A Letter from a Million Years Past

At the most important flower show in the world, Jihae Hwang will raise awareness of the vital role that medicinal plants play in the natural world, and how landscape destruction will continue at our peril. ‘A Letter From a Million Years Past’ is an evocation of South Korea’s Jiri Mountains. Culturally one of the most important places in the country, the Jiri Mountains – known as the Mother Mountain of Korea – is home to some 1,500 species of native Korean plants that have medicinal value. Many of the plants there have been threatened with extinction or habitat loss.

Jihae explains: “The garden’s large rocks represent over 2 billion years of time. These rocks, which existed even before the birth of mankind, have been keeping a certain form of love within them for millions of years. With little plants and flowers blossoming within the crevices and cracks between the rocks, this love has been illustrated. Therefore, these rocks and plants will look like special letters sent to us from millions of years ago.”

The garden is a direct message from the mountain which asks visitors to examine the garden closely; to view a landscape where medicinal plants proliferate and have rewilded in a bid to heal the landscape. The central point of the garden will be a traditional Korean herb drying tower, crafted by Alex Gibbons from Cumbria. Alex is one of the remaining craftspeople in the UK who creates earth-buildings, using mud, straw and sand to build bespoke creations. The tower references similar buildings in South Korea, used to dry and store herbs. 

Throughout the garden Scottish rocks will link the planting and spaces – large boulders, small stones, rocky outcrops. There will be 200 tonnes delivered to site so the expert team can put them together by hand and with great skill. The garden focuses on a substantial message about the positive balance that can be achieved between people and nature. Plants that have medicinal benefit abound in nature and especially in the eastern part of the Jiri Mountains – in fact, many of the plants in the show garden represent the important medicinal plants that grow there. 

Long before hospitals and pharmacies became commonplace, local people turned to native herbs and rare alpine plants to treat diseases and prolong healthy life – these plants are growing wild in the primeval forests and fields of the Jiri Mountains. 

Jihae says: “We hope to convey the meaning of biodiversity and the preservation of species through the growing environment of medicinal plants, in a primitive environment with no human interference. In the East, the human body and nature are not separated – we believe that nature forms the human body. All plants tend to want to return to their original form, so I believe that returning what was originally of theirs is a true consideration for nature, an order, and a respect for human life.”

At the end of the show, some of the plants will be donated to the Maggie’s Centre in Nottingham and other plants may be sold to fundraise for the cancer charity.

Plant list