Many gardeners are also collectors. Collectors of things like pots, books, seeds, and of course plants. Some collect flowers, or herbs, or seeds. Others collect trees – and when writer, artist, and curious human Amy Stewart ran into more and more humans who collected trees in various ways – she started to collect stories about them. In her newest book, "The Tree Collectors", Amy shares what these people teach us about trees, and about humanity.
Amy is now living in Portland, Oregon, and is the bestselling author of books you know and love including "Flower Confidential", "Wicked Plants", and "The Drunken Botanist". She joins us to share more about her newest book, "The Tree Collectors, Tales of Arboreal Obsession", her own collection of stories about people who collect trees – in some really interesting ways, and for some really interesting reasons.
Amy shares more about the exhibits that have organically Colah around some of her books, including "Wicked Plants" and "Wicked Bugs". As she knows, it is nice as a writer to not have an educational mandate, but to be fun and interesting. Follow your curiosity and plenty of teaching goes on from there. A secondary consequence of this is that it reaches whole different audiences from those that traditionally visit botanic gardens and their exhibits. So, a whole new audience is being introduced to the prismatic and lifelong joy of plants.
Her newest book is "The Tree Collectors, Tales of Arboreal Obsession". In this newest curiosity-driven investigation, Amy celebrates interesting people who collect trees or tree-related things that somehow all teach us more about trees – but also about what it means to be human, in relationship to plants – specifically TREES.
Enjoy!
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All photos courtesy of Amy Stewart. All rights reserved.
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JOIN US again next week, when guest host Abra Lee is back in conversation with horticultural icon, Sidney Frasier, Vice President of Horticulture at Middleton Place in Charleston, SC. Known especially for his care of the historic camellia collection there, Sidney's conversation with Abra is perfect for this exact time of year when we need all the flowers we can get AND the camellias are blooming wherever we gardeners are lucky enough to be able to grow them… That's right here, next week.
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it’s Jennifer–
This conversation with Amy about these many interesting Tree Collectors got me thinking about collecting, about obsessions, and about us as gardeners. We are all really plant collectors at some level, right?
And maybe I am being sentimental because of the time of year, but I think of all the things we collect as gardeners, it is the relationships over time in our places that are best of our collections – with each other, with our plants, their seasonal personalities and shifts – flowering here, seeding there, going dormant here; our relationships to our own seasons, even.
Our relationships to the creatures who visit, the way the light plays differently throughout the year, the way the garden smells differently throughout the year and over time….these are all relationships we collect as caring and attentive Gardeners and each one of them grows us better as we grow the world better.
That’s a good thought to hold in mid-December … Thank you as ever for being out there listening – for growing along with me, for growing me and Cultivating Place along with you…..
AND thank you to everyone who wrote in, who sent a DM or just mentioned in passing their interest in an online virtual CP meet up - to engage in this community relationship. Stay tuned for an announcement in early January for the first day and time being scheduled as a limited capacity Zoom meeting in late January....I am really looking forward to it - hope you are as well!
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