events
Spice Stories: The Botanical and Cultural World of Gingers
Join us for a day exploring the amazing world of gingers!
Featuring contributions from leading horticulturalists, academics, and artists, this is a public event for anyone with an interest in the botanical, cultural, and local histories of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae.
‘Spice Stories’ is a collaboration between Liverpool Botanical Trust and the Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University.
Lunch and refreshments are provided in the ticket price.
Date: Saturday 29 March 2025
10:00 - 16:00
Location: Croxteth Hall
Croxteth Hall Lane, Croxteth L12 0HB
The Programme for the day is:
10.00 – Arrival
10.15 - Welcome by Dr Kate Walchester, Director of Research Institute of Literature and Cultural History, LJMU and Steve Lyus, Chair of the Liverpool Botanic Trust
10.30-11.30 – Axel Dalberg Poulsen, Zingiberales Taxonomist, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: ‘The Diversity of Gingers of the World’
11.30-12.00 – Tea break
12.00-1.00 – Steve Lyus, Chair of the Liverpool Botanical Trust: ‘“Roscoe’s Baby”, The first Monograph for the Gingers’;
- Donna Young, Curator of Herbarium, National Museums Liverpool: ‘The Liverpool Herbarium and its Gingers within.’
1.00-2.00 – Lunch and exhibition, featuring contributions by botanical artist Sue McHugh, LJMU graduate Anna John and the local Athena Plant nursery
2.00-3.00 – Richard Baines, Curator at Logan Botanic Garden: ‘Growing Gingers in Great Britain.’
3.10-3.40 – Rebecca Bailey, Senior Lecturer in English Literature: “What's ginger, I pray ye?”: an exploration of ginger in early modern England'.
3.40-4.00 – Conclusion, Tea, and Evaluation.
Options for Booking your seat
There are two ways to book a seat:
- Become a Member of the Liverpool Botanical Trust (Go to our News Section see how to pay the £20 Annual Single membership and to Download a Membership Application Form) or
- Book on Eventbrite
About the Event
We are grateful to acknowledge funding from the Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University (https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/research/centres-and-institutes/research-institute-for-literature-and-cultural-history).
The event was organised by Steve Lyus, Chair of the Liverpool Botanical Garden Trust, Kathryn Walchester, Subject Leader for English and Creative Writing and Director of the Research for Literature and Cultural History at LJMU, and Jude Piesse, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at LJMU.
We would be grateful if you could take the time to fill out our project evaluation form that will be provided at the end of the day.
Thanks so much for coming!
Axel Poulsen on "The Diversity of Gingers of the World"
Axel is a tropical-forest botanist researching tropical plants, especially gingers and other ground herbs.
His title at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is the 'Zingiberales Taxonomist', whose main geographical focus is New Guinea where he has completed 10 collaborative expeditions.
Now he is writing up several taxonomic works on gingers, in a wide sense, of the order Zingiberales.
Stephen Lyus on "Roscoe's Baby, the first Monograph of the Gingers"
Stephen is the Chair of the Liverpool Botanical Trust and has been researching the history of these Botanic Gardens over the last 12 years, with a view to publishing a book.
This talk will focus on the work that William Roscoe undertook in the 1820's towards organising the family of Ginger plants.
Once he had put them into logical Genera and Species, he wrote his book "Monandrian Plants of the Order Scitamineae", which included 112 full-size botanic illustrations.
This talk will explore the contents of this seminal book.
Donna Young on "The Liverpool Herbarium and its Gingers within"
Donna is Curator of the Herbarium at National Museums Liverpool, with over thirty years’ experience of working with its Botany collection.
She has developed training and best practice in the care & curation of herbaria and is particularly interested in the preparation and preservation of botanical material, as well as exploring historical and contemporary convergences of art and science.
As a curator, she cares for and facilitates access through loan, research and exhibition to c 400,000 specimens and objects. She has a passion for celebrating and raising awareness of its history, relevance, use and potential.
Today’s talk will introduce us to this amazing collection, highlighting some of its ‘Ginger’ treasures and their place within our city’s outstanding botanical heritage.
Richard Baines on “Growing gingers in Great Britain”
Richard has been responsible for the curation and development of Logan Botanic Garden and its major botanical collection since 2007.
Their plant collection has increased by over 25% in the last decade through collaboration with partners and targeting vulnerable species on IUCN’s Red Data checklist.
He has played an integral role in the development and understanding of conservation horticulture with cross-organisational, international partnerships resulting in collaboration with Longwood Gardens, University of British Columbia and IEBR in Vietnam, amongst others.
Richard has been an expedition leader to China, Canary Islands & Vietnam (2014, 2016 & 2019) and recently published five plant species new to science. He was awarded The Scottish Horticulture Medal in 2022 and has published many Journal articles and a book.
Dr Rebecca Bailey on the "Culinary usage of Gingers"
Rebecca’s talk will focus on how ginger was used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in recipes of the time, both as a medicinal cure and an ingredient.
She will address how these spices were portrayed in plays like Ben Jonson's 'Bartholomew Fair' (1614) and Thomas Middleton’s ‘Triumphs of Honour and Virtue’ (1622), before considering the anxiety around the popularity of spice such as ginger in the early modern period.
Her teaching and research interests lie in the early modern period of English literature; in particular, the politics of religion with a special interest in recusancy, maritime and travel literature, cultural geography, the theatre of Caroline England (1625-1642) and textual editing.
Previous Events
Below you will find a record of earlier Events delivered by the Trust and its supporters.
16 March 2024: Orchid Fever: Propagating and Hybridizing Orchids from the Nineteenth Century to the Present day
The Liverpool Botanical Trust and LJMU Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History are delighted to announce a symposium focusing on the cultural and scientific history of orchid collections. Liverpool has an important place in the ‘Orchidelerium’ or orchid mania which swept Victorian Britain.
Our one-day event was held on Saturday 16th March 2024, 10am-4pm at Croxteth Hall, Liverpool.
It featured keynote talks by orchid expert, author and lecturer, Philip Seaton (Secretary of the Orchid Specialist Group) with shorter papers on the history of orchids in the Liverpool Botanic Gardens, orchids in Victorian England, and creative work. There also an opportunity to see several new ‘Liverpool Orchids’.
Many thanks to LJMU RILCH for covering all of our costs, which meant that all the ticket income from the 51 attendees went into our funds.
Thanks to local MP Ian Byrne, for these photos.