Thoughts on control and care examines the power structures of colonial history in the context of botanical gardens. In episodes of stillness and movement, the voiceover repeatedly scrutinises the filmmaker's own clearly structured ideas and definitions of nature and questions the hierarchical systems of botany. It deals with processes of naming, uprooting and appropriation and the question of who has the power to decide which language we use to describe nature. While the routinised  process of seed cleaning can be observed in the Bonn Botanical Garden, the thought process comes to a head: How can we take care of the past? And which stories that have been passed on for centuries need to be retold?