This post was guest authored by Denise Wright, GIS Analyst II in Digital Initiatives at the Tampa Library
April 14th is National Gardening Day, and it’s a great time to reflect on our appreciation for plants, green spaces, and gardens. Whether you’re planting your own garden, visiting a local garden, or just spending some time outdoors, today highlights the importance of connecting with nature… But what if you can’t physically visit a garden? Well, we have good news!
The University of South Florida Libraries has documented changes over the years at the USF Botanical Gardens, and recently, we have been working on a project that explores how technology can help bridge the gap and bring our botanical garden experience to anyone, anywhere.
Using high-resolution 360-degree imagery and GPS data, an immersive virtual tour of the botanical gardens was developed. This tour allows users to move through the space as if they were walking the garden themselves, exploring garden areas from their computer, mobile device, or VR headset. Designed with accessibility in mind, the tour includes features like keyboard navigation and audio narration to support a wide range of users.
The tour is more than a visual experience; it is also designed to be interactive and educational. Users can select plants in the virtual environment to access detailed plant information from the USF Plant Atlas. This connection transforms the tour from a passive experience into an engaging resource that supports plant identification and environmental education.
In addition to the educational component, the virtual tour also supports garden documentation and monitoring. With two image capture dates a year, improvements to the garden, as well as damage from weather and storm events are documented. The repeat documentation allows for the virtual gardens to be revisited at different temporal periods.
The Shade Gardens before and after the 2024 hurricane season
By combining immersive media and botanical information, this virtual tour demonstrates how technology can increase access to environmental knowledge and create innovative ways of engaging with green spaces. In the spirit of National Gardening Day, the USF Botanical Gardens’ virtual experience shows how connections to plants can extend beyond physical space.
If you would like to view the virtual gardens, please visit the links below:
References:
Wunderlin, R. P., B. F. Hansen, A. R. Franck, and F. B. Essig. 2025. Atlas of Florida Plants (http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/). [S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), USF Water Institute.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.