While my research doesn't carry over into the 21st century when blogs become a common method for organizations to get the word out, looking at them does bring up questions about how botanic gardens have reached out to their audience in the past. Member newsletters and press releases (the main modes of reaching people) are still around today, but compared to blogs they seem much more institutionalized and formal, almost impersonal. It would be interesting to know how (or if) garden public relations made those personal connections. I've posted a couple of examples of garden blogs--some are more formal than others, but they all function as supplemental to e-newsletters and are updated weekly or bi-weekly with news and pictures.
I liked the LACABG's blog because it included a Blogroll of other related blogs and websites, this is kind of an old-school format for the blog world, but it was really helpful for me to have all of those websites in one place.
The BBG's blog is my favorite because it is very user-friendly and interfaces with twitter and facebook and is updated often, which may be because there is more than one contributor.
The CBG's blog is high tech with videos, it's more like a garden TV channel that highlights different aspects of the garden and isn't necessarily the best place to get the newest news and happenings at the garden. It was also buried in the garden's website, which doesn't make it very accessible to viewers.
