Tutor: Paula Edgington
Date: Thursday 4th December 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £75
Location: Classroom

Join florist Paula Edgington to start your festive season and make your own garden-inspired festive wreath. No previous experience is needed as you will be taken through the process step-by-step. The wreath will be made from scratch and will have a moss-based ring. You will then cover it in a selection of festive evergreen foliage and berries which have been gathered from the Botanic Garden, followed by a choice of decorations from natural pinecones, cinnamon bundles, dried fruit and more, and finally a ribbon to hang it up. Come and have fun, learn a new skill, be creative and leave with your very own handmade festive wreath for your front door. This course is suitable for all levels and everything you need is provided.

Tutor: Laura Mayer
Date: Wednesday 26th November 2025
Time: 18:30 - 20:30
Cost: £30
Location: Online

Humphry Repton (1752–1818) ambitiously styled himself as Capability Brown’s successor: the century’s next great improver of landed property. Developing a new aesthetic, which he termed ‘Ornamental Gardening’, his landscapes were laced with flowers and crammed with exotic features. Immortalized in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, Repton turned his hand to everything from ghoulish garden mausoleums to George IV’s seaside palace, Brighton Pavilion. His famous Red Books – illustrated to help his clients visualize the potential of their properties – did much to encourage an appreciation of landscape aesthetics during the Regency period. This course will trace his career from its picturesque beginnings to the progressive Gardenesque style, which both made his name and changed England’s relationship with nature forever.

Tutor: Emma James
Date: Thursday 27th November 2025 - Friday 28th November 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £170
Location: Classroom

In this two day workshop we will explore the Garden to sketch and take photos of winter views for the lino image to cut and print. We will then plan, cut and print a reduction linocut with three colour layers in winter tones of greys and blues. Materials and some tools will be available to use, but you will need your own set of lino cutting tools, as well as a box or folder to take away your prints.

Tutor: Ángela Cano
Date: Monday 17th November 2025 - Tuesday 18th November 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £155
Location: Classroom

Join our Deputy Curator, Dr Ángela Cano, on this two-day introduction to tropical botany. Travelling back in time, you will learn about the dynamic borders of the tropical region, with a focus on the fossil record. You will then study current patterns of geographic distribution of plant diversity on Earth, discovering that it is not homogeneous, but dramatically different between continents. You will fly over the tropical belt to understand which regions have the highest species richness, known as “biodiversity hotspots”, and face the strongest threats. Ángela will then discuss the main factors that threaten this biodiversity and the local and ex situ efforts that are in place to counteract their effects. The second part of the course will focus on plant systematics – understanding how plants have evolved and how taxonomists have classified them. You will focus on different tropical plant groups, starting with non-flowering plants, such as mosses, ferns and conifers and then briefly cover the most representative tropical angiosperm families.