Since the 18th century, early modern botanists were eager to bring what they perceived as valuable plant species from around the world into the United Kingdom, particularly those species admired for their exotic appearance, rarity, or economic potential. British botanical gardens such as the Kew and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have long served as global points of arrival for plants. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as a part of the British colonial endeavour, species were collected, exchanged, and redistributed through these institutions, forming international networks that influenced how plants were understood and valued. Today, Kew’s glasshouses still contain over 50,000 living specimens from across the world. By tracing the contrasting trajectories of Rhododendron ponticum and Rhododendron kanehirae, this project aims to explore the ways plants are continually redefined through human frameworks, moving between roles such as ornamental specimen, invasive presence, endangered rarity, and cultivated survivor.

This piece combines copper flower sculptures with a branch from the living Rhododendron, contained in a clear box made of acrylic, mimicking a Wardian case, which was used for transporting plants overseas around the 18th century. Rhododendron kanehirae is crafted from copper sheets using repoussé, while Rhododendron ponticum appears as a part of the living plant. The piece highlights the contrast between the two species and brings together rhododendrons with distinct histories, embodying human influence on plant circulation, cultivation, and perception.

This project articulates a critical refusal of the assumption that bringing a plant into a country implies permission for it to freely grow on that land. Despite the presence of thousands of specimens within institutions such as Kew Gardens, plants are expected to remain contained within institutional boundaries. Varieties such as Rhododendron ponticum were introduced to Britain as controlled specimens rather than for ecological integration, and its later classification as invasive reflects not an inherent biological identity but the failure of human systems of management and expectation. By contrasting this with Rhododendron kanehirae, which survives only through continued cultivation, the project demonstrates how plant freedom, restriction, and value are shaped by shifting human frameworks rather than by nature alone.