I have a serious botanical art book addiction. There's nothing nicer than getting stuck into an hour or more of browsing through what's on offer from vintage booksellers with a good collection of botanical art books.

Well nothing nicer than the book you bought turning up and being so much better than you were expecting! There's something about books produced in the past which yells "quality" and if you've got a "very good" or "as new" version then I'm in heaven.

However what's better still is the fact that botanical art book owners tend to be very nice people - and they pass on extras in their books that they don't tell you about until you get them.

Which is how I come to be the owner of some seriously archival class documents about Mary Grierson (1912-2012) (who I currently have listed on the 20th Century Botanical Artists page on the website) when I purchased a copy of her book An English Florilegium

The image at the top of the page is of the exhibition catalogues for three solo exhibitions - which probably each deserve a blog post in their own right!

They are- from left to right:

• Hedgerows of England - an exhibition of watercolour drawings by Mary Grierson at Spink (20th November - 7h December 1979)
• Mary Grierson - An English Florilegium - Botanical Watercolour Drawings of the Tradescant Legacy at Spink (4th - 27th November 1987) - this one is annotated with prices in pencil and relates to the book I bought.
• Mary Grierson - Plants of the Hawaiian Islands and other Recent Watercolours at Spink (22nd May - 1 st June 1990) this one is also annotated with prices in pencil

They came in a copy of An English Florilegium which I will be doing a book review of shortly alongside developing a brand new page on the website devoted to Mary Grierson.

Of late I've become seriously appreciative of catalogues from exhibitions of botanical art. They tell you so much about the scope and nature of the art but also details of the artist which often never reaches formal publication in a book. For the serious student of botanical art, I'd very much recommend paying serious attention to exhibition catalogues.

You might also like to think about you and your work are recorded in solo exhibitions - for posterity and future collectors!

Mary Grierson in brief:

• born of Scottish parents in Bangor in North Wales
  
• painted plants from a young age
  
• worked in the WAAF as an interpreter for the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
  
• took up botanical art 'properly' at age 48!
• Studied botanical illustration under John Nash RA
• Botanical artist / illustrator working for Kew Gardens 1960-1972.
• She won five RHS Gold Medals
• plus the Veitch Memorial Medal of the RHS, and later their Victoria Medal of Honour. 
• She continued to work after she retired, producing illustrations for "Hedgerows of England" and "Coastal Plants of England" and published a Florilegium of the Flora of Hawaii

When she died I wrote this blog post In praise of the older artist - Mary Anderson Grierson. in a celebration of her achievements in botanical art most of which came after the age of 60!

One very important aspect of botanical illustration is making a record of important heritage plants and trees.  

This is the first in a series of posts I intend to write about important botanical paintings - or opportunities to paint plants to record an important event or a transformation.

Last month it became apparent that an important opportunity may exist in Scotland for those who might like to record an ancient tree that is apparently changing gender - from male to female. This October it grew three red berries!

The Fortingall Yew is an ancient heritage tree (Taxus baccata) of international importance. It's believed to be one of the oldest trees in Europe and is almost certainly the oldest tree in the UK.

It's estimated to be around 2,000 years old but could be as old as 5,000 years. It can't be aged on the basis of tree rings as the trunk has changed over time. The trunk was measured as being 56 feet by Thomas Pennent in 1769. However the centre has rotted and it has now split into several separate stems or offshoots.

The tree is rooted in Fortingall churchyard between Killin and Aberfeldy in Perthshire.  ​

The reason the tree has been getting a lot of coverage across the world of late is that it's apparently changing sex!

An article Oldest Yew changes sex (23 October 2015) in the Botanic Stories blog of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh triggered the interest. As it indicates

Apparently gender morphing by yews and other conifers is not unheard of but tends to be associated with the crown - although there are a few species which routinely grow both male and female parts.

In this species gender change is rare. In this particular instance just one branch has decided to be female - and grow three bright red berries in October - while the rest of the tree continues to be a traditional male!

It'll be interesting to see what happens next Autumn and whether the berries appear again.

I suggest botanical artists form an orderly queue next October to paint it!

Links:
BBC | Berries show ancient Fortingall yew tree is 'changing sex' (2 November 2015)
Visit Scotland: How to get there