I am Nigel Chaffey*. I am a Botanist, and am fascinated by plants – as wonderful organisms in their own right – and how they interact with people . I tried to convey that wonder and enthusiasm to students during my time as Senior Lecturer in Botany at Bath Spa University (Bath, near Bristol, UK). In trying to spread that message beyond the university’s campus I contributed the monthly Plant Cuttings column to the Annals of Botany, an international plant science journal. Until September 2023, my Cuttingsesque items – and appraisals of books with a plant focus – were also shared with a plant-curious audience at Botany One, the web log for the Annals of Botany Company [for my archived items at that site, see here; for my print-based publications, see GoogleScholar].
In all those different roles my main goal has been to inform (hopefully, in an educational, and entertaining way) others about plants and plant-people interactions, and thereby improve humankind’s botanical literacy. Now, as a rather grandly-titled ‘freelance plant science communicator’, I’m hoping to reach a wider audience with my own web site, Plant Cuttings** [for more about the purpose of this site, see About this site].
In the spirit of trying to reach even more people, I’m happy to be contacted to discuss potential writing – or talking – projects and opportunities. To do so, please use the Contact page.
* In the past, owing to the strangeness of internet searches, I have been known as Mr Plant Cuttings. That title is one I’ve been happy to use, and it occasionally appears in my blog items. But, to remove any doubts, Nigel Chaffey = Mr Plant Cuttings.
** I’m not as adept at IT as I’d like to be. Developing this site is therefore going to be quite a steep learning curve, both for me and for the readers(!). My goal is to keep things nice and simple on the basis that the content is more important than any fancy ‘packaging’. Nevertheless, I hope you’ll bear with me as I try to get things ‘right’ on this site…
Plant Cuttings 