Garden Gallery at Farm at the Arb
Words by Claudine Arndt
Photos by Katie Cannon
Every year over 600,000 people visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska to enjoy the stunning garden displays, tree collections and meandering paths throughout its 1200 acres. A relatively new destination within the arboretum called Farm at the Arboretum – Farm at the Arb, for short – focuses on the admirable goal of connecting people to agriculture. Instead of wandering through the usual suspects of hostas, peonies or roses, guests exploring Farm at the Arb experience the art and toil of growing food.
Through exhibits such as the Foodscape, Market Garden, Fruitful Way, Red Barn, the Burton and Virginia Myers Education Center and award-winning Tashjian Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center, visitors learn about growing their own food, sustainable crops, Minnesota hardy fruits, the development of new crops and the history of the Williams farm where Farm at the Arb lives today.
Farm at the Arb visitors also have the opportunity to experience a living exhibit showcasing the histories and traditions of growing and harvesting food, a special space for people of diverse cultures and backgrounds to share their stories through plants: Garden Gallery.
Garden Gallery debuted in 2021 with an exhibit curated by LaDonna Redmond, a longtime community organizer and food justice activist, who wanted to tell the story of the Great Migration through plants. The exhibit, Food, Land and the Great Migration, honored the era from 1916-1970 when over 6 million African-American people journeyed across the United States from the South to the North. Planted in a spiral, the garden esteemed the people who migrated north and the important plants they brought with them, such as okra and tomatoes.
This year’s Garden Gallery curator is Zongxee Lee, a mother, nurse and storyteller, who has longed to tell the story of plants central to her own life and the lives of her Hmong ancestors. Zongxee’s journey to document and share the herbs that her family and Hmong herbalists have used for generations began when her first child was born two decades ago.
In the Hmong culture, postpartum care for new mothers traditionally includes a chicken soup loaded with Hmong herbs believed to have healing properties. Zongxee ate this “chicken soup diet” exclusively for 30 days following the birth of her son to support her recovery and ability to care for her new baby. Curious about this customary practice, she asked her mom and grandmothers questions about the herbs in her postpartum diet, but she was a young busy mom who was also going to college for nursing, and her capacity to capture the information in detail was thin. Additionally, her mom and grandmothers only knew the Hmong names of the plants, which was an obstacle. It was the early 2000’s and Zongxee couldn’t find books about Hmong plants, nor did she have a camera phone or plant ID apps at her fingertips to help her access English plant names. Research was difficult. She took some handwritten notes and drew sketches to document what she was learning, but life went on.
A couple years later, Zongxee gave birth to a second child and followed the traditional chicken soup diet again. This time she was acutely aware of how quickly she bounced back from giving birth and felt sure the postpartum diet played a role. She realized she had forgotten much of what she had learned with the birth of her son and became determined to steward their familial knowledge of Hmong plants going forward. She says, “I kept asking, ‘What are these herbs? What are their names? How many leaves do I add to this chicken soup?’ I really wanted to learn how to use them. It’s been taught over and over in my culture but only by word of mouth.”
At her dad’s encouragement, she videotaped her grandmother, a Hmong herbalist, as she explained the plants and their uses in detail. Zongxee also gleaned as much as she could from her mom, who is a farmer. Her dad, who knows how to write in Hmong, carefully documented the names of the Hmong herbs and their uses with a typewriter (and plenty of Wite-Out). “If you don’t read Hmong, you don’t know what he wrote. But I know how to read Hmong,” Zongxee says. She still has those typed notes.
For many years, Zongxee continued to independently research the Hmong herbs and plants in the little spare time she had while raising a young family and pursuing her nursing career, driven by the desire to both preserve the information and make it more accessible to a larger community. In her observation of curious farmers market goers, she knew the interest in Hmong plants was there, but without English plant names, the information often got lost in translation. As access to technology improved, Zongxee began using online tools to research, but too often plant identification apps would give four or five possible English names for the plants in question, still leaving her without concrete answers.
