James Wong, an ethnobotanist and science writer out of the UK, wrote a piece titled,

"Other arts are political, why not gardening?"

And this is why we can't have nice things anymore.

"Has someone ever presented you with an opinion that you found immediately, viscerally challenging, but the self-reflection it caused was incredibly valuable?"

Yes, but I'm guessing this won't be one of them.

About five years ago, I was admiring one of my favourite conceptual gardens at the Hampton Court flower show. Among a collection of avant garde horticultural installations was a design inspired by the issues facing displaced peoples around the world. In the 10 minutes I stood there, before being dragged away with work, I overheard at least half a dozen visitors decrying it, not for its planting, hardscape design, or use or colour or form, but because of the perceived importance of 'keeping politics out of gardening.'"

I am unfamiliar with my daylilies' political leanings so I'm with those people so far.

"My instant reaction was that, whatever your politics, would anyone have ever made a statement like that in an art gallery?"

Yes. I think I've said as much.

"After stepping out of the theatre or a film screening?"

Ditto.

"Going to a concert?"

Definitely.

"While I absolutely understand that in a world of increasingly polarised and angry politics, plants might seem like an essential escape, why it is that gardening is not considered to be like any of the other art forms that are shaped by, and also shape, the political world around us?"

I'm going to say, "because it's gardening," but I feel like that might be considered offensive.

(I'll note here how incredibly status-insecure Wong appears to be, desperate to receive the affirmation of those in the class to which he aspires. "My gardening is art, I tell you, ART!")

"The only logical conclusion is that if you believe gardening should be a politics-free zone, you don't consider it a form of art on a par with music, sculpture or cinema, but instead just a sort of frivolous pursuit of decoration."

The only logical conclusion!

"This is a perspective that I feel not only underestimates the intention and skill of horticulturists,..."

Says the guy who is a horticulturist.

"...but ruins your appreciation and enjoyment of their work."

NOT introducing politics into gardening "ruins your appreciation and enjoyment."

Remember back when sports was almost unwatchable due to the lack of politics?

"All aspects of horticulture are based on political ideas."

If you see politics in everything-everywhere-all-the-time, then yes.

"The reason why British-style gardens have been replicated around the planet – recreating the green lawns of Surrey in the deserts of Arizona, or introducing UK wildlife in places as far flung as Australia in order to mould entire landscapes into a "Beatrix Potter" ideal – is because of political beliefs."

Not because, oh, I don't know, they look pretty? They remind you of home? You already know how to make one?

What am I talking about? No, your garden is clearly taking a political stand.

Mine was pro-Brexit. My Gerberas insisted on it.

"At flower shows, "tropical" gardens aren't considered simply to be those using plants from a climate zone, but rather a distinctive style of gardening, usually set with colonial maps and explorers' pith helmets."

When the bartender puts a little paper umbrella in my drink, I don't consider that a familiar decoration, I consider it to be cultural appropriation from whatever culture originated little paper umbrellas.

Decolonize the Mai-Tai!

"This may not seem political to many visitors,...

But Wong will fix that unfortunate oversight.

"...but they are, of course, deeply political statements."

Of course! Most people don't start a garden until after they have considered what political positions they want to take to ensure that their garden accurately reflects that.

I just took a look at my garden. I may be an anarchist.

"That 'native' or 'heritage' are often used as a byword for 'better' in UK gardening, even if the plants given this accolade aren't actually either, reflects and reinforces inescapably political ideology."

Dog whistle alert!! "Heritage!" "Native!" these are clearly political statements meant to perpetuate some hegemony or another thus reinforcing an "inescapably political ideology."

Just in case your mind has started to wander, we're still talking about plants.

As an aside, in increasingly woke Virginia we are routinely encouraged to favor "native plants" for environmental reasons. Here is one of the recommendations out of Arlington County, the wokeist of all counties:

"Recommendation #11 of Arlington County's Natural Resource Management Plan is to "promote the use of native plant species in County-sponsored plantings and enhance the ability to procure local ecotype plant stock."

Intersectionality alert! Looks like the very progressive environmentalists are headed for a clash with the equally progressive social justice warriors.

Back to Wong.

"In fact,..."

Now, we're in trouble.

"...the very idea that politics should be kept out of gardening is itself a resoundingly political statement,..."

The self-proving hypothesis, one of my favorites. "By disagreeing with me, you prove you are wrong."

"...as it dismisses the status quo as apolitical, objective reality and anything challenging it as inapposite 'activism.'"

Akshually... no, it does not. An act can be apolitical without representing "objective reality."

My choice of toothpaste is apolitical, but that does not mean I believe Sensodyne represents an objective truth about oral hygiene.

It's just a preference.

Is there more?

Do Dahlias like full sun?

Ed Wall, a landscape architect and "visiting professor" joined the conversation with this.

"Gardens are denied their political agency because they too often reveal uncomfortable politics of individual ownership, spatial inequity, & unsustainable practices."

Virtue check much?

"There needs to be more honest conversations about gardens in the UK!"

If I were to make a list of all the honest conversations the UK needs more of, it would start with authoritarian overreach and end with gardens.

But James Wong was all over this, just waiting for the opportunity to cry, "RACISM!"

(Can I join your art club, now?)

"Absolutely U.K. gardening culture has racism baked into its DNA."

That must have been really cathartic for him.

"It's so integral that when you point out it's existence, people assume you are against gardening, not racism."

No, they don't assume that. They assume you are a crank.

"Epitomised, for example, by the fetishisation (and wild misuse) of words like ‘heritage' and ‘native'."

Might as well racialize words that have absolutely nothing to do with race.

"I believe it's precisely this stuff that holds gardening back from being treated on par with other forms of high art, like painting, music & film."

That next rung up on the social ladder is almost in reach. Just a little further, a little further...

"And excludes huge swathes of society from enjoying (and contributing) to the enormous creative potential. Meaning we all miss out."

The only one missing out on "enjoying and contributing to" gardening is Wong.

Everyone else, except for a few of his fellow travelers, enjoy it just fine, even without the imprimatur of "ART!"

Most of us have no need for, or use of, approval of people we don't know or don't care about.

We somehow manage to enjoy gardening, making our little patch of the world a little less ugly, and we do that without a moment's thought to whether someone else is conjuring up tortured metaphors for colonialism or racism, or any other label that Wong wants to traffic in.

Gardening does not need to be called an "art" or become political for people to enjoy it. It needs people like Wong to stop trying to make the rest of us as miserable as he is.