What's that newsletter called 'what's that plant?!'

welcome to our world of plants

If you’re getting this it might mean you signed up for the ilylali press mailing list! Well, here’s a new publishing project for the books. “What’s that plant?!” is a year-long journey into the mystical, magical, weird, gross, and beautiful world of plants. I hope you will join me on this journey. 

Plants are all around us: from the tiniest stems to the longest vines. It being August, I have come across scores of plants that stand much taller than myself lately. It’s easy, I think, to ignore the life of the plant when trees (which are also plants, but not really what we’re focusing on here) are in dire need of cultivating and protecting. In fact, I’m not even about to compare the truly divine, blissful existence of a tree to a lowly herb, at the moment - and yet - this newsletter is for the plants. It is meant to be a celebration of every herb, vine, and shrub, every grass and flower, yes, the wild and the genetically modified alike. All of them. I want to know how they came to be, and imagine or retell stories about them. I want us to learn together about p lants so that we can be more insightful about the world around us and truly look for the answers when we ask, “what’s that plant?!” because chances are the answer is profound, ancient, and telling about the place where you are. 

Either you’re thinking, 'boring! How can you really get that into plants?’ If that’s the case, wait, give it a few chances before you go forth and live your life without this newsletter and unsubscribe. I won’t take it personally. On the other hand, you might be thinking, that’s impossible! Irene can’t possibly know that much about plants, and also, are plants evolving? Maybe they are, and, yes, this might be an impossible task. I am not a botanist. I have a few houseplants, and I have killed a few too.  

But I can do this, and the reason why is because I love plants, and I’m always trying to identify them, to learn their ways. Every plant has thousands of years of adaptation that got it here, beside us, all around us! I can also do this with your help. If you are a paid subscriber I will give you all the background research, tools for caring for and cultivating ethical gardens, plant homes, foraging, and you can join a chat with like-minded plant people. I hope to include professionals in my journey, and you, your stories and perspectives.

So if you are a paid subscriber you can write your story about plants, ask questions, and gain knowledge from the community . Here are a couple of examples of ways you could use the chat:

Questions: “There was a beautiful flower that I saw the other day on the street. It had yellow petals and black in the center. It was so tall! What is that plant?” Or you can just take a picture. ( it’s a sunflower, silly. But, seriously, no shame. I, or someone can answer you!)

or

“What are the best house plants?”

“My jade plant has these markings on it, what can I do?”

“How do I pickle cabbage?”

“Who has information about how to forage in cities?”

“How can I add more native plants to my yard?”

“What kind of tea is the best for sleeping?”

etc…

Anecdotes: “The first time I got poison oak I was teaching an art class to my students and I had all of them pick different flowers and leaves for a ‘nature art’ assignment. Well, it turns out a lot of those leaves were poison oak. Luckily, all the kids went on a field trip to a pool in the afternoon, so none of them got it. But my hands swelled up big a pomegranates for two weeks. Now I know what poison oak looks like!*”

(*disclaimer: this is not proof that swimming in a pool will protect against a poison oak rash)

you can also get serious, and write a fictional story about plants, or a myth you know about them and where it’s from or where you heard it. That would be absolutely beautiful.

Or, really anything else you want to say about plants.

After a year has passed we will reconvene. We will analyze how this project has transformed and simply ask it what it needs next. I hope to turn much of this into a book (including, with your permission, some of your experiences and stories about plants). 

So I encourage you to be a paid subscriber. Consider it a book you are buying, except you’re slowly reading it for a year, and ultimately you might even be in the book. Your subscriptions will pay for the printing and binding. At the end of a year I will give everyone the opportunity to unsubscribe - including myself. As the plants know, there is a season for everything. 

So, if you are with me, please expect another email next Friday about next first plant. 

May your roots be healthy, people. 

love

Irene