Reflections on the Power of Plants Festival 2025
02 October 2025
Pictured above part of the Nature's Laboratory team - left to right Tom, Dylan, James, Lucy and Shankar.
As we move into Autumn, we’ve been looking back at some of the highlights of our year here at Nature’s Laboratory. Here are some of our team this July, at the Power of Plants Festival 2025, hosted by the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the beautiful setting of the Shropshire Hills. The festival brought together herbal practitioners, growers, producers, and plant-lovers of all kinds for a weekend filled with inspiring talks, workshops, music, and community.
Nature’s Laboratory was delighted to be a programme partner and take part in this year’s festival. Our CEO, James Fearnley (4th from left in photo below), joined the Opening Panel Discussion on the future of herbalism. The conversation covered some of the most pressing and exciting issues in our field—from research and education to funding, collective support, and reaching new audiences. It was a thought-provoking and motivating discussion that set the tone for the days ahead.
As part of the festival celebrations, we were also proud to sponsor a Research Award, presented by James to herbalist Suzi Richer. Congratulations, Suzi, on this well-deserved recognition of your work! Look out for a blog, coming soon, with more details on Suzi’s story and her fascinating work.
The Power of Plants Festival truly lived up to its name: a celebration of all things herbal, with space for connection, learning, and joy. From inspiring speakers to the Herbal High Street and the warm community spirit, it was an incredible start to the summer. Here we are at the Nature's Laboratory stall on the Herbal High Street,where we chatted to old friends & new connections, and discussed our products & services, gave away free samples and sold products from our ranges of herbal medicines & skincare Herbal Apothecary medicines from the beehive BeeVital Natural skincare Sweet Cecily's single ingredient & blended loose leaf herbal teas Whitby Tea Company and supplements from Nature's Laboratory retail - from left to right- Dylan, Lucy, James, Tom and Shankar.
A huge thank you to everyone at the National Institute of Medical Herbalists for hosting such a wonderful event. We left feeling inspired, grateful, and more connected than ever to this amazing community of people working with the healing power of plants.
Nature's Laboratory Team at the Power of Plants Festival
James Fearnley - CEO of Nature's Laboratory
Dr Shankar Katekhaye - Director of Quality & Research
Dylan Parry - Director of Herbal Medicine
Tom Cull - Director of Production, Purchasing & Operations
Lucy Fearnley - Community Communications Director