Herb Gardening
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Hampton Court 2010
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| This 25 metre square exhibit, modelled on the traditional four quadrants of a physic garden, will demonstrate the variety of crops which can be grown for health benefits in various areas of medicine. So, not a traditional garden, but an agricultural display of colourful row crops, will present the visitor with the impression of a productive farm. One quadrant devoted to herbal crops will show species such as Aloe (Aloe vera), Borage (Borago officinalis), St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) and Marigold (Calendula officinalis). An unusual feature will be Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) grown as it is in China and Eastern Europe-as a hedge. |
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A second quadrant, for pharmaceutical crops, will show species such as Bishopsweed (Ammi majus), Yew (Taxus baccata) grown as a crop for Taxol production, Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) shown in the stage when it is cut for morphine production and Daffodil bulbs (Narcissus major) as harvested for galanthamine production to relieve early stages of Altzheimer's Disease. |
| Essential oil production, in a third quadrant, will feature a field distilling station surrounded by fragrant crops of Roses (Rosa spp), Lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) and Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), as grown in Reunion Island for geranium oil production. |
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The last quadrant will, by contrast, reveal how much of our herbal supplies come from the wild (around 80% by variety of species), much of it unsustainably but where it is an essential part of the livelihoods of the poor, and especially of women and children. A recreated wild habitat, showing a Romanian birch forest, a wet meadow and limestone landscape will show some of these species including orchids of the genus Dactylorrhiza for the trade |
This is an educational exhibit by the Herb Society and the row crops will be identified by labels appropriate to field trials. Additional interpretation will come from Coombe Dean School in Wembury, Devon who will provide scarecrow/mannikin figures appropriate to the types of crops and the people who produce and harvest them, as well as the type of basketry which would be used for collection. A processors hut, collecting bags and harvesting implements will add to the aura of productivity.
The Herb Society is an international educational charity devoted to promoting the understanding and use of herbs for the benefit of the community for the treatment and prevention of disease. It was formed in 1927 as the Society of Herbalists, by Hilda Leyel, in conjunction with the Culpeper shops, to enable the practice of herbalism at a time when this was threatened and eventually outlawed by the Pharmacy Act between 1941 and 1968. It became the Herb Society on Leyel's death in 1957 and its current HQ, library and garden is at Sulgrave Manor, near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Sue Minter, previous Curator of Chelsea Physic Garden and Horticultural Director of the Eden Project, is its current Chair.
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