Meeting your plant tribe

Last night I revisited a garden that I first went to for the podcast back in 2024. Do you recall Mona’s corokias?

We all just couldn’t resist taking photos in Mona’s amazing gardening!

But this time I was in Mona’s garden with a group of people, drawn together by their love of all things plant and their membership of the charity Plant Heritage.  It was the first time in quite a while that the London Plant Heritage group had got together for such a visit.  Mel, who has been a member for many years, told me that they used to organise coaches and went to all kinds of great places but over the years, everyone just got a bit older and some less mobile and the trips and the gatherings stopped.  

Their plant fairs continued; the Autumn one is next Saturday 6th September.  At 7am the vans from the specialist nurseries will appear at the school gates of St Michael’s primary school in Highgate and start unloading their cargo of plants onto tables.  By 10am the playground will be full of plant people seeking out their favourites, vowing they’ll just buy a couple of plants before staggering out with armfuls.  At least I think that’s what will happen based on my observations of the Spring plant fair!

Plant societies and groups were once common and thriving. I remember speaking to a man who had been a member of a Cacti society for decades and he had never missed a meeting. But now for many such groups their numbers are dwindling. The membership has got older and its said that people’s lives no longer fit the pattern of monthly meetings, of an evening, in a church or village hall. There’s zoom or teams of course but that rules out some of those older members who hold the institutional memory, and have years of growing experience and knowledge that they could hand down to the next generation of enthusiasts. We have touched on the subject of handing down knowledge before in the podcast.

I certainly don’t have any answers but having organised several visits to intereresting gardens and collections over the last 2 years with the Garden Media Guild and being with the group last night, I have seen how when plant people get together - age doesn’t matter. Nature, the thing we love, doesn’t judge its audience, in anyway. The passion of a grower, last night Mona for her New Zealand and architectural plants, enthuses people of all ages. And getting together, in person, is more fun. Mona thanked Mel for keeping the group going over the past few years when it has been more challenging and we should extend those thanks here to her fellow members, some in their 80s and 90s who have stayed with it, even if they couldn’t organise the gatherings anymore.

Back at the Spring plant fair earlier this year, I had noticed that the customers were of all ages and some that I chatted to didn’t have gardens or at least not gardens that they owned but they wanted to come and look at plants. I understand that, I was always drawn to places where plants were hanging out, even when I only had a tiny balcony in Liverpool and there was no space for more pots. I remember one volunteer at the Museum of Homelessness garden telling me that she has no green space so other people’s green spaces and public green spaces become even more important.

So my question is might some of these people want to join our London gang?   Perhaps the thought of exploring other national plant collections with planty people who don’t glaze over when you talk about plants will appeal.  Mel with her encyclopedic knowledge of people and their plants around London has no shortage of ideas. Membership of Plant Heritage for under 35s is set at just £12.

There are also opportunities to become a plant guardian, looking after just one plant, something rare that perhaps in time they could propagate and hand onto another plant guardian.  We’re working on the idea of a propogation session - who doesn’t want to learn to make new plants for free! One of our members is a professional gardener in one of the London Squares where a national collection is housed and he told me he’d be happy to host it.

London is a big city so getting anywhere can take a long time but last night half the gang had come from South London to North London to explore Mona’s amazing gardens. I think a key will be that people feel welcome, that this is a group where professional gardeners and enthusiasts, all wanting to learn more, gather and it doesn’t matter whether you are at the beginning of your plant journey or someway down the path - this will be a group where we share knowledge and stories and hopefully seeds and cuttings. 

I hope that by gathering our small group together last night we can start again to build-up our London group - standing on the shoulders of those former members who clearly had a lot of fun and created something very special.

And if you are reading this and live in London and want to join the gang - then just get in touch!  (sally@ourplantstories.com)

New members welcome.