• IN THE GARDEN •
• AT THE BICENTENNIAL ORCHID SHOW •
Life, with the garden
Location: Glasgow, Scotland • • • Visit: May 2017
I ❤ Glasgow. I think.
The reason why I went to Scotland was not to go to the botanical garden in Edinburgh – however excited I was about getting to revisit it. No, my reason for flying over the North Sea was to visit Natalia in Glasgow.
And honestly. Scotland is romanticized in pop culture, especially in movies and in TV series – but I have yet to experience anything to contradict that romantic image. Even the short train ride between Edinburgh and Glasgow, with sun drenched rolling hills, kept my eyes glued on the passing landscape instead of on the VERY EXCITING final chapters of Anne Leckie’s “Ancillary Justice”. And the joys just kept on coming.
The gritty punk-vegan bar that sold burgers and milkshake-cocktails.
The old stones of the University of Glasgow, heavy with history.
The dangerous! but oh, so alluring selection of books at Waterstones bookstore.
That the symbol of Glasgow is the statue of Duke of Wellington, with the traffic cone at an angle on his (and his horse’s) head.
The breath-taking view across Loch Lomond in Luss, and its picturesque graveyard.
The church-turned-pub with a whiskey list that went on for pages.
High tea at the Willow Tearooms – a joy for all senses.
THE BOTANIC GARDEN.
Watching Parks & Rec with Natalia, in bed, eating crisps and chocolate.
The morning after, eating proper Scottish breakfast at a charmingly dingy place, swearing I would never eat again by the end of it.
Sharing a sunny bench under a blooming cherry tree in the botanic garden with Natalia, making lists of our all-time favorite books.
The depth of green along the path by the River Kelvin.
Or maybe. Maybe. It is not the place. Maybe, it is the person. Any place is a treat, if Natalia is there. Any activity an adventure, if shared with Natalia. Any situation holding the potential for a (dark) joke, with a Natalian twist.
I don’t need to precisely define it, separate causality from co-occurrence. This is not my research. It is enough to say: I had a really nice long weekend in Glasgow with Natalia in May 2017.
Glasgow Botanic Gardens feel familial. As if, first, it’s a place where Glaswegians come to spend time together, on the lawns or on the benches that are placed everywhere. Second, it’s a botanic garden. So, when I say I LOVE IT, I mean it for different reasons than for Edinburgh, or Kew, or Phoenix. The Glasgow Botanic Gardens are friendly, just like the city, and there’s an approachability.
The familial feel, even in the types of plants they grow. A section with ordinary garden vegetables. An unkempt corner of different wild roses. An entire wing in one of the gorgeous greenhouses dedicated to old fashioned potted plants, like begonias or geraniums, the kinds of flowers my grandma used to have on her porch. Like the enormous backyard of a hospitable older lady with very green fingers. I spent many hours there, sitting on a sunny bench, reading.
The arboretum in the Gardens is in no way the largest or most species-rich arboretum that I’ve been to. Kew in London, for example, has one that is immense. But the location in Glasgow, along the River Kelvin. I don’t know, there is something with the slowly moving water that brings out the quiet magnificence of the trees.
As it happened, the Gardens celebrated their 200th anniversary when I visited in 2017, and on the weekend I was there, the celebration meant hosting an orchid show in one of the greenhouses. Poor Natalia, patiently having to follow me. Because, I never wanted to leave. With my camera, I went a little nuts. Or, you know. Totally. Whatever. Judge for yourself.
Katja Malmborg 