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All of the gardens you mentioned do not have much color...or Real Jardín Botanico seem like they would have the most diversity.

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As a professional geographer, I am hoping that "gardens" as a theme will elicit a worldwide spectrum of diverse environments and cultural expressions. Nobody need travel very far to find an interesting subject, or interpret the theme as a metaphor. Just look around, think about what makes gardens in your particular place special and distinctive, then find a good example with photographic possibilities.

Gardens range from prim little front yards, just lawn and flowerbeds, to elaborate landscapes with plants originating from all over the world, or for that matter fruits and vegetables. Some gardens are small and private, others open to the public and world famous.

One way of looking at gardens is that they embody our ideals for a vegetated space - filtered by cultural context and physical environment. What makes a garden in Arizona different from one in Connecticut, Hawaii, Italy, Mexico, Alaska, Japan, or Brazil? Each will have distinctive aspects that set it apart from the others.

First, of course, there is what the physical environment allows. Cold, wind, heat, drought and soil type all limit our choices. My cousins in Canada simply cannot grow some of my favorite California plants, and I cannot get oleanders to bloom on our foggy ridgetop.

But given our ability to alter the environment, even more important than physical factors are our expectations and desires. What do we want from a garden - organic vegetables, brilliant flowers, species native to the region, unusual plants from all over, shade from the sun, shelter from the wind, impressive vistas or intimate spaces? How do we want to manage it - manicured, casual, or wild?

Each culture evolves its own aesthetic of landscaping. Some are widely understood and emulated - everyone recognizes a classic Japanese garden, for example. But most gardens are subtle variations on a cultural/environmental theme, modulated by local circumstances and individual preferences, and sometimes by institutional mandates.

Every major city has one or more famous gardens, often city parks. London has the Chelsea Physic Garden, established in 1673 to collect and study medicinal plants. San Francisco has the Japanese Tea Garden, a by-product of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Kyoto is famous for its temples, including the unique raked gravel Zen gardens. The Missouri Botanical Garden in Saint Louis is a world leader in botanical research as well as a public park. Banyan Park in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui is covered by a single huge banyan tree.

Vegetable and fruit gardens reflect culture and environment. In what environments would you expect the following to be grown: olives, apples, papayas, avocadoes? Tomatoes, rhubarb, vegetable marrow, okra, tomatilloes?

Botanical gardens serve two purposes, research and public education. Some display the vegetation of the world, others focus on the local area. They are usually laid out geographically and all the plants should be labeled. Some contain unusual or unique plants, such as the Victoria lily at Kew Gardens near London, or Captain Bligh's breadfruit on the West Indian island of Saint Vincent.

Gardens, with their often complex three dimensional structures, offer a lot of creative photographic possibilities. I can imagine a panorama with distant vistas in one direction, enclosed spaces in another, and a bed of striking flowers right up close. Or shot from just above the soil level. A formal garden shot on the axis of symmetry, a riotous tropical garden with fruit and flowers in all directions.

There is great variety in what might be encountered in a garden landscape. I see ponds and fish, sundials, statues, stone lanterns, stepping stones, terraces, hanging baskets, follies, hammocks, fountains, dry streams, herbaceous borders, scarecrows, lily ponds, lawn tractors, maybe even a shrubbery. Ever seen a ha-ha? Greenhouses make tropical environments possible at any latitude.

How about some mirror-ball panoramas? Get a silver Victorian gazing ball (like a huge Christmas tree ornament), photograph it with a moderate telephoto lens, unwrap it into a panorama (CubicConverter will do this). The ball could be placed on the ground between the plants and photographed from above, giving a rabbit's level view. Or it could be suspended in mid-air and photographed from underneath.

Captions will be important for this theme. If the garden consists, for example, exclusively of plants from South Africa (even though it might be in California) the caption must explain this, and why. If the garden was designed by "Capability" Brown, we will want to know who he was - and about that ha-ha. What are the urban allotments found in the British Isles, how did they originate, and who was George Russell? What is special about Monterey's "Sensory Garden". What is pollarding and why do we find London plane trees all over the world?

So, take a good look around you, try to interpret the physical and cultural reasons for what you see planted, where and why. Choose a garden, large or small, private or public, flowers or vegetables or lawns. Find a way to bring out its special beauty and interest in your panoramic photography. Learn all about it and write a good caption. Easy!

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