Verbascum thapsus

This Great Mullein sprouted in the spring of 2022. For over a year, I’ve been collecting colours of this Mullein along Amsterdam’s Zuid-as. Daily, I walked past it with my dog through Beatrixpark. In its first year, the plant forms a rosette of leaves. In April 2023, the plant began to grow outwards and upwards. My fear that the vacant lot would become a construction site came true. One day, the Mullein was teetering on the edge of the abyss where the excavator had dug up the path next to which the plant stood. It was never my intention, but I decided then to dig up the plant and move it to my own garden. It has continued to grow there and has come into bloom. I hope that in the coming years, the courtyard garden will be a sea of yellow with Mullein plants, seedlings of this one.

I used the image and colours of this Great Mullein to embroider the Plant Portrait. I embroidered it life-size. The roots of the Great Mullein extend as deep as 3 meters into the ground, and the plant itself stands over 2 meters tall above ground. When you stand in front of the Portrait of the Great Mullein, it towers far above you. Perhaps this helps us humans to start relating differently to the plant world around us. There is no room for “plant blindness”; we share this world with one another.

Geat Mullein is embroidered in its full size: 6 meters high and 1,8 meter wide.

Bobbins in various colours, ranging from roots to flowers, have been placed on the wooden bar. The bar with the bobbins is 10 cm high, 15 cm wide and 1 cm deep.