Tutor: Nabil Ali
Date: Tuesday 03rd June 2025 - Thursday 05th June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £210
Location: Classroom

During this course you will explore the Botanic Garden to gather materials to develop a plant colour palette. This hands-on experience will provide you with the knowledge and tools to create your paint systems using plants as a medium for artistic expression. You will learn about colour compositions, paint layering, natural binders, organic fillers, preservatives and coloured egg glazes. Each day will be dedicated to exploring specific plants related to different colours, such as blue, red, yellow, orange, purple, green and black. Additionally, you will have exclusive access to an 'organic paint recipe archive' and the Botanic Dyes Colour Research, offering detailed insights into the practical foundations of paint-making using a variety of common and unusual plants. During the course Nabil will guide you around the Botanic Garden following the 'Dyes from Plants' garden trail.

Tutor: John Wiltshire
Date: Tuesday 10th June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £85
Location: Classroom

This course is designed to build on your existing experience with watercolour and provide you with tools which will help you to continue to grow as a watercolour painter. Over the session you will be introduced to various approaches and methods to apply your own painterly vision to your practice. We will look at the Botanic Garden and how to approach this exciting and vibrant subject for yourself ‘en plein air’. You will be briefly revisiting the basics of watercolour technique and introduced to practical applications of a limited palette technique. Materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring any materials that you would prefer to use.

Tutor: Karin Eklund
Date: Saturday 21st June 2025 - Sunday 22nd June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £155
Location: Classroom

Join illustrator Karin Eklund for an immersive weekend exploring drawing techniques, tailored for all levels. Both sessions will start with time in the Garden, where we'll engage in short observational drawing sessions, followed by time in our on-site Classroom where we will delve into various aspects of illustration, including composition, character design and creating captivating environments. Karin will offer creative prompts and share a selection of picture books to inspire your artistic endeavours and encourage you to mix your imagination and memories to create visual stories with the Garden as your backdrop. By the end of the weekend, you will have developed multiple sketches and a few finalised illustrations and might even come away with the seeds of a new book idea. It is up to you how you interpret and develop your ideas. You can expect a joyful, creative and explorative approach set in a friendly and informative atmosphere.

Tutor: John Wiltshire
Date: Tuesday 8th July 2025 - Wednesday 9th July 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £155
Location: Classroom

On this two-day course in oil painting technique, professional artist John Wiltshire will demonstrate techniques and approaches to oil painting in the open air. With enough time to create your own painting this is a rare opportunity to work in the beautiful, historic setting of the Botanic Garden and explore oil painting over an extended period. Use the techniques of ‘il primatura’ and ‘a la prima’ painting and expect to learn some of the ‘tricks of the trade’ that will enhance and accelerate your own painting so that you will come away with practical insight into how to develop as a painter. Materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring any materials that you would prefer to use. This course is suitable for beginners or those looking to improve their painting technique.

Tutor: Nabil Ali
Date: Tuesday 21st October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £85
Location: Classroom

Learn about the dye processing techniques that date back hundreds of years with an insight into the Herbarium digital collections of lichen research by past lichen explorers. You will have the opportunity to use lichen dyes and paint to create lichen images and dye samples.

Tutor: Emma James
Date: Thursday 10th July 2025 - Friday 11th July 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £170
Location: Classroom

We will start with a walk in the Garden to collect leaves and fallen plant material. Once back in the classroom we’ll use these to use to print your own individual covers, pages and inserts for your sketchbooks. There will be demonstrations of printmaking technique and uses of materials. You will work with monoprinting to create unique prints to build within the construct of your books, and create layered prints using and combining plant materials, mark making, textured materials and masking techniques. On day two we will select which prints to use for your books: a simple sewn sketchbook with printed covers and inserts, and a printed concertina Artist’s Book, including printed inserts. A step-by-step demonstration will be given of how to measure, cut, crop and prepare your prints and how to construct your books. By the end of the course, you will have created three individual books and many prints.

Tutor: Grace Hailstone
Date: Wednesday 16th July 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £85
Location: Classroom

Make unique monoprints exploring silhouettes of leaves and ‘ghost prints’ using a miniature etching press. Working with positive and negative shapes, spacing and texture, we will create unique original prints on cotton-based paper using real leaves and materials. Participants can bring collected organic materials to print with, materials will also be provided. We will begin with making simple silhouettes then expanding to create multi layered images full of organic shapes and textures. Image sizes will be a maximum of 10 cm.

