The garden Flux
SeeHow is celebrating its second anniversary so I thought I would indulge myself a little bit and look back to the beginning of the SeeHow adventure. SeeHow began life as a visual aide memoire – something that would easily convey the life of plants over the four seasons. I wanted to be able to see the annual life of each plant as a single graphic – especially revealing the flowering period and of course, the colour. And I wanted to be able to use the graphics to explore colour combinations. No other gardening book provided this.
SeeHow in use in the garden
In the film, ‘Back to the Future’, Doc Brown invented the ‘flux capacitor’, which he said was what made time travel possible. In its own way, this is what SeeHow does too. By selecting SeeHow plantsticks and arranging them by flowering season, with springtime at the top and wintertime at the bottom, a garden ‘colour-calendar’ is automatically created. The user can then explore alternative plant combinations, creating particular colour ‘moments’ in their garden. The colour-calendar will show the garden’s future and its past … in effect, a window in time. There really is nothing quite like it!
SeeHow plantsticks arranged to create a window in time!
There are tens of thousands of plants for gardeners to choose from. SeeHow Volume 1 contains illustrations of 140 of the most popular garden plants grown in the UK. It includes bulbs, many perennials and herbaceous perennials, evergreen plants and some woody shrubs too. Sizes range from the tiny Chionodoxa to tall Kerria japonica and the selection also ensures a range of colours for all seasons.
Gardens are in a constant state of change - intended and unintended, with plants (and wildlife) coming and going during the whole calendar-year. Some plants have year-round garden presence whether deciduous or evergreen; some are herbaceous and eventually disappear altogether leaving bare soil for short or long periods; some die well leaving strong winter structure that looks good and helps biodiversity; some plants are tall and some are tiny. Many flowers even change during the course of a single day, opening and closing, depending on the sunshine – daisies on the lawn are a familiar example. And of course flowers come in many shapes and sizes and in almost every colour imaginable. A garden is a collection of all of these (and many more) variables. It is hardly surprising that it is almost impossible to imagine what a garden will look like at any moment in time when there is so much going on. And as more plants are added, or simply as the existing plants ‘bed-in’ and mature, so the rate of change expands almost exponentially. I call this the ‘garden flux’. SeeHow can help throw a little light on to this.
Everyone loves Californian poppies - Hyde hall in Essex
Here are some flowers that have a special meaning for me. Each photo shows a beautiful SeeHow illustration beside the real plant. Many of these photos were taken at Kew Gardens in London and RHS Wisley in Surrey.
Calendula - these bright orange flowers take me back to my childhood in Surrey
Heleniums – there are 2 in SeeHow. Kew Gardens always has large beds to either side of the ‘Long Border’, creating a sea of vibrant colour – just the way Heleniums should be planted.
Echinacea – something of a favourite for people everywhere. Beautiful in flower throughout summer attracting insects, bees, butterflies … and people!
… and equally beautiful if left over winter.
Achilleas – available in a wide range of colours and lasting for many months of the year. It is a plant which also contributes architectural structure to the border – great for photography too!
Having made your own garden selection of SeeHow plantsticks, why not hang them up in the kitchen or the shed as a reminder of what has been and what is still to come .
Happy Gardening ;-)
The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.