Plant Party

'Plant Party is all about care. Caring for plants, ourselves, for others and for the library.'

The group met at least once a month to exchange ideas, horticultural experience and look after the plants they’d brought into the library. Everyone was encouraged to take cuttings, grow their own plants and bring in seeds to foster a real shared experience of the library plants. Plant Party was about looking after our own mental health just as much as it was about looking after the plants so the group was always a safe space for people to come and enjoy.

Plant Party was lead by Leanne Cook, Bootle Library's Florist in Residence. Leanne is a mental health researcher and florist based in Manchester, UK. She has a Masters in Clinical Psychology and an interest in all things botanical. Exploring the partnership between mental wellbeing and floristry, Leanne is interested in altering spaces to encourage a feeling of ease and motivate soft conversation and connection.

"When I think about this project I think of what it feels like to be safe and at ease and connected to yourself, to others and to the world around you. I think about how people have roots and how they grow and move, have habits and change with the seasons just like everything else in the world. I think about how warm and wonderful and simple it all is. We are just bringing something of the natural, outside world into the library for people to enjoy and learn alongside. How it moves and grows is out of our hands but it's impossible for it not to be beautiful. "