Bartram's Garden - a botanical Mecca

Perhaps it should be Bartrams' Garden (rather than Bartram's Garden because although the garden was started by John Bartram (1699-1777), his son William (1739-1823) inherited not only the garden but his Father's interest in botany and natural history.  Although John Bartram had limited education, Linnaeus, one of the foremost scientists of the day, called him the "greatest natural botanist in the world".  The Bartrams were responsible for collecting and introducing an estimated 150-200 new species to science via specimens sent to Europe collected in the eastern states from upstate New York to Florida and west to the Ohio River.  These included the famous Franklinia alatamaha (named by William to honor Ben Franklin, a friend and associate of his Father).  Franklinia had a very limited distribution and has been extinct in the wild since about 1800, and all the specimens of this beautiful tree alive today are descended from seeds the Bartrams collected and propagated in their garden, North America's first real botanic garden.  Bartram's garden is small, probably occupying no more than 10-12 acres although the property is 3 or 4 times bigger, and it is located just 3 miles from downtown Philadelphia on the bank of the Schuykill River.  This is not a particularly impressive garden in terms of being well kept or having extraordinary diversity (see BGT participants: Mrs. Phactor, Dean of Green & lovely wife Carol,  in the arboretum), but it has a great quality to it.  John's house, built by his own hands, still stands strong, the mark of an excellent stone mason, and a few trees of distinction are still found there.  The oldest Ginkgo in North America grows there, the last of the first three to be introduced to North America from China (via London).  Another notable specimen is a huge (largest in N. America?) yellow wood tree (Cladrastis kentukea) (see image of the tree in flower!) another species collected by the Bartrams.  The Garden is part of the Philadelphia park system now (since 1891) and is surrounded by a rather shabby run-down neighborhood.  But how can you not go and pay homage to this important part of botanical history?  

Stranger in a strange land - Magic Gardens

Without question BGT (Botanical Geek Tour) #4 included a range of gardens and garden personalities probably greater than the span of all gardens previously visited, no small number, and that was largely, but not wholly, because of the intriguing Magic Gardens.  When you're on a garden tour, how can you not look for some magic.  But nothing, nothing, nothing can prepare you for the strangeness, the audacity,  of Magic Gardens, the epic creation of 73 year old artist, Isaiah Zagas.  It's like falling down the rabbit hole and landing in a wonderland of mosaic sculpture, one that covers the entire inside and outside of a house, or two, and then flows rampantly into the patio, onto the sidewalk, overflowing and growing beyond eventually covering over 100 walls on Philadelphia's south side.  Magic Gardens is somewhere in the neighborhood of genius with a good measure of manic, compulsive crazy thrown in for added flavor.  At times you find a fragmented mosaic of yourself looking back from mirrored portions, and then you take a step back and a face suddenly resolves itself from the apparent chaos of pieces of china, mirror, tiles, bottles, and the like.  And a garden it is, fertile, sprouting, growing, rampant, more organic than its material components.  There's some flowers, you might imagine, or a starry, starry night.  Words do not do it justice because quite simply it is magical, and whimsical, and crazy, but if you get to Philly, don't miss it. Without question this is the weirdest, wonderful-est garden the Phactor has ever visited.  This puts a new spin on recycling.