The other day I had a call from Joel Archibald, a photographer with Henrico County (Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is located in Henrico County).

Joel was interested in taking an image of forsythia. Turns out Henrico County is exploring becoming a sister city with Yangju City in Korea – and Yangju’s official flower is forsythia.

Henrico’s public affairs office is planning to create a gift card with the forsythia image on it and present the card to Yangju City.

Imagine how delighted we all were to realize we have Korean forsythia here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden – and it is in front of the Conservatory – which is the shot Joel wanted (please see above – my quick snapshot – I am sure Joel’s will be much nicer!)

Yangju is near Seoul and its website says: “The beautiful and vibrant forsythia, the official flower of Yangju city, represents its new spirit: the pursuit of abundance and prosperity.”

What a wonderful example of how plants can work to bring people together! Maybe you have a story about how a specific plant has special symbolism for you—if so, please comment and share with us.

Beth Monroe is public relations director at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

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