Woolf loved plants. The mother in her books is mirrored by the passion flower, named for the way its form recalls the symbols of the Passion. Her Mrs Dalloway goes out to buy flowers. Lily paints flowers. Her trees are not only plants rooted in the ground; they are boats, writing desks, everything a plant can become. Most of all, Woolf’s plants are poets, people who have made life itself into poetry, and a poet is someone who can become anything. We chose a flower for each of the women in her books. Clarissa, who wakes suddenly in the middle of a comfortable life (before she woke she was still Mrs Dalloway). Lily, who will not chase the lighthouse with the crowd and means to finish her own painting. And Woolf’s mother in the wooden house, who bore all the suffering of women. We also made a hand that grows laurel leaves. Like Louis in The Waves it becomes a plant, takes root and sprouts. It also nods to the Daphne of Greek myth.
In A Room of One’s Own she says the poet does not die. When the time comes she will take on flesh and come among us. What we have to do is be ready for the day the poet’s spirit comes down on us.
