(For a bit of fun, every Friday our Plant Records Manager, Chris Bisson, the guy who maintains all the recorded information on our plant collections, will do a regular blog slot where he recommends his favourite “plant records” – that is, songs that are in some way linked to a plant. (Do you see what we did there?) )

‘Rubber Bullets’ (1973) – 10CC

The Pará rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is the primary source of latex, the milky sap-like extract which is processed into rubber. The tree is actually indigenous to the Amazon rainforest but discovery of vulcanization led to extensive cultivation throughout Britain’s colonial tropical regions such as Ceylon, Singapore and Malaysia.

Despite having a very dubious name, 10CC had some huge hits in the 70s including ‘Donna’, ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ and the dreary, sorry dreamy ‘I’m Not In Love’. Two former members Godley and Creme became innovative video directors, producing Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ and the Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’.

We have these fascinating trees growing in the Rainforest Biome!

A special thanks to Simon for picking this one for me.

Chris Bisson – Plant Records Manager  – Eden Project

Sport Relief at Eden

Eden will be staging a Sport Relief Mile sponsored run this Sunday (March 21).

Eden will be hosting one, three and six mile runs, all of which take routes “around the world” through the mild Cornish outdoors, to the warm, sunny Mediterranean Biome and the hot and humid Rainforest Biome.

All the runs start at 10.30am with the event opening at 9am. All runners and their families get free entry to Eden for the rest of the day. The race entry fee is £5 for adults, £2 for children (under 16) with a family entry (two adults and two children) costing £12. The entry fee helps to cover the cost of staging the Mile event.

Sport Relief events take place around the country during March 19-21. The event has a history of dedicated people doing extraordinary things to make a difference – from David Walliams’ swim across the English Channel, to Eddie Izzard’s marathon-a-day around the UK, not to mention the thousands of people who run the Sport Relief Mile.

All the money raised by the public is spent by Comic Relief to help transform the lives of poor and vulnerable people, both at home and across the world’s poorest countries.

For more information on the Sport Relief Mile visit www.sportrelief.com.

Commonly known as ‘Our Lord’s Candle’ the Yucca whipplei in our  Mediterranean Biome is flowering for the very first time! It is native to southern California and Baja California in Mexico where it occurs in chaparral, coastal sage scrub and oak woodland plant communities usually between 300 and 2500 m.

From the centre of a rosette of long, narrow, spine-tipped leaves, the single inflorescence can sky-rocket to a height of 3m bearing hundreds of bell-shaped greenish-white flowers edged with purple. It is pollinated during the night by the female Californian yucca moth and in return the plant provides food for her larvae.

In early spring these majestic flowers provide a stunning spectacle in the Californian countryside but in the past the flowers, fruits, seeds and stems were eaten by indigenous peoples. They also provide food for antelopes, ground squirrels and hummingbirds. This plant has been an important fibre plant in the past.

So head for the Mediterranean Biome and you’ll find our Yucca on the Californian hillside beyond the Harley Davidson!

(For a bit of fun, every Friday our Plant Records Manager, Chris Bisson, the guy who maintains all the recorded information on our plant collections, will do a regular blog slot where he recommends his favourite “plant records” – that is, songs that are in some way linked to a plant. (Do you see what we did there?) )

‘Pork and Beans’ – Weezer

A nice cheery tune featuring my favourite plant family the Legumes! One of the largest plant families, the Fabaceae not only include beans and peas we know and love, but also the fantastic Acacia and Flaming Coral trees. We have loads of Fabaceae here at Eden, come down and see if you can spot them. Broom, Gorse, Broad Beans the list goes on!

Chris Bisson – Plant Records Manager  – Eden Project

Commonly known as ‘Our Lord’s Candle’ the Yucca whipplei in our  Mediterranean Biome is flowering for the very first time! It is native to southern California and Baja California in Mexico where it occurs in chaparral, coastal sage scrub and oak woodland plant communities usually between 300 and 2500 m.

From the centre of a rosette of long, narrow, spine-tipped leaves, the single inflorescence can sky-rocket to a height of 3m bearing hundreds of bell-shaped greenish-white flowers edged with purple. It is pollinated during the night by the female Californian yucca moth and in return the plant provides food for her larvae.

