Went to Leiden a few days ago to go to a lecture about Boerhave,a  multi-talented Dutch scientists  from the end of the 17th century. He once had the title ‘teacher of Europe’ and his fame was widespread. One of the first to apply the empirical approach being developed at the time to the field of healing and medicine. Interesting stuff in a time when witches were still being burned….

Anyways, we had a lecture about how the exhibition was made. This brought home to me just how thorough my own schooling has been – a pity that ‘the art of making an art exhibiton‘ has been discontinued. Then a presentation about Boerhave himself, which was interesting but could have been more so if more attention had been given to the time-period Boerhave lived in – the very interesting ‘golden age’ when the Netherlands were a daring republic and very much alive and kicking because of that. 

The exhibition itself was less than overwhelming – a bit too crowded and too much a bit of everything. A few nice flower portraits and still lifes – I enjoy seeing flowers on canvas that I grow myself, like the Calla Lily. Apparently it came over to Europe from South America in Boerhave’s time. This is one of the ways my garden gets multi-layered in my mind – when the calla lily flowers I am reminded of the collegue who gave it to me as a small plant, he himself having given over his garden completely to a collection of calla’s. I love it when gardeners go over the top on something ;) I will now ad the memory of the Boerhave exhibit to this first one.

By the way, I have for the first time been able to divide my calla so I now have a. a backup and b. a few to give away. I like sending people on their way laden with small plants that I have propagated. I wonder if people think about me when gardening ….? Kept my calla in a shady spot this year – my colleague had his plants in full sun, which was misleading for it is better off in dappled shade I find. This may be the basis of my success with propagating it.