My first visit to Quarryhill Botanical Garden in 2008 blew me away. My lifelong passion for plants and my education in horticulture has taken me to many prominent botanical gardens. I never tire of meeting new plants and learning more about them. I had heard Quarryhill was an interesting garden, and when I moved to Northern from Southern California I made a point of visiting as soon as I could. What I found growing there astonished me. At every turn I found plants I had never heard of or seen, entire genera with which I was unfamiliar. The beauty and richness of this flora was staggering!
As I settled into my new home, I began my flower essence training with Jane Bell in order to earn my certification as practitioner. I had used flower essences for years, and was thrilled to be able to gain a solid base in order to practice. As a fellow flower lover, I told her about this botanical wonderland and we scheduled a visit together. She also was amazed at the diversity and beauty of the garden and pointed out virtually none of these plants had been developed as flower essences. Flower essence makers had been exploring ecosystems all over the world for many years, but China had remained closed to exploration for much of recent history.
I met with Bill McNamara, the executive director of the garden, and explained my interest and the low impact to the garden making flower essences would have. He kindly agreed to my request, and felt the study of these plants in this way was fully within the mission of the garden as a research institution.
And so the project began, I started traveling to the garden weekly to begin connecting to the plants and beginning to make flower essences. These weekly visits continue, and my relationship to the garden deepens and grows with time.
Part of my personal commitment to the garden has been to offer volunteer service in gratitude for being able to do this work. I have assisted in the greenhouse, bringing my horticultural skills to the seed propagation program, and I conduct educational talks and garden walks for the volunteers. In addition to my volunteer time, I donate 5% of all sales from the Flora of Asia flower essence line to support the mission of conservation education at this important non-profit institution.