What’s in a Name?

The Highlands Botanical Gardens were first proposed by Ralph Sargent, President of the Board of Trustees, in 1945. He called for an arboretum — “a living display of southern mountain plants.” But it was not until 1962 that the gardens came into being, with the Town of Highlands leasing a tract of land to the Station for ninety-nine years. The Foreman family then donated contiguous land, now known as Effie Park, for Effie Park Howell Foreman, mother of HBS founder Clark Foreman.

The original garden committee included Martina W. Haggard, Ralph Sargent, Henry Wright, and Judge George Janvier of New Orleans. Their plan was to showcase native plants in their natural habitat. Today this “garden of gardens” — from a Moss Garden to a Bog Garden to an Old Growth Forest — is overseen by a staff horticulturalist, Canty Worley, and an enthusiastic volunteer gardening group.

One of the tasks faced by the original committee was the labeling of the plants in the gardens. A plant label had to include not only the common name of the plant but also its scientific name, and then the label had to be attached to some type of stake. The HBS Reinke Archives provide defining information about the committee’s search for these labels, the stakes, and their ultimate purchase.

A letter of September 22, 1965, reveals Martina Wadewitz (Haggard), as co-chairman of the Botanical Garden Committee, writing to two companies to inquire about permanent labels. Fortunately, in September of 1966, Margaret Cannon Clarkson gave a $3,000 donation to the Botanical Gardens in memory of William C. Coker. This donation, as well as one from Rose Monroe (Mrs. Raburn) in 1964, enabled the committee to move forward on their pursuit of plant labels.

After some investigation, on September 29, 1966, Dr. Lindsay S. Olive — Professor of Biology at Columbia University, who had joined the committee in 1965 — called the Mico Instrument Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts to inquire about the Mico Engraver. A bulletin and price list were sent to Dr. Olive.

The Mico Instrument Company made measurement instrumentation, electrical apparatus, engraving tools, and microtomes. The company was founded in 1936 by Melville Eastham, born in 1885, as a successor to the Mann Instrument Company. Their specialized devices were used by university researchers and scientific institutions.

The Mico Standard Engraver, complete with Pantograph and Motor, was manufactured as a bench-top mechanical pantograph machine, designed for precision engraving, milling, and drilling of small parts, nameplates, and panels. These classic machines are manual 2D and 3D precision pantographs. The operator guides a stylus over a master template — or “copy” — and a mechanical linkage proportionally scales the motion to a rotating cutter in the spindle.

Judge George Janvier on the committee took it upon himself to make stakes out of pipe and wood, as noted in letters in October and November of 1965. The committee was pleased with his stakes, but for smaller plants Dr. Lindsay Olive suggested taller metal stakes, sought in 1966 from Van Eeden Brothers and in 1969 from Filvora, both in Holland.

At some point around the year 2000, the Station stopped using the Mico Engraver and began ordering plant labels from an engraving company in Franklin, NC. In August of 2020 a Botanical Garden and Grounds Planning and Advisory Committee was established by the Station. Committee members included Jim Costa, Jason Love, Paul Manos, Kathy Mathews, Lisa Armstrong, Bryding Adams, Lynda Anderson, Margie Bauer, Ken Conover (Chair), Helen Regnery, Liz Sargent, Dollie Swanson, and Glenda Zahner.

But by 2023 the Highlands Botanical Garden Committee had become very aware of the need for new signage, particularly wayfinding and plant labeling, to help visitors in the gardens. Equinox, an Asheville environmental planning and design company, had been engaged in April of 2022 to aid in this process of wayfinding signage. By June of 2025, the new wayfinding signage was installed, having been purchased through a grant from the North Carolina Science Museums Grant Program, administered by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Then finally in 2022 the HBS Garden Committee purchased their own engraver, an Epilog Laser Engraver, Fusion Maker 12, which could engrave text and artwork including QR codes. This machine is our primary source for plant labels today.