33 & 34
I’ve been trying to figure it out. Where this interest comes from. My obsession with botanic gardens. I’d like to say there’s something profound about it – but maybe it’s just a type of collection. I come from a family of collectors, list-makers and chroniclers. I tick gardens off my list and I write about them. That simple satisfaction. But I’m not sure. Maybe there’s something more. Like this thing about naming. I’ve read a couple of articles lately about how people are losing their literacy of nature. Words to name species and landscape features are disappearing from dictionaries and people’s vocabularies. I read an article by George Monbiot about the significance of words – that we construct our world with language and that how and what we choose to name limits what we care and can take action for.
I believe in the magic of words. I believe that most people care deeply – but that care mainly arises for things we know and have experienced. A nameless tree in the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest or an anonymous succulent in the Atacama desert might be too abstract for many people to take action for. And this is where the botanic gardens can come in. A place to learn the names of exotic and strange species, be seduced by their colors and sense their scents in the air. Experiences that can inspire a little bit more care for faraway ecosystems in people who otherwise would be obliviously disconnected from them. Maybe.
Photo: 1. Saxifraga collection in a greenhouse in Cambridge University Botanic Garden, England, June 2013. 2. My friend Maija in one of the greenhouses in Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, London, June 2013. Posted on Instagram July 10, 2020.
Katja Malmborg 