The Botanist’s Daughter, by Kayte Nunn, is a dual timeline novel that brings both stories together in the present. The narrative shifts between the late 1880s (beginning in Cornwall, moving primarily to Chile, with an ending in Australia) and the early 2000s (beginning in Australia and shifting to Cornwall.) Dual timelines can be difficult to write and this one, in my opinion, suffered from jumping between the two times with every new chapter. This doesn’t bother everyone and apart from that the novel was well-written and engaging.
A bit of background information.
The author’s website is always a good place to start. Her website doesn’t include links to interviews, etc but does have information about her and her thoughts about writing in general.
She has written eight books and appeared on a number of interviews. I’m including the link to this hour long interview about our book. I will confess not to have watched it all. The actual interview with Nunn speaking begins at about 3 min 30 sec.
Our discussion focused not so much on the plot of the novel itself as on the issue of women, botany, and plant hunting in Victorian England.
Floral Empires: Plant Hunting and Painting in Victorian Britain (59:43)
A zoom presentation, the speaker begins to address plant hunting more directly at about 15 minutes. Her emphasis, however, is on painting. Which is interesting, of course. She discusses the plant introductions in the context of how they became incorporated in homes and in art.
Victorian Era – The role of women. (Historical context on ‘Enola Holmes’ film) (2:25)
For me, this one was a bit of a disappointment as I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. But if you’re new to thinking about the Victorian era and the role of women this is a quick summary of the common roles of women. The women who did become involved in collecting and painting plants did not fit the roles described here. During our discussion, an historian in our group pointed out that wealthy women did travel extensively during this period. While we might have the impression that they travelled “alone,” they would have possibly had a man as a chaperone and often would include a number of (wealthy) women (and likely maids) in their party.
The Kew Gardens has an archive with letters and information received from “Victorian plant collectors and female travellers.”
One woman who comes to mind as an incredible artist of plants in their habitat in far away and difficult to reach locations was Marianne North. I have three links about her. The first is a tour of the gallery of her art at Kew Gardens. She paid for its construction, which is suggestive of her wealth and ability to travel. The second video is a long zoom discussion about her and provides much information about her life and work. The third video is contemporary and shows a woman traveling to a location with one of the plants North discovered. While a hundred or more years have passed since North travelled there, it is clear that the location is still remote. Plus photographs of North show her in full Victorian attire.
Kew MN gallery: (3:50)
The colorful life of Marianne North: (54:53)
Marianne North’s Obsession with the Carnivorous Pitcher Plant: (3:42)
A passing reference is made to a Lutyens bench in the contemporary Australian garden. A search on the term ‘Lutyens bench’ will show you many examples of the benches he designed. He was an architect and a commission from the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll led to a lifelong collaboration that integrated gardens and architecture. Lutyens and Jekyll: (55:16)
And, a rabbit hole aside, Robert Louis Stevenson was a friend of the Jekylls (properly pronounces with a long ‘e,’ not the short ‘e’ one commonly hears in the US) and ‘borrowed’ the name for the novella.
There is a mention of the plant hunter father of the Victorian heroine bringing a quava to Queen Victoria. While he didn’t exist (it IS a novel), Queen Victoria did receive, and enjoy guavas.
Our Victorian heroine travels to Valparaiso, Chile. Here’s a contemporary view of that city. Valparaiso walking tour.
The Victorian plot revolves around a mysterious plant, identifed as Trompeta del Diablo. It sounded a bit like a Datura and I presumed it was invented for the purpose of the novel. But no, in fact, it is a real plant: Datura metel: (1:00)
The Cornwall house is fictional; however, the climate of the region is well portrayed and the area is home to many beautiful gardens. Great Gardens of Cornwall: (21:37)
Another rabbit hole: Cornwall is also home to the Eden Project.
Which might also make you think about the closer-to-home Biosphere 2 in Arizona.
The contemporary story line includes references to the Australian plant bank, an extensive website with lots of tabs, including several videos.
It’s always a surprise when something that’s difficult to grow and only survives as a house plant, is an invasive elsewhere. Enter the asparagus fern.
How long can seeds live? Without spoiling too much, this was a question our contemporary heroine asked (and answered). In her musing on the subject, she thought about a 1200 yr old lotus seed.
A positive youngster seed, this is a short video news clip (56 sec) of a lotus seed found in 200-year-old soil.
A common rabbit hole for me, I love time lapse photography. Lotus seed time lapse (0.56).
And, the final rabbit hole, there are any number of very old seeds that have been grown. The most well-known one, I think, is the Judean date palm called Methuselah. One 2000 year old seed germinated in 2005. Since then, the research team has been able to germinate several more seeds, including some female dates and the ancient dates are back in existence today.