25/03/2018 - THE LOST GARDENS OF HELIGAN

While visiting a friend down at her uni in Falmouth, I also visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan, a botanical gardens in Cornwall first created by the Tremayne family from the 18th to early 20th century, however they fell into disrepair and were overcome by nature, to be restored and recovered in the 1990s, becoming the subject of several television series and books. I have always really enjoyed botanical gardens, and my recent essay piqued my interest as I had begun to learn about some of the history and connotations associated with them. They are one of the key historical meeting points and contextualisations of mans early interaction and interpretation/colonisation of nature.



These gardens contained many of the period elements associated with the 18th century gardens, including authentic buildings and glass houses maintained in their condition since the restoration, including even some of the old botanical tools and processes preserved. This really gave me a firsthand sense of the time period many of the books I saw in the JIC Archive had originally come from.
Botany back then would have been very hands on and connected experience to the organic matter being studied. Working this closely in the practical environment with these plants most have fostered a paradigm of care and respect for the force of nature which was being piece by piece catalogued, studied and understood. An entire world away from the level of botanical research and modification which happens today, where much of the lab work that goes on is entirely removed from natural origin.

Aswell as the areas focussing on botany, there were also functional areas such as large glasshouse herb gardens for growing herbs all year round, and where there had initially been a selection of beehives to help pollinate the many native and non native species around the gardens.
As well as this there were other curiosities such as the 'Mud Maid' and 'Giant's Head', two anthropomorphic beings hewn directly from the eath itself and covered in a green coating of moss and ivy. These figures enhance the further thematic meeting of humanity with nature.

One of the other really notable features of the gardens was the large pineapple pit. A glass contraption of 3 sections which used fermentation of manure to raise temperatures well above those present in the natural climate. I had never seen a real life pineapple growing before, and even to me (who tries to remain aware and consciouss of nature wherever possible) seeing the bright yellow pineapple growing ontop of the spiky shrub beneath looked entirely alien. I knew for a fact I had never seen anything like it before, and a little extra research quickly told me why. This was infact the only still operational pineapple pit in all of Europe, which explained why it was nothing like I had seen before! It seemed pulled straight from one of the pages in the JIC archive.

The garden itself was planted in the 19th century 'Gardenesque' style pioneered by John Loudon as a response to aesthetic ideas of the 'Picturesque' which were also heavily influencing garden design at the time. Loudon proposed that under picturesque planting styles, visitors could become confused that the arrangements they saw were intact natural and disregard the careful composition a skilled botanist had crafted. So within the gardenesque style, specimens were isolated and any surrounding plant matter removed in what was known as high-keeping (high maintenance) gardening, to showcase the perfect form of each plant without irregularity or distraction.

He also championed geometric arrangements of plants within flowerbeds and theorised a 'Principle of Recognition', and argued that for planting design to be recognisable as a work of art, only exotic plants should be used. This is viewable with particular effectiveness in the Gardens of Heligan, as they also benefit from the unique warmer microclimate of Cornwall and the surrounding area.
Hence the 'Jungle' subtropical garden area was particularly impressive with gigantic palms and ferns arranged around a emerald green lagoon.

These ideas of 'Gardenesque' and 'Picturesque' as ways of presenting the new wonders of the botanical world to the population really interested me. The themes touched on here are exactly the same as those around the colonisation of nature in terms of how we rationalise and present wilderness in relation to our own human interpretations and assumptions. Loudon's fear that audiences could mistake picturesque planting for natural growth, and why he would want to control and direct their vision into visibly constructed versions instead. It makes me consider what would really be preferable, seeing nature at it's most untamed and unruly, or the packaged processed version presented in Loudon's ideas. Perhaps at the time it was important that audiences were able to view specimens at their most iconic, however in today's world, with public disconnection from aspects of the true natural world at an all time high, I feel that audiences awareness of what 'real nature' grows like, in all of it's unruly messiness, is quite important.

My visit to the gardens allowed me to take some great pictures of a botanical centre which hailed from the direct time of the books in the JIC Archive. It also allowed me to fully immerse myself physically in the environment I had seen pictured in the rare books. It also made me realise how far removed we have come from this period, and the tangible analogue connection that botanists used to have to their work, much of which was only 'reconstructed' for the purposes of the gardens, and is completely different to the active practices of the science (and the JIC) today. As always, whenever I get up close and personal with new stories and cases within the natural world, I find myself re-inspired by the endless diversity and beauty. I feel this primary research opportunity has really grounded my understanding of the field of study and time period.