Oxford Botanic Garden and Aboretum
Winter lectures 2025
Five Winter Lectures will be hosted at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History this year in January, February and March. Your ticket includes a drinks reception after each talk. Thursdays, 19.00-20.30.
Please note booking is required to access the lectures. All lectures are live, in-person and will not be recorded
23 January: Professor Simon Hiscock The Oxford Ragwort Story
6 February: Guy Shrubsole The Lie of the Land: Who really cares for the countryside?
20 February: Alice Vincen Why Women Grow
6 March: Anne Swithinbank Gently Rewilding the Garden
20 March: Cleve West The Garden of Vegan
To book tickets click here
ArtFund – Perfect places for winter walks
Pull on your boots and gloves: here are some of our favourite museums, historic houses and parks for a winter garden walk in the UK.
While it’s easy to huddle yourself away at home during the colder months, winter is a gorgeous time to explore outside, as frosty mornings and emerging winter plants create opportunities for lovely views.
We’ve selected just a few of the beautiful houses, museums and parks that are perfect for a winter garden walk in the UK – all of which offer great discounts with a National Art Pass. From the frosted cherry garden at Ham House in Richmond to the atmospheric Gothic Folly at Wimpole Estate, there’s a feast for the eyes round every corner. Lose yourself in acres of park and woodland, and get back to nature this winter.
Selected parks: Compton Verney, Brantwood, Waddesdon, Wimpole, Horniman and Ham House
FOLAR in collaboration with The Garden Design Trust
We are delighted to announce our next series of exciting and stimulating on-line talks,
in collaboration with
C20 Women in Landscape Design
The talks will focus on six remarkable women designers, starting on Wednesday the 8th of January, from 6 to 7.30 pm. For full details and to book your tickets click this link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/c20-women-in-landscape-design-tickets-1086942587539
The ‘6 Women’ are:
Susan Jellicoe, Sheila Haywood, Brenda Colvin, Mary Mitchell, Marjory Allen and Marian Thompson
All contributed to the expertise, development and awareness of the landscape profession in many different ways. Our equally impressive list of speakers is: Sally Ingram, Paula Laycock, Hal Moggridge, Joy Burgess, Wendy Titman and Bruce Thompson. Each knew, worked with, or researched one of these six remarkable women.
We look forward to seeing you there.
If you become a member of FOLAR here (just £25) you can buy tickets at the reduced member rate for the next 6 months.
And do get in touch with any questions at info@folar.uk
The Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Rd., London SE1 7LB
Exhibition: Lost Gardens of London
Did you know that Southwark once had a zoo? That for a short spell Britain’s first ecological park was built within a stone’s throw of Tower Bridge? Or that one of the capital’s most celebrated botanical gardens now lies beneath the platforms of Waterloo station? Our next exhibition Lost Gardens of London will reveal the secret history of some of London’s most beguiling forgotten gardens.
Thousands of gardens have vanished across London over the past five hundred years – ranging from princely pleasure grounds and private botanical gardens, to humble allotments and defunct squares, artists’ gardens, eccentric private menageries and the ecological parks of the twentieth century. Guest curated by landscape architect and historian Dr Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Lost Gardens of London will explore this legacy and reveal tantalising glimpses of some of the rich and varied gardens that once embellished the metropolis.
Lost Gardens of London coincides with a new book by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan of the same name, to be published by the Modern Art Press (and distributed by Yale University Press) in October 2024.
23 October 2024 – 2 March 2025
Friends go free
The Garden Museum has an interesting programme of lectures for March 2025 starting
4th March, 7 00pm: Restorative Gardens: A conversation on Urban Healing
11th March, 7 00pm: Jo Thompson – The new romantic garden
NEW TALK Tuesday 7th April; 7 00pm; The Swimming Pool Lecture, presented by Christopher Wood, Director. In person or Live Stream.
Institute of Historical Research (IHR). History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes
20 February, 6 00pm Wolfson NB01, & zoom: ‘Beautifully situated on the banks of the Hoogly’: Maria Graham’s account of travel and the gardens of India (1809-1811) presented by Kathryn Walchester
27th February, 6 00pm, zoom: Rosaria Assunto’s philosophy of the garden: A reflection on how beauty, idea, action and contemplation intertwine in the garden presented by Moirika Reker
6th March, 6 00pm, zoom: Memoranda for botanical literacy in the past and present presented by Miranda E. Mote
20th March, 6 00pm, Wolfson NB01, UHR, & zoom: ‘Blossoming places in the wilderness’: W. H. Hudson’s anti-gardens presented by Lesley Wylie
For more information, visit the IHR website
Or contact us at gardenhistory.ihr@gmail.com
British Library announces 2025 exhibitions
Gardening (working title)
2 May – 10 August 2025
British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB with accompanying Living Knowledge Network displays at public libraries around the UK
Gardening (working title) explores the transformative, enriching and sometimes radical power of gardening in Britain and how it impacts people, communities and the environment.
Presenting items ranging from the only surviving illustrated collection of herbal remedies from Anglo-Saxon England and the first gardening manual printed in 1564 alongside paintings, pamphlets and richly illustrated botanical works, this major exhibition reveals how gardening has contributed to social and political change throughout history.
From rural and urban gardens and allotments to indoor gardens and windowsills, the exhibition delves into how the act of gardening heals and sustains people in a multitude of ways. It explores how gardening brings people together, empowers communities and shapes our relationship with the natural world. It also considers gardening as a form of activism, as a means of challenging land ownership and highlighting social disparities, as well as the consequences of the international movement of plants for the environment and human societies.
The exhibition features new short films produced in collaboration with the Coco Collective, a grass-roots gardening organisation with two Afro-diaspora led community gardens in London and culminates with a contemporary art piece by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg that transforms how we see gardens and who we make them for. With sustainability at the core of the exhibition, the design and build of Gardening (working title) has been guided by practices aimed at reducing the exhibition’s environmental impact.
The exhibition is supported by a donation made in memory of Melvin R Seiden, with thanks to Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust for additional support.
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