The Plant Spirit Podcast with Sara Artemisia

Flower Folklore: Windows of Connection with Nina Veteto

• Sara Artemisia / Nina Veteto • Episode 50

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#50 – What are the secrets of the wildflowers? Join us for an amazing conversation with Forager, Plant Lover, and Artist Nina Veteto on how plant lore helps us connect with each other and the green world.

In this episode, Nina shares her love of flower folklore and how we are wired to connect to the plants through stories. She also offers key insights into how stories provide a way of accessing our heart connection with the green world, and she shares the secret folklore and lineage of her family’s history with Violet, one of her most beloved plant allies.

Nina Veteto is a long time forager, explorer, plant lover & art maker. She’s the Founder of Blue Ridge Botanic and lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains surrounded by the inspiration and materials that she brings to her art.

Nina loves growing plants & flowers, making art and teas, and sharing about flower folklore. A former public school teacher and environmental educator, she has turned her passion for plants and their stories into a successful Instagram series called “Secret Stories of the Wildflowers,” which has gained over 100k followers to date. She has also just launched a new substack called Flora and Forage, where she shares articles on foraging, plant ID, folklore, conservation issues, flower fairies, wild tea, and more.

You can find Nina at: https://www.blueridgebotanic.com/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueridgebotanic/
Flora and Forage newsletter on Substack: https://msha.ke/blueridgebotanic

For more info visit Sara's website at: https://www.multidimensionalnature.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensional.nature/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraartemisia.ms/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plantspiritherbalism
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saraartemisia
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@multidimensional.nature
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/multidimensionalnature/

Learn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/

Sara Artemisia:

Welcome to the Plant Spirit Podcast on connecting with plant consciousness, and the healing wisdom of Nature. If you'd like to learn more on how to communicate directly with plants, visit www.learnplantlanguage.com, To register for the free workshop that's www.learnplantlanguage.com. I'm your host, Sara Artemisia, and I'm excited to introduce our next guest to the show today. Nina Veteto is a longtime forger, explore plant lover, and art maker. She's the founder of Blue Ridge Botanic and lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains surrounded by the inspiration and materials that she brings to her art. Nina loves growing plants and flowers, making teas and art and sharing about the flower folklore in the Secret Stories of the Wildflowers. So Nina, thank you so much for joining us today. So excited for our chat.

Nina Veteto:

Thank you, Sara, I am thrilled to be here. I so appreciate the invitation. Thank you.

Sara Artemisia:

Oh, thank you just such a delight. I love your connection with the flowers with the natural world. And as a fellow lover of plant lore, I'd love to hear your perspective on really how do stories help us to connect with the plant world and the natural environment?

Nina Veteto:

Well, it's a great question. I think that we are, we're wired for story, we're wired to delight in story. I mean, we are a storytelling species. So stories are the way that we connect to one another. And they're a way that we relate to the world. And, of course, all the great wisdom traditions knew this. And that's why we have these myths and these legends and these stories that help us know how to behave in the world. But I think just like we are wired for story, I think we're also wired to connect to the green world. And unfortunately, that connection has been severed. And so I think that the stories that I tell are maybe like little windows of connection. And just like where we're wired for story, I think, as I say that connection, we've lost the connection. And I feel like we like the average person doesn't really give plants much of a second thought, right? I mean, unless it's in the context of some sort of decorative elements for their garden or their home, you know, and I think there's this maybe basic understanding around the fact that plants give us oxygen to breathe, you know, that type thing. But that connection is a rational kind of intellectual connection. It's not heart connection. And we walk around with a lot of grief and a lot of anxiety and kind of despair. And, and I think part of that is this, this longing for connection, but we don't really know quite how to do that. And science is kind of dancing around that and helping us understand in some ways, right? I mean, people are out making studies about how important it is to be outside and how Wow! That lowers our blood pressure. And it changes our outlook and that kind of thing. But but it's that heart connection isn't there, right. So I feel like the stories are a way to access that heart connection. And I hope, at least that that's part of what the stories that I'm telling help people do.

Sara Artemisia:

Beautiful, yeah, I love what you were just sharing there about how stories really are the way that we connect with each other in the world. How we're wired for story, and we're also wired for connection with the green world. And I love what you were just sharing about how stories really provide a window of connection with Nature. And that specifically, stories provide a way for us to access a heart connection with the green world, which I absolutely love that no surprises there. So I'd love to hear what advice you have for folks who want to deepen their connection to plants and maybe if they want to deepen their connection to plants through stories?

