Our Plant Doctor Kelly Dyer on the women who inspire her

In March we celebrate Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, offering the chance to celebrate and honour the women who inspire us. For Kelly Dyer, our Horticultural Lead and resident Plant Doctor, her love of horticulture is rooted in the women who’ve raised and inspire her. We caught up with her to find out more about the female influences who’ve shaped her passion for the great outdoors. 

“A woman who inspires me is Marianne North, a Victorian botanist and artist who was born in 1830 in Hastings. Her father was a Liberal Democrat and he was quite well-connected – one of his friends was Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker who was the director of Kew Gardens. After her father took her for a visit to Kew Gardens, Marianne became obsessed with painting the exotic botanical world. She had travelled a bit with him to different countries, but after he died when she was 39, she basically travelled the world on her own completely independently. She went to every continent, which was unusual and exceptional for a Victorian woman.

I’m inspired by how she was so fiercely determined, independent and passionate. Despite the conventions of the time, she was unstoppable. She didn’t marry, because she didn’t want to give up her independence or share her wealth, and her passion drove her deep into the jungle, to places where women didn’t get to go. As a result, she created really unique, vibrant work.

Her work was quite radical. She was self-taught, she wasn’t a scientist or a botanist – as a woman she hadn’t had that education. But whereas botanical works at the time were quite stark (they were plants against a white background), she painted them in their real environments, so you got them in context, which had never really been done before. They were surrounded by other plants, and you could see their habit – whether they were trailing, climbing or in a desert. She also painted in colour using oils, at a time when there wasn’t colour photography. Even Charles Darwin complimented her on her work, because it brought his theory of the origin of species to life.

I love how her artworks are infused with her passion, her joy and her awe of the natural world. They’re rich and they’re colourful. In the botanical world we talk about the spirit of the place, and she really brings the spirit of spaces to life in a really unique way, especially for that time. She’s inspired me as both an artist and a horticulturalist. 

I always say I was brought up by a tribe of women. I was born in South Africa, which is one of the richest floral kingdoms in the world, and I grew up in a family of gardeners. My mum, my gran and my two aunts were really big influences on me, and I spent a lot of time working with them in their gardens. They all had very different styles, so by osmosis I was absorbing all of this education as a child. 

The women who’ve been particularly influential on my horticultural career include Elsa Pooley, a botanist in South Africa who spent her life documenting the flora of South Africa. In the UK one of my influences has been Sarah Raven who, though she was very well connected, started her business from her kitchen table, literally packing and selling seeds. I love her use of colour and textural and structural combinations, I find them really exciting and inspiring.”