c. 2004 Religion News Service

PITTSBURGH _ Tucked behind hedges and an iron gate on a corner of this city’s busy Fifth Avenue lies a natural resource that combines age-old Scriptures and plants whose histories are just as ancient.

The Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden has attracted gardeners and the faithful from across the country and the globe since it opened almost 20 years ago.

Under the watchful eye of co-director Irene Jacob, the one-third acre site designed in the shape of Israel is one of the country’s largest biblical gardens _ outdoor collections of plants with links to the Scriptures.

Jacob, 76, said her drive to maintain the garden is split between her interests in faith and flowers. Plants are decorated with labels explaining their connection to the Bible.

“I’m a rabbi’s wife and I am a plant nut,” said the wife of Rabbi Walter Jacob, who has been affiliated with the adjoining Rodef Shalom Temple for 50 years.

Allan A. Swenson, author of “Herbs of the Bible,” lists the Pittsburgh garden among almost two dozen in his 2003 book but estimates that there are probably now close to 50 biblical gardens across the country run by Jews, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and other religious gardeners.

Some are tiny, offering less than a dozen plants, he said. At least one church grows enough grapes to use in the grape juice for Communion services.

As Irene Jacob gave a personal tour of her garden on a recent Sunday morning, she occasionally stooped down to pull up a random weed among the biblical plants.

“If you read your Bible, on almost every page, plants are mentioned,” she said, passing small tan signs for herbs like coriander (Exodus 16:31), and millet (Ezekiel 4:9), a grain.

The signs indicate the plant names in English and Hebrew, with additional plant family and species information. At the bottom of the tan signs are a verse from the Bible that features the plant name.

Some of the labels _ on brown signs _ lack a verse because they designate plants that have religious names but aren’t referenced in the Bible. For example, the “Wandering Jew,” a common houseplant, is planted near the gently bubbling fountains of the garden’s entranceway.

For Jacob, the significance of the garden’s 100 biblical plants goes beyond the pleasing scent or beauty noticed by an untrained observer. The purpose of a plant must also be noted.

When a visitor admires the greenish and yellow flowers of the papyrus (Isaiah 18:2), the former teacher of economic botany said: “That’s not what is important. (The material) inside of the stalk is used for making paper.”

Each year, she develops a theme for the garden that is used in exhibits, lectures and special literature.

This year’s theme is “A Summer of Fragrance,” featuring a sweet-smelling section of nonbiblical plants roped off by chicken wire to prevent rabbits from getting to them.

She acknowledges having fun with some of the past themes.

One, titled “The Story of Beer _ Liquid Bread” led to a recipe book called “Cooking with Beer.” Another on “King Tut’s Vegetable Garden” featured an accompanying volume called “Dining with the Ancients.”

Tourists and Pittsburgh residents alike find their way to the garden, which is mentioned in the AAA TourBook.

“The garden is in one of the city’s most popular cultural sections and visitors can expect docents to share the unique history of biblical plants,” said Beth Geisler, associate director of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a fabulous destination for visitors interested in gardening, biblical history or Pittsburgh’s diverse religious institutions.”

Sam Blackburn, a financial consultant who lives in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, explained why he stopped by that Sunday just after his Quaker meeting around the corner.

“A lot of peace, very peaceful _ it’s hard to find this in the city,” he said just after sitting on a garden bench next to a path. “It has a spiritual connotation to it. And when I come here, that world out there, even the cars passing by at 90 miles an hour, all that grows quiet.”

The site used to be a plain, grassy area. It was turned into a biblical garden in 1986 after the Jacobs first drew their idea on a brown shopping bag. After researching a 1985 guide to “Gardens of North America and Hawaii,” they learned that not many biblical gardens existed.

After finding benefactors who seized on the notion, their garden now contains a replica of Israel’s Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, connected by the Jordan River.

Swenson said a botanical biblical garden such as the one in Pittsburgh, is more distinct than the typical biblical garden.

The nonbotanical variety might have plants that are not actual species that grew in the lands of the Bible but rather are a close relative that can grow in the United States.

Because it does carry botanical plants truly rooted in the Bible, the Pittsburgh garden is open from June 1 to Sept. 15.

“Over two-thirds of our plants are tropical, so they have to be taken in in winter, which in Pittsburgh means middle of September,” Jacob said. Before the first frost, the plants are transplanted to a greenhouse on the grounds of the Reform temple’s cemetery.

“The greenhouse is sort of their Florida,” she said.

MO/JL END BANKS