Nina Veteto:

Yeah, okay. Well, I would encourage people to, to find their own stories, right? I mean, I tell the sort of Secret Stories of the Wildflowers series. But one of the things that's been so incredible about that, and the just beautiful community of people that have gathered around to listen to those stories is that very often they will share their own stories, you know, about their connection to plants. And that is one of my favorite parts about what I'm doing, because those stories are so beautiful, and so special. But I think, as I said before, like most people don't really think about plants in that way, or really are connected to the green world. So I feel like just trying to find those stories in your life. And you know, it might be something as simple as it may sound silly, but what is your favorite flower? Right? I mean, I guarantee there's a story there. And very often, not always, but very often, those stories are connected to loved ones. I've heard incredible stories about how a special Rose was someone's grandmother's favorite flower. And that's why they love it, you know, that type thing? Yeah, so I think exploring your own personal stories, and even just asking loved ones, what, what is your favorite flower and hearing, you know, I guarantee there's a story there, you will hear some amazing wisdom. And, and those are just little points of connection. And you know, you just might look at that plant differently or experience that plant differently. The next time you see it, it deepens that connection. So yeah, that's what I would, I would advise that for sure.

Sara Artemisia:

I love that. And, and I love how plants, as you say that are the stories of our connections with plants can also deepen our connections with our loved ones in our life, and just how, how incredible that is. And we were talking a little earlier, I know that you have a personal connection with Violet. I was curious if you'd be open to sharing a story about Violet?

Nina Veteto:

Absolutely, sure. Yeah, Violets are my favorite flower. And I think that that probably, I don't know exactly why. But I think it goes back to childhood. I can remember, maybe it was fourth grade, you know, we had to do a research project on something and I chose Violet. And, again, I don't know exactly why. But I think it had to do with the fact that it was the favorite flower of my father's aunt. And this was a beloved aunt, who had helped raise him. And she was epileptic. And so at that time, what if you were epileptic, you were not going to get married, you didn't really have a way forward as one might today. So. So she moved in with her brother's family, my grandfather took her in and, and she helped raise my father. And he adored her. And so I was raised with a lot of stories about her and how amazing and special she was, but Violets were her favorite flower. And she she died quite young. And I think my father might have been around age 12. And one day, they couldn't find her and so they went out looking for her and found her in the Violet bed, she had been picking Violets, and I think she, you know, maybe had a grand mal seizure, and she died right there with a little, you know, bunch of Violets in her hand. So it's such a sweet and tender story that he would share with us and so I think I just kind of ended up having this connection to her and to her favorite flower and yeah, it's always been mine. So yeah, that's an example of certainly kind of a personal story that I really hadn't given much thought to until I really started thinking about Wow, so what is it about Violets that that you like so much, you know, like, what is it? I mean, I of course I love the color purple and I love that they have this kind of really quiet little flower but there's there's obviously there, there was more there. As I dug deeper I realized wow, this this actually is a flower that connects me to, to an ancestor who was who was very important in my lineage. So, yeah, that's my connection to Violet.

Sara Artemisia:

Thanks for sharing that. And just so tender, so, so beautiful that your aunt had that connection, that she was so supportive in your dance upbringing. And just, I mean, it does sound like something out of a fairy tale that they just found her in the Violet bed there at the very

Nina Veteto:

