Hoeksema Written Project 14 Smith Botanical Gardens Essay
November 28, 11
As I walked through the Smith College botanical gardens and observed the many
different aspects of them, I realized that each aspect had its own story and explanation.
Every room in the indoor gardens and every part of the outdoor gardens gives to the viewer
a new experience; the Desert Room was for cacti, the Palm Room for the tropics, and the
outside gardens for aesthetic purposes. The gardens varied from being highly organized, to
incredibly spastic; from lush and green to arid and brown. As I noticed all of these
differences though, the Palm Room inside and the area around the pond outside really
caught my attention. As I observed each further, I came to the conclusion that all of the
trees, plants, and flowers had been arranged the way that they were for a reason. Due to the
efforts that were done to make the Palm Room look like it was from it’s natural habitat in
Panama and Mexico, I deduced that the Palm Room had been created for scientific research
and the outside garden had been created primarily as art.
One of the first things that I noticed about each of these segments of the gardens was
their colors. Inside the Palm Room, almost everything was either a darkish green, or pale
brown. The green of the room was not that of grass though, but was more lush. When one
looked at the room from afar without actually stepping into it, one could tell that there was
a dampness in the air and that there was going to be overgrowth. The room seemed more
alive and real than any other that I experienced. Even though the room was darker because
the trees dense leaves blocked most of the light that the sun shown in, everything just
seemed so full of life. I was more careful walking around, always afraid that I might
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damage the plants when I touched them. Just looking at the color of the bark of the trees, I
felt that they were stronger than the average. There was no peeling bark and the shadows
cast on the trees by the vines that were wrapped around them increased their precedence in
the room. I felt that everything in the room seemed like it belonged there--as if I were
standing in the middle of a tropical forest in Panama.
However, the most colorful and most impressive objects in the Palm room were the
flowers. Amongst all of the large green leaves and the thick brown tree branches, there
were bright pink flowers that stood out. The richness of their color increased the idea that
the room was thriving. The flowers also increased the feeling that one was in a rainforest
when one sees them. The brightness of the flowers also escalated the wildness of the room.
They almost felt dangerous, as if the bright colors amongst the basic dark greens and
browns were a warning. These feelings that I received from being in the Palm Room
emphasized the idea that it was set up to be as natural and real as possible for the purpose
of science, rather than art.
In comparison, the colors of the garden next to the pond emitted a different feeling.
There were more greys and tans mixed in with lighter greens. The plants that appeared
outside seemed almost depressed compared to those from the Palm Room. The trees and
grasses seemed like they were dying. Nothing seemed like it belonged naturally in the
habitat. There was much more light because the garden was outside and there was not
anything blocking he sun’s light, yet this garden almost seemed darker. The bark on the
trees was peeling and the green leaves were turning brown as well. The colors of the
outside garden, altogether, felt much less alive than the Palm Room. The plants seemed like
they were art instead of actually living creatures. This sensation of unnaturalness I received
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from the outside garden supports the theme of the outside garden being solely for artistic
purposes.
In addition to the color of each garden, I noticed the organization of the plants in the
Palm Room and the outside garden. In the Palm Room, all of the plants were scattered
around in no particular order. The vines were sprawled around, hanging from every tree
and plant. The vines and large leaves of the plants hung over the small path leading through
the room. Right where there was a bench for visitors to sit, there were the large leaves
hanging overtop. The first feeling that this disorganization could emit is that Smith College
might not care about the Palm Room as much as others because it is not well organized.
However, under closer scrutiny, in an effort to truly recreate what the tropics might actually
look like, Smith might be really trying to keep the garden looking actually natural as
possible. The plants, therefore, may actually be completely organized but only to the
educated eye. The stress on making the Palm Room as natural as possible reinforces the
idea that it was made for botanists to come and be able to study certain plants that they
would have to travel all the way to the tropics to otherwise study in depth.
In contrast to the Palm Room, the outside garden was very organized, The plants look
trimmed and like each was placed somewhere for a reason. The Japanese Umbrella Pine,
which is a tree that is short and has thick clumps of needles, was places next to the other
pine bushes. Everything from the garden next to the pond seemed like it was building up to
the large, magnificent tree called the Camperdown Elm. The different sizes seemed to be
organized to increase towards the Elm. This is probably because the Camperdown Elm is
the most remarkable plant on the outside garden. This organization gave the feeling that
Smith put in a lot of work to the outside gardens; however, it also made the garden seem
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unnatural. Many of the plants come from many different parts of the world in this garden,
which also decreases the natural aspect of the garden. Wadpole describes this presence of
“foreign plants and trees”1 as a vital part of the construction of magnificent, rich gardens.
This precise arrangement and existence of foreign plants show that the outside garden was
organized by Smith College only for viewing pleasure and not for scientific study.
Although the Camperdown Elm was definitely the most noticeable and impressive
plant in the outside garden, the Palm Room had a tree that was arguably more impressive.
The Ficus Religiosa was the largest tree in the Palm Room by far, and trumped the
Camperdown Elm in size. However, the Ficus was not as noticeable in the Palm room as
the Elm was in the outside garden. This was because there was no aspect of the Palm Room
that emphasized the Ficus, unlike the outside garden, which built up the Elm tremendously.
The fact that the Ficus Religiosa was not emphasized by the other plants shows that the
Palm room was more for scientific research than aesthetic pleasure.
In comparing the Palm Room and the outside garden around the pond, I came to the
conclusion that the Palm Room was created for scientific research rather than aesthetic
values and art, like the outside garden. Dunlap wrote in his book Nature and the English
Diaspora that people, “…have sought to understand their lands and find their place in them
by the use of their culture’s organized nature knowledge – science.”2 The effort to make the
Palm Room look natural, or as it would in it’s natural habitat, shows this theme. All of the
plants are from the Mexico to Panama region of the world and are placed strategically to
look as close to what the tropics in Mexico and Panama would look like. This organization
Horace Walpole, “The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening (1771/1780)” in
The Genius of the Place, 314
2 Dunlap, Nature and the English Diaspora,1st half, 1
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of the plants in the Palm Room looks disorganized to the uneducated eye; however, it is
perfect for scientists to study and for people to learn about the tropics without actually
travelling to them. Efforts, like the Palm Room, to recreate a habitat in as much detail as
possible greatly affect botany because they provide an easy and effective way to study
foreign plants without having to travel to far away places.
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