medicinal plants

This week’s episode, my guest is writer Victoria Bennett, author of'All My Wild Mothers – motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden’. The book weaves memoir and herbal folklore and is a story of re-wilding our wastelands, and the transformation that can happen when we do. Daisy, for resilience. Dandelion, for strength against adversity. Borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times…

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Box tree moth

What We Talk About 

What is an apothecary garden?

How Victoria learnt about gardening and herbalism

The garden Victoria and her son built in their new house

Dealing with the challenges thrown up by neighbours and housing associations

Some of the most powerfully useful plants Victoria has grown

How Victoria’s mother influenced her gardening aesthetic

Victoria and her son’s next joint gardening adventures

About 'All My Wild Mothers – motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden’

The book was published earlier this year with Two Roads Books. An intimate weaving of memoir and herbal folklore, it is a story of re-wilding our wastelands, and the transformation that can happen when we do. Daisy, for resilience. Dandelion, for strength against adversity. Borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times.

Victoria says, “faced with a life very different to what I thought it would be; deep in grief following the tragic death of my eldest sister, facing financial difficulties, and caring for my young son who was diagnosed at age 2 with Type One diabetes, I decided to see what could grow on the barren land of the former industrial site over which our new social housing home was built. With my son, I began to grow, relying on the weeds that were under our feet and the things that other people threw out or eradicated from their pristine gardens.

Stone by stone, seed by seed, my son and I turned the rubble into a wild, healing garden. As we did, we discovered that sometimes what grows does so, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it.”

Links

Victoria’s website

'All My Wild Mothers – motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden’ by Victoria Bennett

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Grounding Roots with Lulah Ellender

Darwin’s Garden with Dr Jude Piesse

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Profile episode to learning about spicy chile peppers. Whether we can handle their heat like a champ or break out in immediate sweats, many of us can agree these peppers offer unmatched flavors and excitement for numerous dishes. Danise Coon, a research specialist with more than two decades of experience researching chile peppers, joins Kenny Coogan for a conversation all about these plants that pack a powerful punch.

The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast shares the stories of leaders in sustainable and rural living. We’re passionate about helping people learn more about natural health, homesteading, sustainability, and more. You can catch new interviews on Thursdays and our audio articles on Tuesdays.

This episode features writer, garden historian and returning guest Caroline Ball. In eighteenth-century Bavaria a prosperous apothecary, Johann Wilhelm Weinmann began an extraordinary project, the compilation of an A to Z of plants, meticulously documented, and lavishly illustrated by botanical artists using the latest colour-printing methods of the time. He aimed to include thousands of plants from all over the world, describing their individual characteristics and commissioning magnificent colour illustrations of each specimen.

The first complete volume of the Phytanthoza Iconographia, as he called it, was published in 1737 and the work grew to four immense tomes. The Iconographia gives an unparalleled view of the ornamental and useful plants that were known to botanists and gardeners in the early eighteenth-century. Caroline has written two books, A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti and A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables, which document how this piece of work came to be collated and which reproduce many of the amazing images featured within. 

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Butterfly Tongues & Buddleia

What We Talk About 

Johann Wilhelmina Weinmann and his Phytanthoza Iconographia 

Where Weinmann sourced the plants that were included

The painters who documented the specimens

Historical plant pots

How the work was reproduced

Matching the plants depicted to contemporary specimens

Are historical botanical texts merely a curiosity, or can they inform our knowledge of horticulture in the present day?

Some of the more surprising medicinal uses for plants that are documented in the book

About Caroline Ball & the Phytanthoza Iconagraphia

In eighteenth-century Bavaria a prosperous apothecary, Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, grew an ‘American aloe’ that astounded all who saw it. He was also the mastermind behind an extraordinary project - a comprehensive A to Z of plants, meticulously documented, and lavishly illustrated by botanical artists using the latest colour-printing methods of the time. Weinmann aimed to include thousands of plants from all over the world, describing their individual characteristics and commissioning magnificent colour illustrations of each specimen. The first complete volume of the Phytanthoza Iconographia, as he called it, was published in

1737 and the work grew to four immense tomes. The Iconographia gives an unparalleled view of the ornamental and useful plants that were known to botanists and gardeners in the early eighteenth-century.

Caroline Ball is an editor, copywriter and occasional translator who has written on many subjects, but has a particular interest in horticulture, garden history and plant-hunters. She is also a keen gardener.

Caroline’s books A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti and A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables feature illustrations from an eighteenth-century botanical treasury, celebrating Weinmann’s rare and precious volumes by theme. 

Links

A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti

A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables: Illustrations from an eighteenth-century botanical treasury

Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian’s online image portal here.

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Heritage Apples with Caroline Ball

Herbs with the Herb Society

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Dr Alison Foster (Jesus College), Senior Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, talks about her journey from industrial pharmaceutical chemistry research to her current role in horticulture, and offers some tips for major career transitions.

Dr Alison Foster (Jesus College), Senior Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, talks about her journey from industrial pharmaceutical chemistry research to her current role in horticulture, and offers some tips for major career transitions.

Many modern medicines are derived from plants.

The notorious history of healing molecules. Many molecules from plants can be used as medicines but are also toxic if the dose is too large.

A welcome to the Botanic Garden and the Chemistry at the Garden audio trail from the Senior Curator, Dr Alison Foster.