Category: Uncategorized

In June this year I went on holiday to Georgia, a country with diverse cultural and geographic influences; its links with Europe to the west and Asia to the east made it a perfect corridor for silk route traders. Along the north of Georgia run the High Caucasus, a thousand-kilometre range of mountains that border Russia, and Azerbaijan.  The mountains are an almost impenetrable barrier, few roads link Russia and Georgia, the military highway in the Kazbegi region, the Ossetian military road, and Transcaucasian highway; in Georgia there are two disputed territories that are effectively governed by Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and two of these highways run through South Ossetia. After a short but brutal conflict in 2008, thick rolls of barbed wire were placed along the disputed areas in a process known to Georgians as borderisation; siblings, family, and friends were cut off from each other, many haven’t seen each other since. Occasionally, overnight, the barbed wire will be moved further onto Georgian land as a provocative move, a way of unsettling Georgians. Georgian people are nervous of the future; political moves and Russian rhetoric make them so. When you talk to them, they are fiercely patriotic. They want to cling on to what they have, and what they have is beautiful. (more…)

By Sezin Topaloglu: BSc Marketing 2nd year

As a part of my 2nd year Marketing degree at the University of Bristol, I am excited to say that I’ve completed my social media placement at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. It has been an incredibly comprehensive and invaluable experience, significantly enhancing my social media skills and deepening my knowledge of plants. Throughout this placement, I engaged in a variety of tasks that allowed me to develop a strong understanding of content creation and social media strategy. (more…)

By Andy Winfield

There have been three occasions when our team have seen people reduced to tears due to plants. The first was in our New Zealand display. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a very interesting display botanically, but many people wouldn’t note it as their favourite or the most beautiful in the Garden. In fact, most people walk straight through it on their way to the toilet or the glasshouses. There they were though, two people, a couple who were from New Zealand but had been in the UK a while, laughing and crying at the same time. It reminded them of the landscape of home. The second, a large South African man with a big beard in the glasshouses; he said he didn’t realise he was homesick until he saw and smelt the Fynbos plants and seeing them made him both happy and sad. Thirdly, a Brazilian woman who hadn’t been in Brazil for twenty years; the giant waterlily in the glasshouses reminded her of her childhood and made her feel reflective. These are the people we’ve seen, there may have been more.

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By Susan Stephens

Summer is officially here! The first day of summer in the UK was on 21st June, the summer solstice, which is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and it is also the longest day. Summer solstice has always been linked with plants and flowers as it is a time of fertility, abundance and growth.

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