Every year, as the New Year approaches, I take a few minutes to write a short list of “things that interest me”. It can be anything: a vegetable, a feeling, a historical movement, a hobby… They are not necessarily things that I do or excel at; simply areas of interest that I want to explore. It is both a retrospect and a form of resolution.
Why not try the same experiment from a 100% gardening point of view? Of course, plants are already on my list of things that interest me in general! But what if I tried the experiment only with plants, plant groups, horticultural trends, horticultural practices, or any other element directly related to gardening?
It took me some time to figure out what I was really interested in. I have explored so many passions over the past 30 years! Some stay, year after year. Others evolve. Some are new. It is a safe bet that some of the topics presented here will become articles for the Laidback Gardener blog! For others, it will be a further exploration. And finally, there are some topics that will remain in my little heart without me really tackling them in the coming year. And that is the beauty of this list: they are just areas of interest. Without obligation! So here are, not necessarily in order of priority, my present 10 horticultural passions.
#1 – Aeschynanthus (lipstick plant)
This is the first thing that inspired me to write this text! This hanging plant is truly a favorite of mine in the last two years. I find that we know so little about this plant. It has become the plant that makes me want to own all the varieties.
#2 – Edible wild plants
Of course, native plants are always on the list of plants that I love! For a few years now, I have been enjoying picking a few of them, which are now part of my ingredients for cooking or making infusions. Fir shoots, wild rose petals and dwarf red blackberry have been in my Mason jars for many years. In 2025, I hope to be able to add one or two new species to my season of forest harvest walks.
#3 – Pehr Kalm’s Travels
Pehr Kalm is a Swedish explorer and botanist and a disciple of Linnaeus. He explored North America, and in particular Quebec, around 1750. I have been looking for his travel stories in second-hand bookstores for many years and I got my hands on a copy this year. I am curious to see what his discoveries are, how he describes plants he has never seen in his life. This first encounter with a completely new flora!
#4 – Arboriculture
I have always been very interested in trees in general. When people ask me, “Julie, how can we change the world?” I always say, “Plant trees! There are a lot of books and articles coming out these days about tree development, new techniques for planting trees in cities, or tree health. I could get into that!
#5 – Alpine plants
Ever since I saw my first true alpine plants in the Colorado Rockies more than 20 years ago, I have loved them unconditionally. So fragile and yet so enduring. So fickle, but always there! This year my wish would be to go on a little expedition somewhere to discover new ones in their natural habitat.
#6 – Epiphytic plants
These are plants that live attached to other plants. Audrey talked about this recently. But what interests me more about epiphytic plants is how they absorb water and nutrients. So it is on a more physiological level that I want to deepen my knowledge of these plants.
#7 – The origin of plants
I know a little about the subject, but I want to go deeper. I’m not talking about the countries of origin of the plants, but rather the native species from which most of our horticultural or food plants are derived. It’s quite fascinating to discover wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and realize that it is from this plant that we have gotten cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli!
#8 – Pines that produce pine nuts!
I find pines in general to be a very interesting species. Spread all over the planet, the horticultural world has dwarfed, colored and curled them! But what piques my curiosity are the species that produce edible seeds. Yes, they do! Pine nuts are simply the seeds contained in the cones! And it seems that several species that are very hardy in North America are able to provide us with this commodity that is so expensive at the grocery store!
#9 – Ecosystem services of plants
In plain English, this means the roles that plants play in the environment. Of course, we are generally familiar with the fact that plants provide oxygen and trees sequester carbon. But I want to dig a little deeper! I want to put the ecosystem services of plants into a broader context. Compare them to the services provided by oceans or soils…
#10 – The Botanical Gardens
I think you can feel my desire to travel. And of course, all of my travels include a little detour to a botanical garden, a public garden, or an arboretum. I particularly like botanical gardens because their basic mission is not to be pretty: it is to contain collections. I like to discover what the specialty of each one is. For example, you would not expect the Montreal Botanical Garden to have a large collection… of begonias!
As you will quickly understand, the things that interest me are not necessarily future trends or what will be the next big thing. They are simply aspects of my fabulous job that excite me. They are things that capture my imagination.
Looking back, I see a lot of reading, perfect for the winter, but also a lot of travelling outside of Quebec. Of course, my gardening life will not revolve solely around these 10 points, but it is a safe bet that I will explore one or the other of these passions in the coming year. My evaluation of next year will allow me to see to what extent I have immersed myself in one or another of these passions! To be continued!
I would like to invite my blog colleagues to do the same exercise and, above all, I would be very curious to discover which 10 “horticultural things” interest YOU at the moment.
#4 makes me cringe a bit. I enjoy being an arborist very much, but have difficulty with the misconceptions about what it is about. I really could get carried away here. I happen to live in a forest ecosystem that naturally burned every few decades. Its ecology was severely disrupted a century ago by clear cut harvesting, and then unable to recover as so many of us inhabited the region without proper management. Fire suppression makes it possible for us to live here, but interferes with recovery of the ecosystem. We should be removing more hardwood trees rather than planting them. Planting trees contributes to the problem rather than helping with it. Although I used to enjoy planting street trees in the Los Angeles region, and seeing how they improve the urban environment, I also know that they are not natural, as some believe. Los Angeles, as well as San Jose, was naturally a chaparral ecosystem. Not only are all of the trees not native, and mostly from other continents, but they are contrary to the chaparral ecosystem, which was naturally inhabited by only a few trees that were mostly confined to only very few riparian situations. Anyway, as I mentioned, I could really get carried away here.
Excellent list and inspiring! Wishing you a safe and discovery-rich 2025. May you share some of them with us here.
What an inspiring post! I love how the list carries no obligation nor “resolutions”, simply an acknowledgement of what currently piques your interest! I will definitely make my own list!
I love how scattershot this list is – so many interesting paths to wander down. I too love arboretums (the University of Illinois has a great one – dawn redwoods!).