Tutor: Susie Turner
Date: Tuesday 29th July 2025 - Wednesday 30th July 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £170
Location: Classroom

This practical workshop will introduce participants to the simple technique of cyanotype using the rich collection of foliage and found objects in the Botanic Garden as inspiration. Participants will learn how to transfer botanical specimens, found objects, drawings and photographs into unique cyanotype prints using a range of suitable papers and ready-made cyanotype sensitizer solution. There will also be the opportunity to work with pre-coated fabric.

Tutor: Susie Turner
Date: Wednesday 29th October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £85
Location: Classroom

This one-day workshop will introduce participants to the simple but effective method of monoprinting directly using a selection of pressed autumnal leaves as primary source material. Monoprinting is the method of producing one or several unique prints. The technique offers fine detail and versatility in image making. During this one-day workshop, participants will learn how to make monoprints using oil-based water washable inks, a small professional printing press as well as learn how to print without a press, using hand burnishing techniques. The course is open to all levels and materials will be provided.

Tutor: Charlotte Aldis and Patsy Rathbone
Date: Wednesday 28th May 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £90
Location: Classroom

Environmentally safe and without the use of any chemicals, the image is scratched into the surface of the plate using a drypoint needle. Gathering inspiration from the wealth of flora in the Botanic Garden, you will collect, sketch or photograph leaves and flowers to create a botanical image. You will transform this into a drypoint etching and learn how to ink and print your image on a small, table-top press. Developing your work throughout the day you will create multiple, varied prints using a seasonal colour palette. The beauty of this technique is that you do not need any drawing skills or prior knowledge to create a beautiful print. All printing materials will be provided and etching needles will be available to use. Gloves and cleaning materials will be supplied but you will need to bring an apron or similar.

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: Sally Francis
Date: Tuesday 24th June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £40
Location: Classroom

Saffron is the dried stigmas of an autumn-flowering crocus called Crocus sativus. It is a hugely valuable spice with a fascinating history. Saffron is used around the world to flavour food as well as being used for dyeing, perfumery and in herbal medicine. On this half-day course Sally will introduce you to the history of the cultivation of this fascinating flower and teach you how to get the best from this precious spice in your cookery at home.

Tutor: Twigs Way
Date: Saturday 5th July 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £80
Location: Classroom

Taking the ‘long view’ on the garden’s relationship with nature this one-day course will reach back into garden history, before turning to examine the present-day contexts and future issues within which we garden. Encompassing discussion of the cross-over between visions of historic landscape and gardens within movements of ‘romanticism’, ‘picturesque’, and ‘wild’, we will go on to examine understanding and usage of modern terms including ‘wildlife friendly’, ‘re-wilding’ and, crossing to land management, ‘regenerative’. We will also consider the impact of changing climate and disease patterns, and managing the balance between past, present and future visions of heritage gardens,landscapes and current design.

Tutor: Twigs Way
Date: Friday 19th September 2025, Friday 17th October 2025 and
Friday 14th November 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £120
Location: Classroom

This exciting series of three sessions will explore the interplay between fashions in garden design and planting, textiles, fashion and culture more broadly. Focusing on the English experience but including the influence of trade and contacts more widely, we will use both images and texts to explore this cultural interplay between inside and out, chronologically in monthly sessions, commencing with the Medieval and Early Tudor and running through Elizabethan and Early Georgian.

Tutor: Charlot King
Date: Tuesday 23rd September 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £40
Location: Classroom

Plants have featured heavily in fiction, whether celebrating their beauty or being used to poison in murder mysteries! This course will celebrate murderous plants in a selection of stories. From Shakespeare’s plays to Colin Dexter’s Morse, and in between, we will explore deadly plants featured, as well as some story-telling skills.

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: Anna Martin
Date: Thursday 29th May 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £45
Location: Classroom

A fun short course to introduce you to the joy of decorating cakes with beautiful flowers.
Learn different piping techniques with buttercream and how to make fondant flowers.
Using the flowers you make, as well as edible seasonal fresh and dried flowers, you will then decorate four cupcakes baked by Anna to take home.

Tutor: Nick Gosman and Fay Jones
Date: Tuesday 14th October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £95
Location: Classroom

Have you dabbled with greenwood spoon carving and are keen to take your skills to the next level? Then this one-day course in end-grain greenwood tankard carving is an opportunity to extend your skills. We will teach you how to make a tankard, like the ones seen on House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. We will take you from basic wood preparation, carving the tankard with an axe, auger and gouge work and finishing of the tankard that you can take away with you. We will provide you with all the tools you need including chopping, auger and gouge blocks.

