Sue Minter
Horticultural consultant Sue has held some top posts in her career and this trend will continue when she is installed as President of the Institute of Horticulture this autumn. However, it is in her current capacity as Chair of the Herb Society that she is bringing her feature, ‘Crops for Health’, to this year’s show.
RHS Sue, your CV’s pretty impressive. Shall we run through it quickly?
I was Head of Living Collections at Eden for almost five years until 2006, Curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden for eleven, and before that I was Supervisor of the Palm House at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
RHS OK, so I think you’ve got this exhibit covered. What’s it all about?
It’s an educational feature about different aspects of production of plants as medicines. One part is about traditional herbal crops, one’s about plants grown for pharmaceutical drugs (which not many people are aware of), there’s a section on crops for essential oils and lastly an area dedicated to wild harvest.
RHS Could you explain what you mean by wild harvest?
It’s taking medicinal plants from the wild and selling them through wholesale markets - of all the species used for medicine worldwide around 80% come from the wild. In many countries around 80% of the population is as dependent on this resource for their healthcare as the collectors are for their living. The issue is about balancing conservation with these livelihoods.
Getting the necessary quantity of plants into the ground in the time available is going to be challenging
RHS It’s a big exhibit - is the size posing any problems?
I went on site a few days ago and saw that it’s bigger than a tennis court which is slightly nerve-racking. I’ve done a few small exhibits at various shows in the past but nothing like this. Getting the necessary quantity of plants into the ground in the time available is going to be challenging. My task at the moment is rounding up enough students from Capel Manor College to help me with the planting. I’m also getting a school in Devon to produce some scarecrows that are relevant to the different sections; for instance we’ve got a white-coated scientist and a hippy farmer, which should be fun.
RHS What ideas will people be able to take home from your feature?
Hopefully I’ll be getting the message across about how reliant we are on plants, not just for food, but for medicine as well. Also that there are things one can grow at home which are usefully medically, like Aloe vera which is brilliant for burns.