Morphic resonance

No, nothing to do with plasticine figures. Morphic resonance was a phrase invented by scientist and author Rupert Sheldrake. He described it as “…the basis of memory in nature....the idea of mysterious telepathy-type interconnections between organisms and of collective memories within species."  A bit wacky, really.

I think Sheldrake was more concerned with this in animals, but I think I’ve found evidence of it in plants. I must have bought an aquilegia at some point, as the garden just contained lollipopped shrubs when we first moved here. Since then, the aquilegia (notoriously promiscuous) has seeded itself around the garden. I think the original may have been a dark-coloured double – frilly knicker style.

Now, this original has spawned a range of plants which have seeded themselves around the back, and now front, garden. Strangely, though, the plants have come up in sympathy to the surrounding flowers – not due to any weeding out by me.

So, we have…

 

Blue next to a blue geranium

Red next to a red Astrantia and in front of the purple of Lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’

Lilac and Allium christophii

Frilly pink in front of the pink-branched Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’

 

Frilly purple in front of a purple-leaved Acer (and a self-seeded Allium christophii – but more on those in a later post).

Spooky!