Category: research

Tipping Point; the fire in the garden.

Posted on by andy.winfield

Three silhouettes in front of a firey scene with a reflection in a pool. By Andy Winfield

 

Fire has become a terrifying normality for many people around the world; a natural inclination for us here in the UK is to watch from afar and be thankful it isn’t happening to us. We all do it, look at the hurricanes, tornados, and fires with a furrowing of our brows and concern but deep down the safety for ourselves is at our core. In Tipping Point, an installation by Luke Jerram in early October this year, visitors were plunged into the reality of communities abroad by creating a simulation of a forest fire right here in the Botanic Garden.

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What is a Botanic Garden?

Posted on by andy.winfield
Tropical zone pool
Tropical zone pool

By Andy Winfield

When I’m out and about outside work, and people ask what I do, and I tell them I work in a Botanic Garden, the most common next question is, what IS a Botanic Garden? I answer my stock response, a museum with living exhibits, but this reply just scratches the surface of what a Botanic Garden really is in the 21st century.

The more accurate answer to this question is that a Botanic Garden is many things, we are at our core a living museum, a curated collection of significant species; but surrounding this core are layers that create a life and vibrancy, each as important as each other. (more…)

Nature repeating itself

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

It was Georgia O’Keefe who said, ‘When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment’. It’s worth doing this, nature is captivating close up; perfectly packaged and clinically efficient, each flower has an adapted shape and look gleaned over hundreds of thousands of years for maximum productivity. This economy of engineering uses patterns and shapes that are repeated again and again throughout the natural world and dotted all around the Botanic Garden. (more…)

Know your knotweed advice

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Nicola Temple

Researchers at the University of Exeter‘s Penryn campus have had a comprehensive look at Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica)  guidance from a range of sources on the web, including government sites, environmental NGOs, weed control companies, the media and the property market. They’ve found that this advice is often contradictory and even misleading. (more…)