Franklin Park Conservatory
A catalyst to becoming a horticulture adventurer
Botanical gardens have played big role in my life for decades now and it began with Franklin Park Conservatory. Because of my personal connection to FPC, the familiarity with the back halls, green house rafters, waiting in the Chihuly pond to pick out the coins (an honorary intern duty) and even attending a wedding ceremony as a guest, if you’re ever in Columbus, FPC should be on your short list of places to visit. Situated two miles from downtown Columbus, making it easy to get to. And it’s recent expansion of the children’s garden is a great example of how magical gardens can be.
It’s had quite a few additions, renovations and expansions over the past twenty years which has greatly broaden FPC’s scope, appealing to a more diverse array of people. The community garden campus is a wonderful place where experts can share their passions and is open to the public for a stroll. They have a long list of course offerings, you’d be hard pressed not to find anything that doesn’t peak an interest.
When I first walked through the doors of FPC, the ink on my college degree in fine art, was still wet. With this accomplishment now behind me, I realized how short sighted I had been when I moved back home. I had zero real life plans and was desperate to find even a direction to move in. My mom and Aunt and I combed through the different biomes, being wowed by color and form set within a living canvas. We had never experienced anything like it, it was striking. While meandering through the exhibit, my mom suggested “why don’t you combine art and horticulture and do landscape design?” At the time I had been working at a landscape nursery throughout high school and on holidays home from college. And with her suggestion I jumped. Women supporting women and the power of suggestion! And Chihuly showed us all the power of magical gardens.
A couple years later I was able to circle back to FPC by being fortunate enough to land a horticulture internship while being a student of landscape design (at CSCC-highly recommend). At Franklin Park Conservatory, I was luckily enough to meet and work along side so many great horticulturalists (mostly women!) These teachers had a huge positive impact on shaping my attitudes around gardening, love of plants and their diversities and connecting it all to our communities. Their lessons are the foundation on which I’ve built my landscape design principles. Landscape design has become my purpose, I live for sharing my knowledge of plants, usually expressed through drawings and creating spaces to help people better connect to the outdoors.
I don’t get to venture back there often, but when I do, it’s great to see how it’s changed and grown over the years.
Update: 2021
IN sync gingko’s
On a more recent venture, my family and I walked through their Bonsai Courtyard. It had gotten some planting updates but my heart sank when the tree immediately to left of the main door to the courtyard was gone. It was rumored, way back in the internship days, that the tree…I want to say it was some kind of Kaki, was a gift from Japan. A peace offering. A connection. It was a cutting from a tree that survived the A-bomb explosion and fallout that US dropped on Hiroshima, during WWII. How amazing is that? Unfortunately, there was never any kind of plaque or plate identifying this tree and its amazing story. The horticulturist who told me this, at the time was advocating for such a detailed acknowledgment. But sadly it looks like it never came to fruition. There was no sign and no tree. I don’t know if the tree died and anyone at FPC knew of its significance or if its story had been lost. I couldn’t help but wonder, especially given our nation’s current and past Asian racism brought into the light with STOP AAPI Hate, and did a little digging. By digging I mean google searching….I can confirm through the Green Legacy Hiroshima that there is a Kaki species (Diospyros Kaki) Japanese Persimmon that survived the Atomic bomb in Hiroshima. But whether that specific tree had cuttings made and sent as gifts to the US, I don’t know? But I really want to believe its true. Green Legacy Hiroshima was founded well after my internship at FPC and not listed as a current partner, they do list Oberlin College, just up the street from FPC as a partner in 2017, and that they were trying to grow some gingko saplings!
Related rabbit hole: Did you know that Taft gifted Japan with Dogwood saplings and seeds? We all familiar with the DC spring time Cherry blossom attraction - Japan’s gift of Cherry trees to the US in 1912, where thousands are now planted along the Potomac River and Tidal Basin in Washington DC. It was part of a friendship between the two governments. But this was a return act in kindness from the Ohio native President in 1915. The dogwood tree saplings and seeds were taken from Avon, Ohio! From nursery Willowway, which is still in business today, which also has a branch in Hilliard, Ohio!!! So worthy of all the exclamation points! Known in Hilliard now as Premier Plant Solutions, but a great wholesale nursery, I and many other landscape companies buy from regularly. I was glad to so easily find this connection and that this story has not lost, thanks to Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu and organizations like United States - Japan Bridging Foundation .
