Living in the Southwest US, I am familiar with the concept of rescuing native plants from land that will be developed. Cacti are frequent losers in the land-use game.

I had never heard of houseplant rescue at the same level. I have certainly engaged in it a bit when people I know toss houseplants because they have a bug or two or have dropped a few leaves. Poinsettias are frequent victims at this time of year. And who hasn’t bought that nearly dead plant on the sale rack at a big box store even though you know it’s likely a bad idea and waste of money… Heck, I have a split-leaf philodendrum that I bought on the order of 50 years ago for $0.10 (remember when we used to have cent signs on our keyboards – where did they go?)… Of course, I don’t remember all my failures over that same time period.

So, it was with great interest that I read this article in The Guardian this morning. The story takes place in Seville, Spain and involves a man with a mission and a group of 2400 fellow Sevillanos joined through a facebook page who agree that houseplants belong in the house, not in the trash. When a member sees a plant sticking out of a trash bin, they quickly post the information to the facebook page and whoever wants said plant goes and rescues it.

Pepe Ortiz, the organizer, says, “It’s a reclamation of the plant as a living being. People need to realize that these aren’t just objects to be used and discarded. They deserve respect, care and a measure of dignity.”

While a quick internet search didn’t provide any links as directly focused on how to rescue plants, I found one site in the UK that rescues plants for resale. In addition to interesting information on working to rehome rescued plants, the woman, Sarah Gerrard-Jones, has a great book about taking care of plants – The Plant Rescuer: the Book Your Houseplants Want You to Read. In her introduction, she writes: “I’ve been rescuing unheard and misunderstood plants for years and I’ve poured all I’ve learnt into this book so that you too can recognise the cries for help and save your plants from the compost heap.”

Interested in rescuing plants? If you know of any groups that do this work in the US or around the world, let me know and I’ll post information here.

What a fabulous idea. I read about this in a Literary Hub article here. That article is built upon an article from the Smithsonain Magazine, should you want to trace back and learn a bit more. The basic idea seems to be that you give people lots of books on Christmas Eve and then spend the rest of the holiday time (and, I might add, the time of year when it’s dark outside most of the day) reading and drinking hot chocolate. What else could anyone want?

And, if you need a book list of botanical selections you’d like to receive or that would make great presents for the plant-appreciators in your life, you can check here for the books we’ll be reading in 2023 so you can start early. Of course, the books we’ve already read are in the same place. Some include summaries and links to additional information although I confess that I fall behind on getting it posted. Perhaps I’ll manage to catch up with some of the other summaries over the winter break. In between reading and drinking hot chocolate, of course.

Even if you’re not ready to move to Iceland to enjoy the book flood properly, I can’t think of a better way to spend ttime!

Happy holidays and happy reading!

What links these two topics? Both are about Ukraine and both appeared in the Guardian. Although seeds and libraries have a closer connection than they used to. In Albuquerque, the public libraries do have a free seed program. When I first went to one, several years ago, the seeds were in old card catalog cabinets (repurposing at its finest) and you were allowed to “check out” several packets, with the request that you save some seed and “return” at the end of the growing season. Things are different now, but the idea of getting local seeds from your local library seems to have remained.

This morning I read an amazing article in The Guardian about the librarians of Ukraine. In the very early days of the war and the few days before Putin offered his version of history. Suffice it to say that it’s not the version of history Ukrainians are familiar with. The Guardian article states, “Most wars are fought over who will define the future. The Ukrainian war is a struggle over who will define the past.”

According to the article, the Russians have been targeting the destruction of libraries and documents that speak to anything but the Russian view of history.

Librarians in Ukraine have been tireless in their efforts to keep their libraries open, not just as a source for reading material but also as a community space offering whatever help they can to their patrons. Librarians around the world have been helping as well – physical supplies and equipment (think bomb-proof cabinets for rare historical documents and state of the art scanning and photographic equipment are listed in the article.

Although I tend to focus on books, it is clear that books need libraries as much as libraries need books.

And, on the more botanically based themes I usually write about, one of the potential links from that story was to one from earlier this summer – A special delivery of seeds from Ukraine. The article is here and the link to the seed company is here. The seed company, OrganicSeeds, has 21 language choices and can accept euros, pounds, and dollars. Just saying….