Isabel Motyka Sanders

“I consider the lives of warriors, how they suddenly left their halls. Bold and noble leaders, I shiver and regret my time. But the wind does not stop for my thoughts.“ Derek Jarman - Modern Nature

✨ISSUE 2 OF PHRYGANA ZINE IS ON ITS WAY✨ We’ll let you know soon how to get your copy. Get in touch if you want to contribute. We’re up for anything; stories, hyper-fixations, photos, drawings, reviews, lists, song recommendations… There might even be space in this issue ☺️ Graphics by Matina Galati @matinagalati 💛

Last year our Nursery Scholar Isabel @isabel_entopia re-imagined one half of our sand beds. The beds were created in 2020 by Scholar Margaret Easter, inspired by visits to John Little’s Hilldrop Garden in Essex. The bed was built up over the winter of 2024 and a new substrate mix was added incorporating crushed brick, grit and inoculated biochar with the sand. Isabel sourced and grew a whole new palette of plants for the project drawing on her expertise in Mediterranean flora. The renewed bed is experimental, allowing us to observe how these mostly drought tolerant plants react and behave in our locality. It also becomes a stock bed to propagate from, allowing us to expand our offering at the nursery. This winter we have renovated the second half of the bed which will be planted by our current scholar Lex @lexwoodweber this spring. Music by @shaun.r.b #sandbed #greatdixternurseries #propagation #plantpropagation #greatdixter

📡 sound on.. A lot of my time is spent in solitude just now. Sharing this pleasurable moment with you in case you’re needing it.

PLANT SALE FOR PALESTINE! Come to @palestinapopupbazaar next weekend (6/7th December) and get some cute succulents, cactuses, nasturtiums, fennel and narcissus!! Maybe even some funky planters if I can figure out how to use a powertool properly. 🤘 All proceeds will go to @thesameerproject FREE PALESTINE

If you’re in Athens over the coming weekends, go check out the @palestinapopupbazaar in Exarcheia! I’ll be there on the weekend of the 6/7th of December selling plants I made out of my silly little bunch of succulents and cactuses. All proceed will go to @thesameerproject who help provide food, medicine and other much needed aid in Gaza. Blessed be the @_plants_for_peace_ collective, @j.bruce.garden and The Field Nursery angels and rad babe @seeds_4_pal who paved the way (in my small world at least) towards plants for Palestinian solidarity.

Plants for Peace is a collective! If you want to do something but it's too overwhelming, get together with some lovely folk and do something beautiful together. All funds from the sale this weekend will go to @_allourrelations who are doing great work in G za. And please, don't do nothing, everyone can do something. #flowers #peace

Short work trip/botanising joyride to Santorini a couple of weeks ago with @thehappyhermit @hannahbeebo and @michael.mcg . Work aside, there was hanging out with beach geology, an Easter feast and lots and lots of plant worship. A highlight was going up to Ancient Thira to see Scorzonera crocifolia in flower. This switchback road is a real treat for gazing at cool plants.. Don’t hold me to any of the nomenclature please, my brain is a blended soup (veloute?) of information. 1. Santorini being Santorini 2. Garden sculpture 3. The red beach 4. An excited Hannah 5. Claire as a poppy 6. Ohhh cliffs 7&8. Scorzonera crocifolia 9. A wacky Allium 10. Ruta chalepensis 11&12. Are the buds of Origanum onites prettier than the flowers? 13&14. My obsession with Crupina crupinastrum continues 14. Orchis sp 15. Silene sp 16. Umbilicus rupestris 17&18. Centaurea raphanina 19. Drimia numidica and Teucrium divaricatum #santorini #σαντορίνη #thira #θήρα #greekflora #ελληνικήχλωρίδα #mediterraneanflora

March with Gardeners for Palestine at the Nakba demonstration in London! When: 12.30pm Saturday 17th May 2025 Where: assemble at Victoria Embankment Gardens, what3words location: ///warm.exist.love This is an important one. Every year in May, Palestinians and the solidarity movement commemorate the 1947/8 Nakba, which saw the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinian people from their homeland and the destruction of over 500 cities, towns and villages. This violence has never ended. The Nakba is ongoing, with the current genocide its most extreme and brutal episode. This year it is more important than ever that we mobilise in huge numbers. The death toll in Gaza is over 50,000 and rising daily, yet the UK government continues supplying millions of pounds worth of arms to Israel. Our humanity requires that we speak out – but demonstrations aren’t the only thing we can or must do: 1. Get organised and join up with a local group to take part in online and IRL actions, from local rallies to boycotts to email pressure campaigns. There are over 80 local branches of @palestinesolidarityuk (search “PSC local branches”) 2. Donate to Palestinian fundraisers. With Israel consistently blocking food deliveries into Gaza, food prices have skyrocketed leaving Palestinians, including children, starving. Check out @thesameerproject , @thamra_org and @giving4gaza 3. Boycott companies that support Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid or illegal occupation. Don’t give a penny of your hard-earned money to any of the key targets identified by the Palestinian-led @bds.movement (BDS = boycott, divestment and sanctions, the same economic tools that helped end apartheid in South Africa). Their list of consumer boycott targets is easy to follow and available on their IG. Even if you can’t march with us, there is so much you can do. Now is not the time to get stuck in helplessness; Palestinians are counting on everyone to not look away. As always we’ll be marching with the blooming banner. We invite you to add your own fabric plant or flower connected to Palestine. Bring your creation to the demo or DM for a postal address. See you there 🫡

Squad #students

Still thinking about the amazing weekend I spent in Glasgow a little while ago with some of the people I love and appreciate most in my life. There was lots of loving, crying and fun having.. Had some great food and whiskey and went to a sauna on the banks of Loch Lomond 💖 oh and this bathroom partition 😱

Some cute things from last weekend etc Foggy sunrise, death, shitster @felekky cat-whispered the notoriously aloof @neil_the_dixter_cat , sustenance for body and soul, the only dog I ever want to be close to ever again, and seeds obvz.