1Lecture 38Lecture 38Esthetics of HorticultureEsthetic ValuesIn addition to their utility, plants have esthetic value. Owing to particular qualities that collectively we call beauty, certain plants provide us with plea sure. Beauty is not a tangible quality that can be measured or weighed, it is a value judgment. A thing is beautiful when someone decides that it is. The artist is one who can make this judgment and communicate the experience. This judgment is a refl ection of cultural tradition. People of widely different heri tages will have quite different opinions about what is beautiful and what is ugly.Experiencing visual beauty depends upon our response to things sensed visually. Although a certain amount of our perception is innate, many percep tual responses are learned. To a great extent we are aware only of what we are able to interpret. For example, upon hearing a foreign language, we do not actually perceive most of the nuances of sound and infl ection until we have learned to imitate them; yet even a newborn baby is aware of a sudden loud noise and can distinguish between gentle and disapproving tones of voice. Sim ilarly, the botanist learns to discern small differences in plants that may be all but invisible to the layperson. So it is with beauty: we must learn to recognize it.With reference to the concept of beauty, it is diffi cult to determine what part the innate psychological stimulation plays in the learned response. If any generalization can be made, it is that we tend to enjoy the full exercise of our perceptive facilities. Consider, for instance, the universal preferences for color, depth, and contrast for our visual experiences. Nevertheless, experiencing beauty is basically a learned response. This fact explains the underlying con servatism concerning beauty. We prefer what we are used to and tend to reject the completely strange and new. Yet, we learn to enjoy small, subtle differences and can be “trained” to expect them, as the automobile manufacturers and fl ower breeders have discovered.If we accept that beauty is relative, it is apparent that we cannot arbitrarily defi ne it. We cannot say absolutely whether a particular object, or arrangement of objects, is beautiful or not. We must suspend judgment until we have exam ined the object in relation to its beholder. Snakes, spiders, and worms are considered ugly by many people but beautiful by others. It is no coincidence that they are feared objects in our culture and that a certain fear of them is passed down by each generation. Thus, our perception of beauty is strongly affected by our emotional feelings and by our cultural attitudes toward objects. This is to say, the standards of one culture cannot in-time be applied in all cases to another, for our method of evaluation—our yardstick-has been molded by the culture in which it developed. Generally, the things that have been accepted as beautiful for long periods of time, and which are more or less universally admired, have a basic simplicity and harmony of form and function. In conclusion, our concept of beauty is made up of two parts: (1) sensory stimulation and (2) our responses to this stimulation, which have strong per sonal and cultural components.Most plants have an inherent capacity to stimulate visually. Their most obvious feature is their color-ing; not only the brilliant hues of fl owers, fruits, and (in some plants) leaves, but the muted tones of stem and bark. Green, of course, is the most common color, and our response is probably more than coincidental since it is also psychologically the most restful. The stimulation that plant color provides is enhanced by contrast and texture.Also signifi cant with respect to visual effects are the plant’s structure and shape; that is, its form. Form can be seen not only in the plant as a whole but in its parts as well. The forms of plants are infi nitely varied. But the same could be said of random stones, which are considerably less interesting. The perpetual inter-est in plants is a result of their ordered arrangements of parts, which involve symmetry, the repetition of parts on either side of the axis. Symmetry can make any random shape an orderly one. The psychological satisfaction experienced in viewing symmetrical objects is probably due to their inherent order. The human being exhibits a universal awareness of symmetry, which is not strange considering its common occurrence2Lecture 38in biological forms (Fig. 38-1). Although all plants show some types of symmetry, the growth of many plants produces asymmetrical patterns. It is this deviation from symmetry that makes for visual interest. The basis of contemporary design is to achieve balance and harmony without the monotony of perfect symmetry.With the possible exception of Arctic peoples, human cultures have devel oped in plant-dominated environments. Plants provide food for people and their animals, as well as fi ber, shelter, and shade. Our dependence upon plants has infl uenced and molded our esthetic consideration of them. We need plants, and no doubt plants have been culturally accepted as beautiful partially because they are useful. In our present Ameri-can culture, in which only a relatively few people are directly involved with the growing of plants (although we still all depend on them), all of us have traditional attachments to plant material. Horti culture has a place in all our lives.DESIGNDesign refers to the manner in which objects are artifi cially arranged in order to achieve a particular objective. Usually, but not always, this, objective in volves both a functional and a visibly pleasing arrange-ment. Designs are evalu ated esthetically with regard to their elements of color, texture, form, and line by long-established human value judgments called design principles: balance, rhythm, emphasis, and harmony. The importance attributed to each of these will vary with the objective of the design. When a design is suc-cessful, it is usually considered appropriate, functional, and beautiful.Elements of DesignThe design elements are visible features of all objects.Color is the visual sensation produced by different wavelengths of light. It may be described in terms of its hue (red, blue, yellow), value (light versus dark), and intensity, or chroma (saturation or brilliance).Texture in design refers to the visual ef-fect of tactile surface qualities. Consider, for instance,
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