It wasn’t until Zongxee crossed paths three years ago with Natalie Hoidal, University of Minnesota Extension Educator, that she found the wind at her back she needed to move her project forward. Natalie became a true partner in Zongxee’s quest to identify and document the English names of her Hmong plants, connecting her with Alex Crum, Ph.D candidate in
Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota. Using plant cuttings and a scientific process that extracts plants’ DNA with a series of chemical solutions, Alex was able to compare the DNA sequences she got with others in a national database and finally lock in on the correct English plant names. To Zongxee, images of the DNA look strikingly similar to an ultrasound of a baby. She remarks, “When I saw it, I said, ‘That is the birth of my plant!’”
For Zongxee, this was the pivotal moment she had been working toward, and it was profound. She explains, “Everything is given a name when it is born. We all have a name. Mother Earth has a name. In every culture, every plant that is born is given a name. When we moved to this country, our plants didn’t have [English] names. They lost their names. Names allow us to trace our roots and tell us where we are from. Finding the names of these plants means so much to me.” She continues, “I wanted to do gene sequencing so the herbs would be documented and would live forever and the public could be educated about them.”
Annie Klodd is the Manager of Interpretation and Visitor Learning for the Arboretum and the Project Manager of Garden Gallery. Describing her role, she explains, “I communicate closely with the outside curator and create the interpretation for the garden. Zongxee has a story that she wants to tell through plants, and my job is to help bring that story to life.” Previously an Extension Educator, Annie had heard about Zongxee’s self-directed Hmong plant project through colleagues. When Annie landed at the arboretum and began considering candidates for Garden Gallery’s second installation, Zongxee’s quest sprung to mind.
Zongxee’s garden, titled Seeds of Knowledge and Healing, is planted in a circle to resemble a seed and represent new beginnings. Part of the garden is dedicated to the herbs used in the traditional chicken soup and Hmong medicine, such as lemongrass. Another area is planted with Hmong foods, including Hmong beans, melons and rice. There are some flowers too, like cheerful poppies, which Zongxee included to honor her mom, who remembers “a rainbow of poppies” from life in the homeland before the family escaped. To help communicate Zongxee’s family’s story of bringing their Hmong culture from Laos to the United States, Annie has created a story walk consisting of five panels lining the perimeter of the garden. Since Hmong stories are often told through visuals rather than text, Annie hired a Hmong illustrator to create an illustration that accompanies the text on each story walk panel.
What really lights Annie up about Zongxee’s exhibit is the family’s story of determination and resiliency to escape Laos and move to the United States and the tenacity it took to learn how to grow their plants in a totally different climate.
Zongxee’s passion for her plants is palpable. She believes in the healing power of growing a garden and sharing plants, so she’s energized by the idea that her Garden Gallery exhibit will help others learn about Hmong plants and their properties, especially younger generations. Annie shares Zongxee’s enthusiasm, saying, “I’m hoping visitors learn and feel that plants have profound impacts on various cultures and the way people live. And I’m hoping that as they walk away or drive away from the arb, they are talking about what plants reflect their own life story and the role plants play in their lives.”
Zongxee has explored many botanical gardens throughout the United States, always curious whether she’ll find any gardens reflecting the Hmong people. She once found a little section about indigenous plants and Hmong people at a garden in Wisconsin, but that’s the only time she can remember a public garden showcasing plants central to her story. The fact that she gets to curate a garden at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is nothing short of a dream come true. She says, “I want to preserve these plants and give them a place to call home. I am most excited knowing that my Hmong plants have names and they are no longer homeless.”
Zongxee feels deeply grateful to those who have taken an interest in her work and opened doors for her, like Natalie, Annie and Arboretum Director of Education, Tim Kenny. She concludes, “This has been a very long journey, and I’m excited this garden is going to open up at the arboretum. People are like nature; we can plant something in an area, but we also need wind and its energy to pollinate. If energy stays in one spot, it won’t do anything. I needed energy from the right people to make this happen, like Natalie, Annie and Tim. I’m really thankful for the arboretum and U of M for giving me this opportunity.”
For more information about Zongxee Lee’s exhibit at Garden Gallery, Seeds of Knowledge and Healing, visit: arb.umn.edu/farmatthearb. Farm at the Arb is open whenever the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is open.
Claudine Arndt is the Director of Membership and Minnesota Cooks™ local foods programming for Minnesota Farmers Union and has worked in the local foods arena since 2010. She is the co-creator of the farm-forward cookbook The Farmer and the Chef: Farm Fresh Minnesota Recipes and Stories and is the co-editor of Edible Minnesota.
