Oxford University Botanic Gardens
Spring Fair – Saturday 9th May. At the Harcourt Arboretum, 10 00am – 4 00pm – last entry 3 00pm.
The Garden Museum
Spring Plant Fair
19th April 10 00 am – 4 00pm, £5 entry
This year’s stalls will include Beth Chatto Gardens, Great Dixter Nursery, Zophian Plants, Heckfield Place Farm, Hardys Plants, Earth Tenders, Care Not Capital, Bright Green Fox and many more.
More information and tickets here
Coming soon! Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s
11 February – 31 May 2026
In our next exhibition opening early 2026, discover the exchange of botanical knowledge shared between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London between 1766-1773, displaying a collection of Chinese botanical art and research for the first time in Britain since it was commissioned 235 years ago.
The exhibition will explore the relationship between John Bradby Blake (1745-1773), an English botanist who worked as a supercargo for the East India Company in the 1770s, his Chinese interlocutor Whang At Tong 黃遏東, and the botanical artists Bradby Blake commissioned to document plants native to Canton.
Featuring 30 botanical paintings by the artist Mauk-Sow-U together with herbals, maps, models, a portrait of Whang At Tong 黃遏東 by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and watercolours and drawings of Canton from the V&A, Seeds of Exchangewill tell the story of a little-known international botanical collaboration.
Garden Museum Literary Festival
Friday 26 June
Gyles Brandreth & Alan Titchmarsh on Winnie-the-Pooh, enchanted places and the magic and humour of gardens
Kendell Cronstrom & Alejandro Saralegui on Madoo: The Making of an American Garden
Antonia Fraser on Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit
Francois Gordon in conversation with Tania Compton on Russell Page
Lord Michael Howard of Lympne on Lord Melbourne – His extraordinary Life and Times
Andrea Jones & Jodie Jones on Melbourne Hall Gardens
Arabella Lennox-Boyd
Matthew Parris on How I got where I am today
Harriet Rix on The Genius Of Trees
Saturday 27 June
Rupert Everett
Mary Keen on A garden for every day of the year (a small one)
Jack Lindfield on Sandringham Gardens Then & Now
Philip Mansel on Versailles in England; the influence of the gardens of Louis XIV
Gabriel Wick on Anglomanie and the French Landscape Garden
Sarah McNear in conversation with Sue Stuart-Smith on Edward Steichen and the Garden
Dan Pearson
Orlando Reade on John Milton’s Garden Designs
Miranda Seymour on A Radical Princess
Tom Stuart-Smith on Optimism
Sonja Waites & Shane Connolly on Memories of Pulbrook & Gould
Plus garden tours, workshops from JamJar Flowers and live music. To book click here.
Ashmolean Museum
In Bloom: How plants changed our world
What do we really know about the plants and flowers in our gardens and window boxes?
Beyond their beauty, many have hidden histories – tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge.
This major new exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms – from roses and tulips to camellias and peonies.
Featuring over 100 artworks and objects, including drawings, paintings, rare prints, and ceramics, In Bloom explores our changing relationship with the natural world.
From the fascinating stories of curiosity and ingenuity of early plant explorers to the networks that shaped global trade, this exhibition reveals how the pursuit of exotic plants transformed landscapes, economies, and cultures, leaving a legacy that still shapes our world today.
Tickets available from 19th March here
The Alpine Garden Society has a programme of events, zoom lectures, seed exchanges and regional groups
The Cottage Garden Society has a North Oxford Group
The Oxford Special Interest Group The Oxfordshire Flora Group specialising in plant identification meetings