Hi, I'm Toni Martin and I work at RHS Wisley as a Botanist.
My job title is Herbarium Curator slash Plant Collector so I go
out into the gardens and gardens across the UK and
collect plants. We try to collect a representative sample
of the plants that we're collecting so this involves
stems, leaves, flowers or fruit depending on the season. I've
produced collecting lists that are targeted so we collect
within the RHS but also outside partners so we've been working
with the National Trust along with other national collection holders in
order to collect plants of every variety. Once we've
collected the specimens, we bring them back to the lab, we
dry them, we press them, and then we document them ready to
go into the herbarium forever. The details we record are the
dimensions of the plant, the scent, and also the colour. The
colour is the most important feature for us because we're
focused on cultivar level. The major difference between
cultivated plants is colour. We categorise the colours using the
RHS colour chart. Which is made up of four panels essentially
covering every colour you can think of. Reminds me a little
bit of the pantone colours. It's so important to record colour
because on drying our specimens lose colour and that's not only
because they turn brown as most people would think it's also
because plants contain really unique plant proteins and on
drying these change colour so recently I pressed a Hibiscus
Syriacus purple pillar which is a beautiful sort of pale pink
flower with a dark red center. On pressing, it came out the
dryer and it was dusky blue. So you never would have known that
it was pink once before unless you'd recorded it in life.
From an early age, I always loved being outdoors. I loved
being in the garden digging up the plants and also just
drawing flowers. While I was studying my RA level, I really
enjoyed drawing plants so I wanted to go into microscopic
detail and that's how I sort of stumbled into botanical
illustration. It's super focused on recording all the
important parts of the plant and it's almost like a
scientific reference drawing. When I was looking to apply to
university, I really wanted something that incorporated
sort of both my passions and I found Botany absolutely
fascinating. Biology by this point was something that was
super important to me and I could see such a clear research
path within it. So, I did my undergraduate in plant science
which I absolutely loved but it was very molecular focused and
by the time I kind of finished, I was ready to get my hands
dirty and start doing something a bit more hands on and so I'd
sort of chanced upon a master's degree at Kew Gardens. My masters
was in plant and fungal taxonomy, diversity, and
conservation. So, a completely niche subject. My master's project
was on the thermal properties of seeds. I started to think,
oh, where could I access some seeds? So, I looked at the RHS
and it wasn't long after that I applied and started in April 2022.
What makes it so special about working here is our
amazing collection both living and preserved. Wisley's
Herbarium is the largest and only UK herbarium focused on
cultivated plants. A lot of work has been done on
classifying the diversity of wild plants but by comparison,
we've only scratched the surface of cultivated plant
diversity. So, our herbarium was purpose built. It currently
houses about 90,000 specimens with the strategic aim to reach
400,000 specimens by 2050. So the four hundred thousand that
I'm talking about is an approximation of the UK
cultivated plant diversity. My position was created to fulfill
this really ambitious aim. Essentially we need to have
more material coming into our herbairum. I work in the Horticultural
Taxonomy Department which is made up of a whole range of
disciplines, botanists, curators, and registrars. I
also have a team of volunteers that are helping me out with my
collecting program and our team is expanding out into the other
gardens across the RHS. I love my job because I get to see
something new every single day. As both a scientist and
artists, I'm constantly inspired by what I'm seeing. My
job is continually evolving so as the seasons change, so do
the plants I collect. I also love the fact that my job is
literally growing every day. New cultivars are being
produced all the time and it's really awesome to be involved
in documenting them. I think in this time of climate change,
it's really important that we're recognising the wealth of
diversity that's around us. After all, how can we protect what we
have in the world when we don't know what's out there? Our herbarium
not only acts as a facility for research but also as a
historical record for the future. I think it's a
combination of all these facts along with the incredible
support from my team that makes my work so rewarding. I feel
incredibly fortunate to have come to the RHS so early on in
my career.