Ephemeral plants/intangible meanings: The pioneer women's memorial garden Adelaide

The Pioneer Women's Memorial garden in Adelaide was designed by prominent local garden designer Elsie Cornish (1870-1946) in 1938, and opened in 1941, as a memorial to the pioneering women of South Australia. Of Cornish's known designs this garden was both her most politically provocative and conceptually compromised commission; the simplicity of its design belying the Gardens difficult creation. The unpretentious physical framework of the Garden, its straightforward formal features and symmetry befit its scope as a memorial garden but its most important design aspect and also its least understood element is the development of its planting scheme based on the folkloric meanings of the plant themselves; meanings that were attributed to the spirit of the State's pioneering women.