Quarryhill Botanical Garden

At long last, I was able to conduct a case study at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, CA this past Monday. It is the first of several case studies I will be conducting of public gardens in the US regarding their unique Sino-American botanical collaboration and exchange. Quarryhill Botanical Garden (http://www.quarryhillbg.org/) is a fascinating garden that purposes to advance the conservation, study, and cultivation of the flora of Asia.

I had the opportunity to meet with the Quarryhill's Director, Mr. Bill McNamara, who shared with me the history, mission, and activities of this incredible botanical garden founded by the late Jane Davenport Jansen. As a result of Quarryhill's past collaborative and exchange activities throughout East Asia, the botanical garden now boasts one of the largest collections of scientifically documented, wild-sourced Asian plants outside of Asia. Not only has Quarryhill worked to preserve rare and endangered Asian flora via ex situ cultivation, the botanical garden has also worked to advance genuine in situ cultivation and protection as well.

The vast majority of the collections are not planted formally, but are rather planted and allowed to grow naturally as they would in the wild. Due to the fact that seedlings of the woody plants are, in almost all cases, treated as weeds and removed, the genetic authenticity of their wild-sourced germplasm are preserved. The unique model exhibited by Quarryhill is an important perspective to include in any study of collaboration and exchange.