In bloom

Those of you of a certain age or with certain musical proclivities from the early 90s might think that this is going to be a blog about Nirvana songs. Sorry to disappoint you. In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World was also the name of an exhibition I visited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in late July. The question the exhibition set out to tackle was - what do we really know about the plants and flowers in our gardens and window boxes?

Through drawings, paintings, rare prints, and ceramics it took the visitor on a journey through tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge exploring our changing relationship with the natural world. It didn't gloss over the personal and political problems caused by this exploration, for example an opium pipe is a reminder of the brutality of the opium (and tea) trade. Tulipomania hitting Holland in the 1600s where rare bulbs were being sold at the price of a house. The Ashmolean's press release about the exhibition had an interesting footnote too: The Ashmolean is committed to reducing the environmental impact of exhibitions. While we have been recently improving our approaches, In Bloom is the first exhibition to consider sustainability from conception to delivery. It goes on to explain some of the ways they have achieved this. Another exhibition showing at the same time (and open until November) explored climate vulnerability, ecology and social inequity. Climate Culture Care by Bangladesh based artist Soma Surovi Jannet was inspired by the Sundarbans mangrove forests south of Bangladesh, an area currently rich in biodiversity, but threatened by climate change through rising sea levels increasing salinity in the water and endangering the trees sustaining the ecosystem. This effects around 13 million people who live there. Mangrove forests have always fascinated me and her depiction of them is stunning, as well as highlighting the tragedy that awaits.

The final room of In Bloom reimagined the future through contemporary artworks in a variety of media, an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing clash between mankind and nature. Somewhat scarily it pointed out that an estimated 45% of flowering plants are now threatened with extinction; there were tapestries that simulated the vision of bees and butterflies as they encounter an artwork made of flowers. It was designed using an online Pollinator Pathway tool that's free to use to help design your own garden. There were also some stunning 3D models of flowers and plants from Justine Smith, an artist working in paper - in this case, paper money, a none too subtle commentary on power and the environment.

Obviously there's a lot to dig into from an ethical standpoint of how people gathered plants from other countries, and personally I really wish they'd left rhododendrons where they found them, but I can absolutely understand the urge to shove an unusual nut in your pocket to take home and plant. This was a new story to me, of Scottish naval explorer and botanist, Archibald Menzies who was served unusual nuts for dessert by the Governor of Chile, brought them back to Britain and grew them into seedlings which became the Monkey Puzzle tree. I learnt this whilst visiting the Explorers Garden at the Festival Theatre Pitlochry, earlier this month. I'd never been to Pitlochry, but have had it recommended to me on many occasions, yet no one has ever mentioned this fantastic garden. I entered expecting to stroll round casually for half an hour or so, and two hours later needed to be revived by coffee in the theatre café! It is a peaceful woodland garden, teeming with flowers and the occasional red squirrel (hurrah!), full of art, both sculptural and architectural. The pavilion, set high overlooking a steep sided burn, is one of the most peaceful places I have ever sat. The building itself is named after David Douglas (another Scottish botanist) and built mainly from the eponymously named Douglas Fir to demonstrate the function and beauty of timber, which it does admirably. Even the roof tiles are made from larch, harvested in Argyll and shaped to resemble the scales on a Douglas fir cone! I'm already planning another visit in May when their collection of Meconopsis (blue poppies) blooms. They obviously specialise in blue flowers as the picture above is of (I think) a willow gentian, that caught my eye for its symmetrical and architectural beauty.

There's a phrase in the review of In Bloom in the Observer (which I recommend reading) that caught my attention: formal gardens became living encyclopaedias. I discovered a new (to me) podcast this week, Homing which explores the importance of home in shaping us. The episode that drew me in was one with architect Takero Shimazaki but I am staying for the back catalogue, including one with Tom Stuart-Smith, a landscape architect of whom I was blissfully unaware but I wasn't going to scroll past a title like Landscapes, Legacy & The Uplifting Power of Nature. Leaving aside his amazing credentials for a minute, there's plenty available online about his multiple gold medals from the Chelsea Flower Show, I was fascinated to hear about The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health and went off to read more about the work they are doing with their local community. It's everything that lights us up at the Green Health Partnership - social inclusion, nature connection, gardening. Of course we have plenty of great projects of our own offering this in Lanarkshire. What reminded me of the encyclopaedia quote however was their Plant Library. Everything about it fascinated me, including the beautiful picture of the grid layout filled with so many different greens (as I keep saying, the human eye can see more shades of green than any other colour), plus the fact that it includes a collection of drought tolerant plants, which will do better in our increasingly warmer and drier climate. I also love that you can become a member of the library, and if I thought there was any chance that I could swing by on a Friday afternoon when it's open to members, I'd be signing up at once. My library card is one of my most treasured possessions - why wouldn't I want to add a Plant Library card to my wallet? If this excitement wasn't enough, in the podcast there was mention of his wife Sue Stuart-Smith, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who believes in the healing power of gardening. Her book The Well Gardened Mind was the first thing that caught my eye when I visited The Wild Fungarium in Edinburgh last week. Another book to add to my collection (and reading pile) about the restorative powers of nature, including stories about how gardening has changed the life of prisoners, veterans and young people, as well as helped people with depression, anxiety and addiction. It also touches on our colonial past and the very different - and unhealthy - ways in which those explorers and botanists related to the land and the plants they discovered, as well as the neuroscience behind why gardening helps us.

The final thing that has bloomed for us at the partnership this month (and I am aware that I am pushing this metaphor a little too far now), was our animation on the environmental harms of tobacco and vape waste. Shockingly, almost half the litter in Scotland comes from cigarette and vape waste with around 3.65 billion cigarette butts and roughly 2 millions vapes littered every year. Those vapes and butts contain harmful chemicals that are then released into the soil and water. It's not great for either the animals or the plants that rely on healthy soil and water, and it's not terribly good for humans either. I've been watching the animation on repeat for the last few months as we developed, refined and finalised it, and have become inured to the statistics. It has been gratifying therefore to see how shocked colleagues and friends have been when I have shared it with them. I know that I didn't realise what a problem this was until I started actively working on it, and now I see cigarette butts and vape waste wherever I go. As a partnership we're keen to work with groups to develop more smoke free spaces, so please get in touch if you have a space that would benefit from this. In the meantime, watch the animation by clicking on the poster above and please share it widely!