Tutor: Paula Edgington
Date: Thursday 12th June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £75
Location: Classroom

In this workshop, we will discuss ways and means of working more sustainably when flower arranging by looking at alternative methods of arranging without traditional floral foam. You will create your own beautiful arrangement to take home with you. In addition, during the workshop, we will discuss a wider, more holistic approach to arranging sustainably. Materials and equipment are provided.

Tutor: Reinhild Raistrick
Date: Tuesday 9th September 2025 - Wednesday 10th September 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £155
Location: Classroom

The end of summer and the beginning of autumn reward us with a wonderful array of brightly coloured fruit and unusual seedheads. In this two-day watercolour course, you will create a medley of images using various watercolour techniques, from dry brushwork to wet-in-wet washes. Botanical artist Reinhild Raistrick will be on hand to guide you through the process, from composing a pleasing portrait to painting the shine on glossy berries and mixing the colours for an autumn leaf.

Tutor: Janie Pirie
Date: Tuesday 07th October 2025 - Thursday 09th October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £210
Location: Classroom


It’s not often beginners get the chance to learn the absolute basics of coloured pencil art. On this course, Janie will take you through all the fundamentals to start your journey into the wonderful world of coloured pencils. Simple subjects will be available for you to draw, before transferring your drawing to good quality art paper. You will then begin learning how to lay down colour so it looks like a brush stroke of paint, how to blend colours seamlessly and how to create veins and contours on leaves to make them look amazingly three-dimensional.

Tutor: Janie Pirie
Date: Wednesday 11th November 2025 - Friday 13th November 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £110
Location: Online

A chance to learn about using coloured pencils without the worry of having to draw something first! You will be supplied with a photograph taken by Janie, your tutor, together with a line drawing for you to trace and transfer. Instructions will be sent before the course. You will see demonstrations throughout the course to help you go through the process in the right order, helping you to end up with a beautiful rose illustration of your own.

Tutor: Paul Herrington
Dates:
Thursday 18th September 2025
Thursday 2nd October 2025
Thursday 16th October 2025
Thursday 30th October 2025

Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £320
Location: Classroom

This course would be perfect for learners with some experience of garden design and who have completed the ‘Introduction to garden design’ course at the Botanic Garden or similar elsewhere. Course content is flexible and will be tailored to the needs of the learner group. It will be most meaningful for those who have a garden design or redesign in mind and would like to dive deeper into details such as planting schemes, hard landscaping, water features and garden lighting. Numbers on this course are limited to ensure plenty of opportunities for support and discussion with the tutor and fellow participants. The price is for all four sessions which cannot be booked individually.

Tutor: Luigi Leoni
Date: Saturday 25th October 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £40
Location: Classroom

This course in fern cultivation and identification aims to cover the fundamentals of this fascinating group of plants. We will cover fern diversity (including some fern families), the Victorian fern craze, and fern biology in order to better understand their growing requirements (temperatures, humidity, growing media, fertilizing, etc.) and behaviour in cultivation. The course will also look at fern propagation, showing how to collect spores and how new plants develop from spores, gemmae and rhizomes.

Tutor: Sally Petitt
Date: Tuesday 9th December 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £40
Location: Classroom

Winter is often considered off-season for many gardeners, but there are many plants which can enhance even the smallest garden over the winter period. Join Sally on this half day course as she discusses ways to add interest to your own patch, provides tips on which plants will bring valuable colour to your garden in winter and takes you on a tour of our acclaimed Winter Garden.

Tutor: Ros Bennett
Date: Tuesday, 20th May 2025 - Thursday, 22nd May 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £210
Location: Classroom

Using a key is not rocket science but can be fun. The important thing is to understand the terminology used and to hunt carefully for the (often exquisite) distinguishing key features. This three-day course is designed to give you confidence to identify plants using botanical keys. In doing so, it will also give you a better understanding of botanical terms and flowering plant classification.

Tutor: Beverley Glover and Paul Aston
Date: Monday, 09th June 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £40
Location: Classroom

This short course will introduce you to the fascinating world of bees and flowers, and help you develop planting schemes to attract more bees to your own garden. It will begin with a talk by the Director of the Botanic Garden, Professor Beverley Glover, on the relationship between bees and flowers; Beverley has been studying the interaction between pollinating insects and the surface structures of flowers for over a decade. This will be followed by a walk and talk amongst the plants in the Bee Borders with one of our expert horticulturists, Paul Aston, who is responsible for the design and maintenance of these beautiful beds.