Sweet. I know, it's so, so dear. And I know that her end. life was very, at later found this little box. And inside the box, were all of these little notes that had been folded up, and they were IOUs, you owe, you know your brother $10, you owe you know, and it just was, it was very kind of heartbreaking in some ways to find that and just realize that there was a woman who had no way of creating an income had no way of moving forward even to have her own family. She was dependent on her brother and she yet she had such a powerful impact on my father and now on me. So it's just interesting. And of course, I'll pass that on to my children and hope that they will do the same and, and through those lineage connections in those stories that we pass on. I hope that, you know, love of family and connection to the plant world will continue. Yeah, amazing. That's really beautiful to hear. And yeah, I just love what you were sharing there about violet, and certainly how the plants can help us connect with our ancestors or our living kin to just like you shared earlier, we can ask them what, what is your favorite flower, and this can open up a whole doorway of information that we may not have previously known. And I personally love Violet, because of the heart connection that I feel I love how they grow in community. And yeah, I was curious if there's anything else about Violet that you'd like to share? Well, I, it's interesting. You say that because of course, in Victorian times, one of the common names for Violet was Heartsease. And of course, they have that heart shaped leaf, right? And there's a long history of Violets in folklore, and even in for medicinal use, and in fact, think that they were used for heart medicine, because of that heart shaped leaf and a sort of a doctrine of signatures that connection there. And they were, I mean, there's so many interesting So sweet. Oh, I didn't know that about Napoleon and Josephine. stories about Violet. They were in, in Greek mythology. The origin story of Violet is that Io, which is where we get the word Violet from. Io was a beautiful maiden who Zeus fell in love with. And in order to keep her from the jealous eyes of his wife, Hera, he turned her into a cow. And she was so miserable as a cow, you know, having to eat grasses, and just she was not used to that type of thing. She cried, and she cried, and he took pity on her and he turned her tears into Violets so that she would have something sweet to eat. According to Greek mythology, that's where we get Violet. But it was your favorite flower of the Romans. And they used to make this very special wine out of Violets, which was supposed to not give you a hangover, so they would drink lots of it, and also the favorite flower of Napoleon and Josephine. It was their connection that it kind of came about through Violets. And apparently, the story goes that Josephine was, went to a to a ball, and she was instead of wearing fancy jewelry, like all of her contemporaries. She loved Violets and so she put on a like a little necklace of Violets, you know, she made a little necklace. And Napoleon was just smitten with that, and apparently, immediately fell in love with her and then their romance ensued, and Josephine wore a dress embroidered with Violets and carried Violets and she said, From now on, I want Violets on our wedding day for our anniversary and for the rest of her life. Even though they eventually divorced. He sent her a bouquet of flowers on their wedding anniversary, and they say that when he died, they found Violets in his little That's incredible. Yeah, yeah. locket that he always wore close to his heart. And those were

Sara Artemisia:

And I just love what you were sharing there Violets that he had planted on her grave. So really incredible story of how Violets connected this great love. So yeah, it's very much a heart oriented flower. about the the origin story of I always love a good origin story. And even just thinking about, you know, from a personal standpoint, maybe or more personal origin story, could you tell us a little bit about what influenced your love of the plant world?

Nina Veteto:

Sure, well, I've always loved plants, I've always been really connected to plants, even from a very young age, I can remember just really being interested in plants, that probably has a lot to do with how I was raised. I mean, I credit my parents with a lot of that. My dad in particular, he was he was very interested in the green world. He wasn't a gardener, per se, like in kind of the classic sense, but he did grow some things. But he was a forager, and he loved mushrooms. And we would spend our summers in the mountains of North Carolina, which is where I live now. And this was his happy place. And so as soon as we would get here, you know, would go out and need to forage mushrooms and teach us about them. And we'd bring them home and cook them up. My mom was amazing cook. And so those were, you know, those are really special memories. And I think gave me a certain sort of connection to plants in kind of a different way. I never had any fear associated with foraging or eating plants on the way side. It was just part of kind of what we did. But I also think that my parents what they, that well, they gave us the gift of a storybook childhood. And what I mean by that is not that we had some sort of an idyllic childhood, but that we were read to all the time. And a lot of that had to do with my dad, who, he was a psychologist, but he was a very particular kind of psychologist, he was a union analyst. So it was a student of Carl Jung. And Carl Jung was a psychologist who early 20th century psychologist who pioneered this idea of the archetype and the importance of stories and myths and legends as a sort of a vehicle for personal development. So, yeah, so we were to all the time and everything from Baba Yaga to Beatrix Potter. And so that was that was really important that that was a big part, or is a big part, I think of why I'm still really connected to stories. And also think, as I look back on that, that stories really developed in us and I say, us, meaning my brother, and I, kind of like a radical empathy for the natural world. So for example, if we were to see a spider or like, if a little mouse were to run by, or something that wasn't something that like, freaked us out, or anything that was that was just one of the characters that we loved from from our stories, right? So we would wouldn't dream of harming it or poisoning that little mouse, you know, I mean, those were characters that were very near and dear to our hearts. So, again, there's that sort of, I really think that the stories helped us develop that heart connection. And, yeah, that continues to this day. And my brother, by the way, is a is an arborist. So he's very connected to, to the green world as well. So.