In early spring these majestic flowers provide a stunning spectacle in the Californian countryside but in the past the flowers, fruits, seeds and stems were eaten by indigenous peoples. They also provide food for antelopes, ground squirrels and hummingbirds. This plant has been an important fibre plant in the past.

So head for the Mediterranean Biome and you’ll find our Yucca on the Californian hillside beyond the Harley Davidson!

(For a bit of fun, every Friday our Plant Records Manager, Chris Bisson, the guy who maintains all the recorded information on our plant collections, will do a regular blog slot where he recommends his favourite “plant records” – that is, songs that are in some way linked to a plant. (Do you see what we did there?) )

‘Turnip Farm’ Dinosaur Jr.

The humble Turnip (Brassica rapa var. rapa) is a fantastic vegetable! It’s a brilliant ingredient for stews, soups,
pies and pasties. Not to be confused with the Swede the turnip is white and purple, with a whiter flesh.

Dinosaur Jr. although not directly singing the praises of Turnips in this slightly melancholy song, are most
definately influenced by the Brassicaceae Family, which you can feel in the more ‘twangy’ chords.

Chris Bisson – Plant Records Manager  – Eden Project

More than 300 homeless and disadvantaged people from across the country are now preparing detailed plans for the “Places of Change” Garden, the biggest-ever show garden in the history of the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2010.

The Places of Change Garden is an ambitious collaboration between national housing and regeneration delivery agency, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Eden Project, national membership charity for frontline homelessness agencies Homeless Link, and Communities and Local Government (CLG).

This partnership builds on the success of the silver medal award-winning Key Garden at Chelsea in 2009, which saw collaboration from 20 homeless agencies and 200 homeless service users involved at all stages of the  garden’s development. The project aimed to give participants the chance to unlock their hidden potential, and many of the service users involved consistently reported a huge confidence boost, new skills, and renewed hope for their future.

The 2010 Garden is being funded by CLG and the HCA’s Places of Change programme – a £80m capital funding improvement programme that aims to bring about a step change in the way homeless services are perceived and challenge stereotypes around homelessness.

Following on from the themes of The Key last year, the new garden is founded on the ideas of skills,  employment and enterprise.

All the people taking part are going to be guided and looked after in their activities. The National Open College Network is going to assess and accredit their activity. For the designers, this will not only mean being part of a unique project, it also means they will have an accredited qualification in garden design.

Among the creative concepts already being developed is a towering “planted man” figure being made up of medicinal plants grown in the precise bodily regions to which they bring benefit.

The novel idea was suggested by Lucy Fleming, a project worker at Stonham,  a supported housing provider.  The framework is now being devised and the plants are being researched, selected and grown.  Among the remedies proposed is St John’s Wort, sometimes used in the treatment of depression, to make up part of the figure’s head.

Lucy said: “All of my colleagues and clients at the services involved are really excited about appearing at the show.  We’re hoping our plant man looks really eye catching and that visitors to the garden learn something about which plants can help them live more healthily.”

Also working on the garden’s Health zone are Herefordshire SHYPP, supported housing for young people project, whose clients have chosen the theme of toxic and healing plants for their design, and have recruited two herbalists  from London to work with ten young people,  to teach them about their own health, plants and their healing properties.

Overseen by Paul Stone, the Eden Project garden designer and a multiple medal winner at Chelsea, the 590 square-metre garden will feature a network of themed zones all conveying the empowering nature of growing for life.  In addition to the health zone, other areas will feature food production, the senses, industry and the environment.

Paul Stone is working with Architecture Sans Frontieres-UK and Roderick James Architects on the masterplan.  The experienced designers are taking a holistic approach and are involving people from eight homeless centres in creating the framework.  In total, as many as 50 centres across the country will be involved in design, planting and building of the garden.

Paul Stone said: “The real work is now starting to happen.  We know it is fantastically ambitious to have so many hands on the project and in particular the design.  The exciting thing is to empower so many people.  The stage is there for them to express themselves in all kinds of creative ways.

“Already there are some great ideas on the drawing board, including the planted man. Experienced horticulturists from Eden are being assigned to the teams to help guide them through but essentially the garden is being designed by people who would never have taken on anything like this before.

“As well as the separately designed zones and all the features and plants within them, a major structure on display will be the dramatic central spine of the garden, made up of 250 sentinel posts. These will require traditional carpentry skills and are very much part of the training and learning experience which is such an important element of this project.”

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