Killerplants™ is not for everyone. It is for gardeners, plant lovers,
collectors, and people interested in the natural world. It is about the
commonplace and the rare. It is about a marvelous world that is taken for
granted--a world that can exist without us, but one without which we cannot
exist. It is about a world that can be enjoyed for its chemistry, its
architecture, or just for its pure sensation of colors, flavors, and smells.
Killerplants™ is a virtual garden for the mind. It is pieces of our
collective memory, legends of our past, necessities for our future. It is the
garden of our ancestors and the beginning of modern pharmaceuticals. It is a
world of herbalists, shamans, and ethnobotanists. It is about a world where
every day species are lost before they've been classified or studied.
Killerplants™ is about rethinking our world with a bit of respect so that
it will not be lost forever.
Killerplants™ publishes one of five newsletters daily, (five times a week).
We also publish other content on a regualar to semi-regular basis including:
the Plant of the Week™ (weekly), the Desktop of the Week (semi-weekly),
The Potting Bench - thoughts while planting™ (semi-regularly), and other
interactive and learning content.
Monday
Herbal folklore™ is presented to provide the reader with information about
beliefs and the historical uses of plants. It does NOT sanction the use of
herbs as medicines. The plant kingdom contains a huge amount of chemical
compounds—beneficial at best, benign in the least, and downright deadly at
the worst. Never take something because someone tells you its "All
Natural". REMEMBER: Poison ivy is all natural too.
Of the roughly five hundred thousand plant species on the face of the Earth,
which plants changed history and why? Prepare to be shocked, surprised, and
delighted.
Renfield's Garden™ is dedicated to all the strange plants that have close
interrelationships with insects. In other words, those plants Renfield (Dwight
Frye, 1931) would have loved to grow in a garden in Transylvania.
Of all of the approximately five hundred thousand plant species on the face of
the Earth, here is where you will find the weirdest of the weird! Some might
even be lurking in your own garden and you simply did not realize just how
weird they were. Enjoy!
Throughout history, we have given plants names. Not just scientific names but
names with meanings and stories that are intrinsic to our human makeup, our
human condition. As generations pass, we are not as close to the earth as we
were. Our memories darken. Plants come into favor and pass out again. Here is
where we may participate in the exciting rediscovery of lost knowledge and also
discover lost connections to common objects that owe their very existence to
plants. Enjoy!
In the art of seeing, there are moments when life jumps into absolute clarity.
Perhaps, the moment contains the sun as only dew can refract it or a moss
descended from the first green of the world. Time stands and the world is new.
The photograph holds these bits and pieces, images salvaged from those moments.
Nature provides beauty at every glance. It is present in the flash of color from a stand of wild flowers on the roadside as you pass. It announces itself with rolling thunder that brings the eye skyward to a contrast of grey blue storm clouds laden against the green leaves of a mighty oak. Let this place serve as a reminder of the world beyond our flat panels and cathode ray tubes.
There is a state of mind, an interaction that happens between a gardener and a
plant. The act of caring for a life form very different from us brings its own
benefit. A plant appears a passive thing, but in just sitting there, it gently
brings awareness. It makes you slow down. It lets you think. A cutting from a
friend says, "Remember me", a cutting from a stranger says,
"We're alike, you and I". It is the realization that nothing happens
alone. The Potting Bench is a place for thoughts such as these.
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