure elevates the dome to 70 feet in the center and encompasses a ground area of more than half a acre.

The interior of the Climatron immerses visitors i a fantasy world of a tropical rain forest luxuriant with banana plants, coffee and rubber trees, tropical vines, colorful orchids, stately gingers and much more. Some plants here are more than 200 years old.

Structures and walkways within the Climatron give visitors the advantage of inspecting the surroundings from unusual vantages. Walk under the waterfalls, investigate the tree canopy from a catwalk, or descend the mountainside to examine the forest floor complete with pools and a bog brimming with plants. The environment in this greenhouse, which makes use of integrated pest management, is monitored by a computerized system completely out of view below.

The magic of the Climatron's fantasy is abruptly replaced with the reality of a diorama in the Brookings Interpretive Center. Here are scenes that portray the havoc that occurs when rain forests are mismanaged. This ingenious demonstration is intended to provide an understanding of the impact of rain forest destruction on the climate.

The Brookings Interpretive Center connects the Climatron with the Shoenberg Temperate House, a collection of plants from warm regions of the Mediterranean, Africa, Australia, South America, the Orient and coastal California. An enchanting Moorish walled garden provides the experience of viewing a formal garden design under glass.

Outside the Temperate House are the Rock Garden and Dwarf Conifer Garden. The low-growing plants featured here are tenacious survivors, requiring little care other than a well-drained coarse soil. They make very happy partnerships with the ingenious forms of the dwarf conifers.

The Desert House is located on the south side of the Climatron. In marked contrast to the tropical plants inside the idyllic Climatron setting, these cacti and succulents of the desert grow in climates where rainfall is less than 10 inches a year. They have evolved incredible adaptations for survival that are indeed intriguing. The bizarre boojum tree (Idria columnaris) from Baja California, resembling an upside-down carrot, is perhaps one of the strangest of all the characters in this world of plants. Outside, don't miss the nearby Hardy Succulent Garden.

The Demonstration Vegetable Garden can be inspected en route to the Japanese Garden, unquestionably one of the most inspired and authentic in America. Consisting of 14 acres, the Japanese Garden is centered by a 4-1/2 acre lake, from which four islands emerge to form symbolic images.

Crane Island and Tortoise Island represent longevity. Consistent with Taoist belief that islands are sacred places where humans should not tread, there is no bridge access to them. Created from an arrangement of three large stones, Paradise Island is the symbolic center of the garden, representing immortality and everlasting happiness. Although Teahouse Island, the innermost island, is connected to the mainland by two footbridges, it is meant to be viewed from a distance and can be approached only for ceremonial occasions.

I have had the pleasure of visiting the Japanese Garden in all seasons, including winter when its natural beauty is stark and haunting. Here you can find garden images to last a lifetime. Exquisite detailing of plants, some planted to represent cranes in flight; precise compositions of stones, each with a symbolic purpose; and the simplicity of the water compel attention and etch a remembrance of peace and solitude.

The Japanese Garden, also called Seiwa-En (garden of pure, clear harmony and peace), is a strolling garden where the great expanses of lawn provide an openness that entices visitors to move through and discover it. The landscape - and its reflections in the water - elicits a contemplative response in the visitor.

Because the Japanese-style gardens are intended to evoke timelessness, flowers are not an important element. But flowering crabapples, cherry trees and azaleas are brilliant at Seiwa-En in spring, followed by lotus blossoms reflected in the water during summer and great plumes of ornamental grasses combined with cascades of chrysanthemums embellishing the autumn season. Snow is the ornamentation of the winter season and it provides the perfect backdrop for the precisely sculpted trees and plants.