Community News

Museum to have botanical garden

Story and photo by Suzanne Nielsen and reprinted with permission of the Daily Herald.

November 6, 2007

The Harry Luke Johnson Museum in Windwardside has embarked on a project to create a botanical garden on the extensive grounds surrounding the Museum building.

Museum President Glenn Holm said that botanists from The New York Botanical Garden recently helped locate almost 30 common trees, shrubs, and cacti that are well established on the grounds. The two botanists, Scott Mori and his wife Carol Gracie, had been on Saba for the Conservational International's Virtual Herbarium project and had returned as lecturers for October's Sea and Learn Programme. Mori and Gracie took Holm and local botanical expert Stewart Chipka to inspect the grounds recently and careful notes were taken of their identifications.

Holm said that the project has been on the drawing board for some time, and he appreciated the invaluable contribution of The New York Botanical Garden to the project. Holm said, "This has definitely gotten the project off the ground and we hope to have something concrete in place within a few months."

Phase one of the project will entail verifying plant identifications and creating labels for them with the common name, the scientific name, and country of origin. Further documentation will include a brochure explaining the importance of the various plants with a map so that the visitor can easily tour the grounds and locate the specimens. Holm commented that the project would enhance the value of the museum as a learning experience for visitors and Saba school children.

Phase two of the project will include planting some medicinal plants and crops that where once cultivated on Saba so that visitors can experience a bit of Saba's agricultural history. A portion of the grounds has been cleared for this part of the project, but funding will be needed to complete this phase.

Photo: Botanical experts (from left) Carol Gracie, Stewart Chipka, Scott Mori, with Museum President Glenn Holm on the Johnson Museum Grounds.

Click here for a larger version of the photo.


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Story and photograph © Suzanne Nielsen, 2007.