Theme Gardens - Planning without the Pitfalls: themes from a botanist

» plantboy - themes from a botanist

Since I am a botanist I tend to obsess on a genus and collect many species of that particular genus. For instance I have a collection of Burseras (plants in the frankinsense family) that have weird pealing succulent trunks and greasy aromatic foliage. I also have been obsessing on palms for the past year and a half. I am about to dip into tropical orchids now. I have always had some, but now I am getting a truckload from a friend which I am sure will send me off the deep end. I hear that once a botanist gets into tropical orchids all other hobbies get ignored.

So my themes are botanically based. I tend to grow plants that are related and learn about the relationship between them all. From growing plants, as a botanist, I have learned more than I would have than if I were just to see them on the feild. I get to see them from seed to full grown plant often.

I also have an ethnobotanical garden. These plants are all having to do with human use, and they are all arid land natives of the SW USA and Northern Mexico.

I am contemplating getting a dangerous plant collection going. I have lots of poisonous, spiny, downright dangerous plants around. This would make a great collection to show visitors of my home when they first arrive, especially if I ellaborate on how dangerous they are and tweak my characture a little so as to put a little doubt in their trust of my mental stability. Hee hee...

-- posted by plantboy