Temple Square Temple Square is a complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. The usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities that are immediately ...

downtown Salt Lake City Downtown (also called City Center) is the oldest district in Salt Lake City, Utah. The grid from which the entire city is laid out originates at Temple Square, the location of the Salt Lake Temple. Location Downtown Salt Lake City is usually def ...

is surrounded by urban

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s and

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s which cover approximately within Temple Square, the

Conference Center A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

, and the area surrounding headquarters of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church). The garden on the rooftop of the Conference Center, by design, has no annual plants; it is mostly

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

and

woody plant A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposite to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until sp ...

s. The gardens at Temple Square include 250 flower beds, over 165,000

bedding plants In horticulture, bedding is temporary planting of fast-growing plants into flower beds to create colourful displays, during spring, summer or winter. Plants used for bedding are generally annuals, biennials or tender perennials; succulents are gai ...

, and over 700 varieties of plants from all over the world.Temple Square Gardens
GardenVisit.com - accessed 18 Nove 2013. The gardens are redesigned every six months and replanted mostly by volunteers and seven full-time supervising gardeners. The

Salt Lake Temple The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At , it is the largest Latter-day Saint temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth temple ...

used to have an attached greenhouse. Currently, the LDS Church operates four

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

s away from Temple Square that grow all of the flowers and plants that are needed at the gardens. Most greenhouses have trial spaces to try the designs before implementing them on Temple Square. There is free general public access to all gardens on Temple Square. Guided tours are available to some of the gardens, including those on the roof of the Conference Center. The gardening staff and volunteers string more than three hundred thousand Christmas lights along branches of trees and shrubs and around flower beds.

History

The

Salt Lake Valley Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, and West Valley City; its total po ...

was colonized by

Mormon pioneers The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...

in the late 1840s. The valley had many creeks and streams that came out of the surrounding canyons that were lined primarily with

poplars ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

. Pioneer accounts indicate that people had to be on top of their horses and rise up in the saddle to see over the tall grass of what now is downtown Salt Lake City. Accounts seem to indicate that there only was one tree in the Valley, a

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

in an area near a monument on present day Sixth East and Third South. Gardens Of Temple Square - Episode 30 of ''Legacy'', created in cooperation with the Family History and Church History Departments. Available in MormonChannel.org - accessed 19 Nov 2013. LDS Church tradition has it that the garden concept originated from the suggestion of a general authority who, while traveling to the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...

to visit the

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

in 1893, wanted to bring to Salt Lake City the trees he saw in the exposition. Some of the grand

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

trees planted on Temple Square from that year's world's fair still exist along the central walkway through Temple Square.Ryan Morgenegg (Nov. 5, 2011)
The secret of the gardens at Church headquarters
''

Church News The ''Church News'' (or ''LDS Church News'') is a weekly tabloid-sized supplement to the ''Deseret News'' and the ''MormonTimes'', a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is ...

''. Much of the initial proposals and organization of the gardens, as well as many LDS chapels and

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

in Utah, began right after the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

under the supervision of Irvin T. Nelson, a

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

from

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

. Nelson took over the supervision of the Temple Square gardens after the death of his predecessor in 1944. The Olin Partnership landscape architectural firm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania designed the LDS Conference Center landscape.

Planting

New arrangement of flowers and bedding plants are brought in each planting season. Some of the techniques used in the past range from formal French

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

s to old-fashioned English

cottage garden The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Ho ...

s. Using a technique called "tossing", gardeners throw the different varieties of flower packs onto the beds in a natural flow to coordinate growth. Flowers don't usually appear in single, neat rows of the same flower type.

Genius loci

Designers for Temple Square gardens base their flowering patterns on the ''

genius loci In classical Roman religion, a ''genius loci'' (plural ''genii locorum'') was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl) or snake. ...

'', a Roman term for

spirit of place Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales, festivals and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible w ...

. The technique is explored based on the

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

balancing the contribution of natural and

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

sculptures to spirit of place. For example, during times of construction or excavation in downtown Salt Lake City, the patterns in the garden change based on the overall tunes of the surrounding environment, ruling out superfluous features. The character of the gardens around the

differ from the gardens surrounding the pragmatic aluminum roofs of the Tabernacle or the

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

of the

Salt Lake Assembly Hall The Salt Lake Assembly Hall is a building owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) which sits on the southwest corner of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has seating capacity for an audience of approxima ...

Skeleton, tendon and flesh

In order to yield an effective combination of sizes, colors and texture effects, flowers are planted in an organized process called "skeleton, tendon, and flesh". The skeleton consist of a series of core group of flowers or small trees. The tendons link to them are usually drought-resistant shrubs. At Temple Square, flowers make up the flesh to fill the remaining space. Together, the group of plants in the "skeleton" and "tendon" groups make up about 20 percent of the design. About 80 percent of the territory is made up by the "flesh" group of flower, which need simple weed control and little to no water. At certain interchanges, stone becomes "flesh".

Piston effect

The gardens are frequently arranged by a technique called the "piston effect." Named after the action of the pistons in a car that alternate up and down, the flowers and plants are placed so as to highlight different growth cycles throughout the year. As one group of flowers bloom (pistons up) another group in the same area will be falling away (pistons down). This tends to generate interest at different blooming periods of the region.

Christmas lights

In the early 1960s, E. Earl Hawkes, former

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

publisher and general manager of the

Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

's Record American-Sunday Advertiser in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, supported by advertising executive David W. Evans, proposed lighting Temple Square with Christmas lights patterned after the lighting of the Boston Common. Evans and his staff already had been designing dioramas and other materials for the Mormon pavilion at the New York World's Fair and for church visitors' centers associated with temples and historical landmarks. The LDS Church began displaying Christmas lights around Temple Square in 1965 under the direction of church president

David O. McKay David Oman McKay (September 8, 1873 – January 18, 1970) was an American religious leader and educator who served as the ninth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1951 until his death in 1970. Ordain ...

.Douglas D. Palmer
Landscaper originally fought lights on Square
''

'' Nov. 26 1993. Accessed 19 Nov 2013. Irvin Nelson, along with his protégé and successor, Peter Lassig, met on several occasions to persuade McKay against the lighting plans. Initially, church electricians were in charge of the lighting project. Church employed gardeners are now in charge of the project every winter. Evans and his advertising firm designed a Nativity scene, which was built in 1967 between the Tabernacle and the North Visitors' Center. A similar Nativity set is still part of the decorations through the Christmas seasons. The lighting now includes the Temple Square grounds as well as the visitors' centers and the inside of the Tabernacle for the

Mormon Tabernacle Choir The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir, acting as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for ov ...

and other holiday concerts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardens Of Temple Square

Geography of Salt Lake City Temple Square