In May this year Imagemakers were part of the winning team pitching to design the exhibitions for China’s new National Botanic Museum in Kunming. The museum is being built at the Kunming Botanic Gardens, and will become a national centre for botany and biodiversity.

Then in November we had a start up meeting and site visit for the orientation and interpretation at Mount Congreve gardens in Ireland. On our tour of this beautiful ‘great garden of the world’, head gardener Michael White stopped beside a small, unmarked magnolia sapling. “There are very few of these left in the world” he said, as we looked at this global rarity. “It was a gift from Kunming Botanic Garden in China. We don’t label it because it’s so rare and important.”

Imagemakers and this sapling have shared the same journey across continents. Our challenge now is to bring the story of gardens and botany to life, and to show how we are all part of one interconnected ecosphere. “Sláinte” and “Gambei” (cheers) to that!