Where to begin? I want to like Zilker Botanical Gardens. I go there often since I was a kid. Zilker was started by the Austin Area Garden Council, which rules Zilker like a small fiefdom. The council is a collection of clubs like The Mens Garden Club, Heart of Hills Gardeners, Western Hills Garden Club, Orchid Society, Rose Society, Violet Crown Garden Club etc. These clubs are stuck in the 50’s when it comes to gardening. There is no comprehensive understanding of the history of gardening the art of gardening and how they fit into the fabric of our city. When the idea of starting a Botanical Center was conceived I recall going to a lecture of a professor Bell at the LBJ library, where he layed out an ambitious plan to make ZBG into a world class operation. I think 15 years later and nothing has really happened except a big ugly rusted steel fence. Bell recommended that ZBG should concentrate on the flora of the Edwards Plateau and into Mexico because of the great diversity and lack of research in this area. If I am correct Bell was a chemistry Professor at the University of Texas and thus had an interest in an Austin project. None of this history nor the history of Taniguchi’s Japanese garden is mentioned on their website
http://www.zilkergarden.org/. As far as I can see none of his suggestions where taken and The Garden Council is going on about its merry business of dividing up the grounds for each club to create a Hodge podge of agriculturally grown flora. As far as I can see there is no botany going on at ZBG except in some perfunctory children’s eduction (which I have next to no knowledge of) You will see on my site the various methods of addressing the botanical center concept and you will see that I know just a bit about botanical gardens. Just a couple more criticisms and then we will find some positive elements. Some of my pet peeves have been one of the oldest employee of the garden cut the only madrone tree down because he didn’t like the way it looked. Someone donated it for a $200 dollars and it was growing quite well for a madrone. The rose garden until recently was a collection of grafted hybrid tea roses which do quite horribly in this climate, but because new selections where the concern
over ease of growth. I had so many customers ask me why where my beautiful pink Jackson Perkins roses red the next year. I will save my criticism for The Hartman Prehistoric Garden for later. Just remember I said it here and will shout it to the moon volunteers will never substitute for professional creative talent, this garden is an example of volunteerism gone haywire.
But anyway lets look at some positive aspects of the gardens. The Taniguci Japanese Garden is really the jewel in the crown of the garden. It is losing some of its original authenticity but it still is an experience. The Austin Pond Society has kept some nice water lilies in the front pond. They bloom nicely and are at such a height that one can smell them. The coy ponds are really nice to walk through. The addition of the bamboo from The Bamboo Society is nice . The hemerocallis bloom nicely even though are nice even though they use way to much snail bait. The Cactus Society has finally increased their plant count to something respectable and they have a really fine clematis texensis that blooms every year religiously. What is sad is the majority of the collection is in a greenhouse unavailable to the public. I am going to end this for the moment with what I hope will be the future direction. What I find to be true in great botanical gardens is that the plants and plantsmanship are at the forefront of the effort. If this is done everything falls in place the weddings the children education, the tourism everything. San Antonio is a good example of a botanical garden that is torn between being a true garden and an amusment park. They built these ridiculous glass houses that are just stupid uninteresting and nearly bankrupted the Gardens. The greenhouses are not the best part of the garden. The new Carriage House incorrectly was made the entrance because the person who donated the Carriage House made that demand as part of the donation. Denver which is in a much more hostile climate for cactushas more cactus and succulents outside than San Antonio has inside its cactus house. This is due to great botanists who do their homework and find what works. Albuquerqui Biologic Park is another example of the corporate botanical center that seems to have botany as a side not as the main objective. I think that this is the direction Zilker is going in. the theme park with big plastic dinosaurs. Some of the great botanical centers like The Huntington or Strybing are so dedicated to plants and botany that that intense effort makes for pure sublime pleasure. This is the direction I hope Zilker goes, even though it will have to retrace its steps and hire some people who know how to do this.
