Morton Arboretum I

The Morton Arboretum is, hands down, the best arboretum I have visited. Named after the early 20th century salt magnate (if such an activity merits that appellation), the Morton has been in operation for about 80 years and is located between two pleasant suburbs about 25 miles west of Chicago. The Morton is far more useful and conducive to learning than those we have in my end of the country. In Oregon we have the Hoyt (Portland), which isn't that visitor-friendly, as well as the Oregon State University Arboretum just north of Corvalls. The latter is absolutely terrible (markings not kept up to date; no "service" at all; no maps; no native plant garden; no person in sight that seems to be caring for things; no nuthin'). When I talked to the Dean of "this or that" a few years ago about why the OSU Arboretum was in bad shape, I was told it was a "funding" problem. Of course, what would you expect an academic bureaucrat to say? Do you suppose they would say, 'We, the horticulturalists, don't really like to deal with trees and plants?' It is much easier to blame it on funds than to do a good job in the thing you are supposed to love doing and that is actually useful for people.

Indeed, the older I get the more I realize that "the economy" or "lack of funds" is a common excuse to cover all kinds of laziness or lack of interest in doing something. 'Can you come over to dinner tonight? No, it's the economy.' 'May I ask you for a favor? Let me stop you right there. This economy is killing me.' On the other hand, a recent news story saying that volunteerism is "up" in our current recession suggests to me that all those "in charge" of various enterprises need to do is to lay out a vision for something and the people will come running. Granted, it is a lot of work to keep up an arboretum, especially if a part of it includes native plants. You have to plant, weed, feed, observe, answer questions, put out maps, and generally take delight in sharing your knowledge with a world of more ignorant people. Such a "spirit" hasn't hit the Northwest.

A Philoosphy of a Garden or Arboretum

What is lacking isn't simply the funds or the volunteers, but a vigorous philosophy of a garden or arboretum. Marketers have realized that in order to make a brand successful you have to link it to people's felt needs and tie your product with some activity considered desirable. For example, Nike shoes, in my part of the world, attained its stratospheric sales before the current recession because it convinced people it was selling not simply a product (shoes--which lots of companies sell) but a style of living. A "Nike" person most likely walks around in nice-looking sweats, is breezily efficient in doing all things, exercises regularly, eats healthy foods, is generally "progressive" in politics, texts friends a lot (this is a more recent identifying mark) and otherwise lives a "whole" lifestyle. Thus, in order to make a garden or arboretum useful, it must be tied in to two things: people's needs and some activity considered desirable. But even more than Nike shoes, an arboretum/garden should also locate itself in a proper intellectual location within the sciences and arts and develop a strong philosophy of what it is doing.

That is, there are so many ways in which trees and flowers/plants can be productively linked with the history of our civilization and the achievements of people. Whenever you link to the fountainhead you can link also to any productive human activity in our day. Latin names of plants/trees is a great way to begin. It connects us to our past, it often yields visual pictures of what you are looking at, it introduces us often, in genus or species names, to great naturalists in our past. Trees and plants/flowers also connect us to our present because the things we see are "fodder" for artists, for those who are interested in cultivating "green spaces" in our cities, for those who themselves want to develop a philosophy of life which includes and encourages a balance between work and pleasure and even seeks to develop a new model of integrating these two in life. Why can't one "work" from the arboretum? Why can't the "pictures" we see in the flowers all around us at a native or other garden give us insights into ourselves and people?

For example, when looking at an Angelonia last night, I "saw" in it a bonneted woman of a certain type, which itself triggered yet other memories and stories from my past. Or, if you look closely at an Aconitum, the "monk's hood," you are led to expand your knowledge into and imagination for religious items.

Developing such a philosophy of an arboretum/garden is hard work, but it would be worth the effort. The place, then, would be the "destination" resort not simply of those who are in their 70s and beyond, or for moms and tots while dad is at work, but for those who are most progressive and creative in their thinking. Arboretums and gardens, well-managed, can be, in my judgment, the rocket of knowledge in our culture--Why? Because learning here is most sense-driven of anybplace in our world. Your eyes are filled; smells galore entice you (indeed the "Grow-low Rhus aromatica, or aromatic sumac, just invites you to bend over and take a whiff); the touch of rugose leaves or smooth leaves calms you; the sound of the quaking aspen or the Limber Pine, so called because its needles "swish" in the breeze, reminds you of the millions of sounds "out there" that we ignore or need to pay attention to all the more. Indeed, I think it would be great if someone would develop musical selections to "match" the trees and flowers we see. Learning is maximized when the senses are engaged for a prolonged period. This can happen in arboretums and gardens.

The sine qua non is that things must be identified. You recognize people if you know their names; you tend to stop and let the world speak to you differently if you know the names of things around you. Indeed, you can make up your own names, creating a linguistic botanical world of your own. Perhaps you can convince the world that your names are the best names. But, then again, you might want to learn what others call it. But learn the Latin, too. Learning family, genus and species names is a great mental discipline, a means of expanding and filling the capacity of memory, a discipline which will result in your easily managing other knowledge-based activities you are called upon to perform. The study of plants and trees (and all living things, really) can be the kind of activity which will give you the requisite "fuel" to complete effortlessly the tasks you are called upon to do in life.

Enough said. The next essay brings you into the world I discovered at the Morton Arboretum.

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