Beauty from the extremes
Travel has the ability to unlock something in all of us. As our horizons shift and expand we are challenged to navigate unfamiliar settings. This sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce discomfort can be an unlocking of our potential and calls us to adapt to a new environment. It is our human nature to seek comfort and rhythm in our daily life, yet so often it is when we take ourselves beyond our well trodden paths that the most bountiful growth occurs.
Plants, like people, can thrive in unexpected ways when placed in a challenging environment. There is exquisite beauty to be found in the study of plants and people. Travel to foreign lands can unlock another world, beyond our immediate perception and ignite creativity, inspiration and a boundless sense of the world being part of an immensely bigger picture.
What can we learn from plants that thrive in extreme conditions? Nature teaches us that plants can flourish in extreme heat, gusty winds and parched soil - life prevails.
In South Africa’s Super Bloom, we see sweeping vistas of explosive blooms drifting off beyond the horizon and a kaleidoscope of colour densely carpeting the land. The region is a biodiversity hotspot, home to many vibrant species including succulents and bulbs, surviving and thriving in the arid land. There is unexpected beauty in these species. As they have embraced the extremes of their environmental conditions they too have have grown to challenge our human perceptions of what is beautiful. Bright, bold and rebellious, they flourish and delight in spite of their conditions.
The ephemeral nature of this explosive display of blooms makes the impact all the more potent. As the flowers die off in the extreme heat, the seeds are sown for the next year's Super Bloom - a glorious cycle of renewal and hope. Plants are the ultimate survivors.
Soil and plants are generous in their sharing of wisdom, and at Super Bloom we bear witness to the beauty and the transience - gleaning ancient knowledge from the land to bring back home and apply to our work, igniting the fuel for a creative and technical plant practice.
Super Bloom’s Jac Semmler will be going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the wondrous wildflowers of South Africa in September. Jac will be taking travellers on a botanical tour through the area, offering her palpable plant passion to give guests a truly personal experience.
Tickets for the tour are still available, head to Botanica to find out more and book your spot on this unmissable experience.
Images: Jac Semmler, Super Bloom from research trips South Western United States