The Afterlife of Plants

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re exploring the afterlife of plants. We’re looking at what happens when we remove different plant material from our gardens – either parts of flora still growing or others long dead – and preserve or display them as they were then, frozen at a particular stage of their life cycle. Flower farmer and author Rachel Siegfried shares her secrets on growing perennials and woody plants for cut flowers, Tivvy Harvey and Lydia Walles take us into the inner sanctum of Wisley’s herbarium, and then horticulturist Mark Tuson shows us the ornamental structures he’s made from pine cones and dried flowers. Finally, Fiona Davison, Head of Libraries and Exhibitions at the RHS, takes us away from dead plants and into the world of dead insects. She’ll help uncover a piece of the RHS’s rich history, giving us an inside look at the life and legacy of entomologist George Fox Wilson. Links: The Cut Flower Sourcebook RHS Herbarium How to dry flowers and foliage The Old Laboratory

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get your tickets for the greatest show in Earth at an RHS garden near you.
0:06.0	Where nature puts on an unforgettable performance of colour and fragrance.
0:11.0	To delight your senses.
0:13.0	Inspire your gardening adventures and entertain your own little stars.
0:17.0	Race you, let's go!
0:19.0	Catch Springs finest scenes while you can at an RHS garden near you.
0:23.6	Book tickets online for discounts, plus under fives go free and under 16s of five pounds.
0:30.6	Gardens are ephemeral.
0:33.6	It's one of the simple things we all know to be true.
0:39.3	They will and do change.
0:43.7	They change with the years, the seasons, the months, even the day.
0:45.8	Take the cherry tree, for instance.
0:50.0	The branches bear in winter, bud and blossom in spring,
0:53.6	fill with lush green leaves and succulent cherries in summer before the cycle repeats itself
0:56.0	and the branches once again shed their verdant shield.
1:00.0	But what if we could suspend a moment of time, preserve that radiant pink blossom forever?
1:08.0	Today we're exploring just that, the afterlife of plants. We're looking at what
1:14.6	happens when we remove different plant material from our gardens, either parts of flora still growing,
1:20.6	or others long dead, and preserve or display them as they were then, frozen at a particular stage of their life cycle.
1:29.3	To start us off, flower farmer and author Rachel Sigfried will share her secrets on how to grow perennials for cut flowers.
1:37.3	That's what makes cut flowers, you know, from your own gardens special.
1:41.3	They have provenance. They have a story and more depth to them, I suppose.
	...

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