PREFERENCE AND MEANING OF ARBORETUM LANDSCAPES - COMBINING QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA

A group of members and volunteers at the Morton Arboretum near Chicago rated their preferences for photographs of landscapes in the arboretum, wrote open-ended descriptions of their favorite arboretum settings, and described the thoughts, feelings, and memories they associated with those settings. Most participants rated densely forested, natural landscapes highest in preference, but some also liked either open, natural fields or maintained, formal landscapes. The open-ended descriptions revealed a variety of significant meanings and experiences, some of which appeared to be associated with specific kinds of environments. The combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods yields a more complete understanding of how people experience arboretum landscapes, than would either method used by itself. © 1991 Academic Press Limited.