The plants of my childhood: between memory and resilience

by Clarisse :)

I come from a place where nature is everywhere, even when you don’t look at it anymore. A small town in the South-East of France, not far from Avignon. There, the landscapes change at every turn: on one side the vines that extend to the horizon, on the other the deep forests where the light of Mont Ventoux infiltrates. A mixture of scrubland, dry land and clean air.

I grew up surrounded by this nature. It was a hidden paradise, shaped by the seasons, smells and sounds. I spent my childhood running in the gardens of my grandmothers, walking with my dogs on the small paths lined with flowers. We saw dandelions, poppies, wild thyme and olive trees. And every year, in the spring, my grandmother prepared a huge bouquet of flowers for me to offer to my elementary school teacher. A simple but loving gesture. I remember the wisteria falling in cascade on the facade of his house, the rosemary that perfumed our hands after a harvest, the lavender fields that tinted the air purple from June. Today, these memories take a new place in my life in Berlin. They sometimes come back from crossing a familiar plant in a park corner or smelling flowers on the street or park. But mostly I find them at Dirty Roots.

In this place not quite like the others, I rediscovered what I loved as a child: the slowness of things, the respect for the living, the raw beauty. Here I find it in every pot made by hand, in every leaf growing at its own pace, in every discussion about a plant or a shape. Dirty Roots is more than a store or studio: it is a space where plants are not just decorative objects, but living beings that participate in our balance.

The benefits of these plants, I feel them every day. Rosemary, for example, common in Provençal cuisine, is also an ally of concentration. Thyme, a natural antiseptic, reminds me of the infusions my grandmother made when I was sick and still a habit today. Lavender, soothing, has the power to calm a whole room by its smell. And even the simplest ones like dandelion, too often seen as a "weed", symbolize for me resilience, the ability to grow everywhere.

At Dirty Roots, we often talk about design, material, form but always in connection and above all in respect with the plant. The objects here are not meant to decorate but to accompany. To create a link, I find it with my childhood memories. The same respect, the same slowness, the same willingness not to force nature to go faster.

What this experience reminds me of is that you never really break away from your roots, even if you live far away, even if you forget the names. They reinvent themselves, they take shape through new gestures. Today my daily life is very different from that of my childhood in Provence. But when I touch the earth in a raw pot, smell a freshly watered plant or watch a leaf turn towards the light, I feel at home.

And this is the real resilience: that of plants, yes, but also that of our memories. Our ability to make them live differently, elsewhere, in a new setting but with the same values at heart.

Authenticity, patience, attention to the living.

Values that I carry in me and that I find here at Dirty Roots.