In Strange Horticulture you enter the tangy murk of a rare plant shop of the same name, inherited from your recently deceased uncle. It’s in Undermere, a fictionalised version of Windermere in the Lake District. A few specimens – all fictitious but botanically believable – line the shop’s dusty wooden shelves, each one in need of a good watering. Soon your first customer emerges from the shadows with a request for a medicinal plant to help rid them of the voices they hear at night.
You’re no expert; instead, you must rely on the reference materials left by your uncle, chiefly, his edition of The Strange Book of Plants, a horticultural guide filled with clues for identifying plants from their scent, the shape of their leaves, the colours of their petals, as well as to remedial properties.