Sara Artemisia:

Runs in the family. Yeah, and thanks for sharing that, too, about the stories I I also experienced that as a child reading a lot of stories, being read to also reading a ton as a child. And I recently learned that reading as a child resources child can can actually help us develop a deeper empathy for previously heard it in the context of other people, but it makes complete sense to what you're sharing there. It also helps us develop this radical empathy for the natural world. I certainly felt that as well. So it's so great to hear about your experience with that. And, and thanks for sharing about your, the history kind of where it all started and fast forwarding up to much more recently, I'd love to hear a bit more about how you came to create Blue Ridge Botanic. And really what inspired you to tell the Secret Stories of Wildflowers that you're doing now?

Nina Veteto:

Well, that kind of circle back I guess, to around 2019, I was a teacher. And I was working all the time. Just yeah, really stressed out. And my very sweet family kind of helped me understand that I was miserable through a series of conversations, you know, and, and I think that, yeah, after some lengthy conversations, we just decided, and I decided it was time, it was time to stop. So I left teaching, and I was approaching my 50th birthday. And so, you know, that's often a time of great reflection, and looking back and thinking, wow, what, what, where have we been? Where are we going? What, what should we do? And I realized that something that I had always really wanted to do, but never really allowed myself to do as an adult was to really create art and live creatively. And so I thought, okay, you know, now's the time, like, If not now, when? And I started to really explore that, I signed up for a botanical art class, because I've always been just really kind of obsessed with botanical art. And then the pandemic hit. And so all of that shut down. And I thought, well, okay, I, I just need to figure out how I'm going to do this anyway. And so I started to explore the cyanotype medium, which is a kind of cameraless photography, where you use a UV sensitive solution on paper, and you capture imagery through, you know, exposure to sunlight. And it has a very long botanical tradition associated with it. So it was a nice kind of way to continue to explore botanical art. And as I did that, I started to look at these prints as almost like portraits of these plants. And I wanted to know more about these individuals really is kind of how I started to look at them. So I started to research plants in their history. And I had set up a, an Instagram account, and it was about that time that Instagram switched to a reels format, you know, where reels became a really important part of Instagram, so so that felt a little daunting. I will admit, as a as a complete introvert, I thought, Oh, my goodness, what? Oh, what am I going to do there? But I thought, well, you know, I'm really fascinated by these stories. Maybe if I share some of these stories, other people would be interested in them, too, you know, and yeah, turns out they are. So I yeah, just started to create this Secret Stories of the Wildflowers series, and have just been absolutely loving it ever since.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. And yeah, it's such a fantastic series. So great.

Nina Veteto:

Thank you, Sara.

Sara Artemisia:

Yeah, I'd love to hear too, how would you say that the plants support you in your life's work?

Nina Veteto:

Wow. I think they are, well, they're omnipresent for me now. They're always, always on my mind. And I am just I can hardly wait every morning to get out and go on my morning walk and see what's blooming and discover something new. So it's, for me, it's about it's a process of just the joy of discovery, and kind of this ever deepening connection that I think was always there. But, I mean, they were always just kind of sort of gently tapping me on the shoulder but this has really brought them to the fore and it's just been a really fun journey and I just continue to love learning about them and connecting to them through through that vehicle of story.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. Well, Nina, thanks so much clearly such an amazing storyteller as well. And so tell us, how can people find out more about you and your work?

Nina Veteto:

Well, I do have a website at www.blueridgebotanic. Of course, I have my Instagram account, which is also@blueridgebotanic. And I'm very excited because I just launched a substack newsletter called Flora&Forage. And so it's a really, I think, going to be a really fun place to, to connect to people who love the stories, I'm going to be sharing a lot more in terms of stories. And so yeah, so I'm excited about that. So that's another place to find, to find the stories and to connect to other people who, who love the stories as well.

Sara Artemisia:

And so will the link to sign up for your substack is that on your website? Or how can people do that?

Nina Veteto:

Yes, it's on my Instagram. And it's also on my website, right? Or you can just go to substack and look up Flora&Forage and it will pop up. So yeah.

Sara Artemisia:

So great. Well, Nina, thanks so much for joining us today. Just such a joy, delight to connect with you.

Nina Veteto:

Sara, it has been so much fun. I still appreciate it and have really enjoyed chatting with you and sharing with the audience and I just really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Sara Artemisia:

And thanks so much for listening and joining us today on the Plant Spirit Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and please follow to subscribe, leave a review and look forward to seeing you on the next episode.