Words Of Water

Statues spout water into a swimming pool at Sanur Beach, Bali
In The Garden – By Stephen and Kristin Pategas
Water is vital for life and when heard, powerful in the garden. We try to incorporate a water feature into every garden we design. It attracts the eye and creates a reason to travel into – and through- a garden. While humans normally obtain drinking water from the tap or off-the-shelf, wildlife must make use of what occurs naturally or in gardens.
The many forms that water takes in the garden calls to mind numerous words used to describe its physical properties, its use in the garden, and its influence on our senses and emotions. Enjoy and be inspired…

A waterfall at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI
Agitated, alluring, angry, animated, arcing, ascending, assertive, babbling, baptizing, bathing, becalmed, belching, billowing, blasting, blocked, blowing, bottled, bouncing, bouncy, branching, breaking, broad, broken, bubbling, burbling, burping, calm, canalled, cascading, cesspool, channeled, chaotic, choreographed, churning, circulated, cleansing, clear, clinging, cold, collapsing,

The 115-foot-high waterfall in Singapore’s Gardens
collected, colliding, colorless, columnar, complex, contained, contemplative, contrived, controlled, cooling, coursing, crashing, crystal-like, crystalline, curtaining, curving, dammed, dancing, dead, decorative, descending, destructive, dewy, diminishing, disappearing, distilled, disturbed, diverted, down-spouted, draining, dribbling, drinking, dripping, drizzling, drooling, droplet-like, droplets, dropping, ebbing, ejaculating, ejected, emerging, entertaining, enthralling, enveloping, eroding, ethereal, evaporating, everlasting, expanding, expansive, exploited, expressive, exuberant, falling, fast-flowing, flowing, fluctuating, foaming, fountaining, frigid, frothing, frothy, frozen, gravitating, gentle, geysering, glassy, gleeful, gliding, glistening, glittering, glossy, glugging, graceful, gravitating, gravity-fed, gurgling, gushing, hard, harnessed, heaving, hot, holy, hovering, hugging, humidifying, humming, hydrating, icy, illusory, impounded, inert, insistent, invigorating, jetting, kinetic, lapping, lethargic, life-giving, light-catching, lively, lulling, luminous, manipulated, marvelous, meandering, meditative, melodic, mesmerizing, mirror-like, misting, modulated, moving, multilevel, murky, murmuring, mysterious, naturally-running, needle-like, noisy, nourishing, nozzled, ominous, ornamental, pissing, placid,

A reflecting pool with orchid filled planter at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, FL
playful, plopping, pluming, plunging, polluted, ponding, pooling, pouring, powerful, pressurized, puddling, pulsing, pure, quiet, ragged, raining, rapid, recirculated, recreational, reflecting, refreshing, refulgent (shining), rejected, restorative, revitalizing, rhythmic, rilling, rioting, riotous, rippling, rising, roiling, rough, runneled, running, rushing, scouring, sculptural, seething, sensual, sequenced, serene, shaky, shallow, shimmering, shining, shivering, shooting, showering, shroud-like, silent, silky, silvery, sinuous, skin deep, skin-like, sleepy, slick, slinky, slippery, slithering, slow, slow-moving, sluicing, snaking, snaky, snorting, soft, soothing, sparkling, spewing, spinning, spiraling, spitting, splashing, splattering, spouting, spreading, spring, spring-like, spritzing, spurting, squirting, stagnating, startling, steaming, steamy, still, stimulating, streaming, suspended, swaying, swelling, swift, swirling, symbolic, tepid, thirst-quenching, thundering, tidal, tinkling, torrential, towering, transitory, transparent, trapped, trickling, turbid, turbulent, turning, twisting, umbrella-like, uncontrollable, uncontrolled, undulating, unpredictable, unstable, vaporized, violent, vociferous, wandering, waning, warm, wavering, wavy, waxing, wearing, well, welling, wet, whimsical, whipped, whirling, wispy, white, white capped , wind driven, wobbling, yielding – a garden without water is a garden without a smile.
Hortus Oasis (FL26000315) in Winter Park is a boutique garden design company specializing in residential, commercial and specialty gardens. Stephen is a registered landscape architect and Kristin is a certified landscape designer. Contact them at Hortus Oasis (FL26000315) in Winter Park is a boutique garden design company specializing in residential, commercial and specialty gardens. Stephen is a registered landscape architect and Kristin is a certified landscape designer. Contact them at 407-622-4886/ garden@hortusoasis.com.











