A sanctuary of flowers

GROSS. Max. was one of nine international landscape design firms to be invited to design a “Garden of Masters- Master Garden” installation at the 2011 International Horticulture Exhibition in Xi’an, China. Since the context for the project was a horticultural exposition, we were inspired by the notion that China provided the origin and providence of most of the plants utilised in western gardens. Our proposition -the ‘Botanist Garden’- pays tribute to E.H. Wilson, one of Great Britain’s most famous plant hunters who during the first decennia of the 20th century extensively travelled in China where he collected over 5000 plant species.  In his book “Plant Hunting” Wilson wrote: To no part of the world do gardens more than to China- the Kingdom of Flowers”. The heroic act of plant hunting and seed collection provides insight into the global passion for plants, the urge for new varieties, the adrenaline and excitement caused by all those discoveries. The reference to Wilson allowed us to create a certain narrative in the garden and raise a specific aspect of cultural exchange and cross fertilisation between countries. The discovery and creation of new varieties become a metaphor for cultural exchange at large. The garden is composed of a series of distinct spaces: forecourt, outer sanctum and inner sanctum, with walls and floors of terracotta inspired by the famous terracotta warriors. As part of our research, we visited the pottery village of Chenlu north of Xi’an and a tile factory at Fuping.  The visitor moves through the forecourt which is a transition from the outer world to the inner world of the garden. The sound of crickets in this first space creates a distinct atmosphere: part of the surreal experience of project. The outer sanctum contains a grove of deciduous conifers trees (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) with a carpet meadow of flowering plants and ferns A boardwalk leads to the inner sanctum, a circular walled garden of stacked Chinese pantiles displaying plants collected by E.H. Wilson from different parts of China.