Illustrations by Karl Simmons

Artist Karl Simmons, a garden volunteer since 2018, creates beautiful work focussing on different aspects of the RCP garden of medicinal plants.

This A4 portrait calendar showcases his project to record the lifecycle of the plants growing in our wild area beneath the Oriental plane tree. Here we provide a more natural habitat for some medicinal plants which are often regarded as weeds, showing how attractive they can be as well as how important they are in providing a valuable source of food and cover for birds and insects.

This area is at the heart of the RCP garden both metaphorically and physically for here we ask people to look at plants in a different way, to value them for qualities beyond their appearance and to celebrate the part they play in nurturing life.

The garden can be visited throughout the year- see back of calendar for details.