Tutor: Ángela Cano and Ros Bennett
Date: Monday, 16th June 2025 - Friday, 20th June 2025
Time: 09:30 - 17:30
Cost: £460
Location: Classroom

This five-day intensive course will introduce flowering plant families to committed amateurs, undergraduates, graduates and professionals. The aim is to help you develop an understanding of the evolution and systematics of the major plant families, and the practical skills needed when approaching the identification of plant material. Teaching will be through a combination of practical sessions and lectures covering exemplars of major flowering plant families, with an emphasis on those of North Temperate regions. The course will make extensive use of plant material and the living collections across the Botanic Garden and includes a visit to the University’s Herbarium, housed in the Sainsbury Laboratory. A lunch on the final day is included in the price.

Tutor: Nathan Smith
Date: Thursday, 4th September 2025 - Friday, 5th September 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £155
Location: Classroom

Covering fungal biology and ecology, the course will also examine the wider cultural impact of fungi in art, music and religion. Participants will be taught what makes a fungus, the fundamentals of fungal identification and introduced to some of the key debates in mycology today. Nathan will also direct participants to available resources and local groups should they wish to continue their fungal adventures.

Tutor: Nathan Smith
Date: Thursday 25th September 2025 - Friday 26th September 2025
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Cost: £80
Location: Classroom

This course will focus on the practical aspects of fungal identification—covering the basics of basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. Participants will work with seasonably available fungi to learn spore prints, basic microscopic and chemical identification, and how to collect, dry, and record fungi for scientific analysis. The fundamentals of DNA-based identification will also be covered. This course assumes a basic knowledge of fungi equivalent to the level covered in "Introduction to mycology".

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.

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: Caroline Henrickson
Date: Thursday 11th December 2025
Time: 10:00 - 13:00
Cost: £45
Location: Classroom

Taking winter inspiration from the Garden, come and join Caroline Henricksen for a fun, relaxing and creative morning collaging botanical cards. Caroline will take you through the process she uses to create her botanical collage pieces, starting with you creating your own collage surfaces using paints, foliage, vintage paper, magazines, old books, wallpaper and even toothbrush and paint rollers. Just about anything can be used to collage. Playing with patterns and textures can produce some really interesting and beautiful results. You are welcome to bring in your own additional materials to work with (for example old prints, poems, books) but everything is provided on the day. Just turn up and create!

Tutor: Paula Edgington
Date: Thursday 5th 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.

Wild Garden: Guided walks exploring British native plants in the Botanic Garden

Explore the wildflowers of the Botanic Garden with our early-morning guided walks, a special opportunity to experience the Garden before it opens to the public. Each walk highlights seasonal species, from bee orchids in the Old Pinetum to eyebright on the Ecological Mound, offering insight into their identification, ecology and distribution. You’ll also hear about their historical uses and folklore. Join us for one or more sessions and discover the rich diversity of British flora.

Wild Garden: Guided walks exploring British native plants in the Botanic Garden

Explore the wildflowers of the Botanic Garden with our early-morning guided walks, a special opportunity to experience the Garden before it opens to the public. Each walk highlights seasonal species, from bee orchids in the Old Pinetum to eyebright on the Ecological Mound, offering insight into their identification, ecology and distribution. You’ll also hear about their historical uses and folklore. Join us for one or more sessions and discover the rich diversity of British flora.

Wild Garden: Guided walks exploring British native plants in the Botanic Garden

Explore the wildflowers of the Botanic Garden with our early-morning guided walks, a special opportunity to experience the Garden before it opens to the public. Each walk highlights seasonal species, from bee orchids in the Old Pinetum to eyebright on the Ecological Mound, offering insight into their identification, ecology and distribution. You’ll also hear about their historical uses and folklore. Join us for one or more sessions and discover the rich diversity of British flora.

Wild Garden: Guided walks exploring British native plants in the Botanic Garden

Explore the wildflowers of the Botanic Garden with our early-morning guided walks, a special opportunity to experience the Garden before it opens to the public. Each walk highlights seasonal species, from bee orchids in the Old Pinetum to eyebright on the Ecological Mound, offering insight into their identification, ecology and distribution. You’ll also hear about their historical uses and folklore. Join us for one or more sessions and discover the rich diversity of British flora.

Wild Garden: Guided walks exploring British native plants in the Botanic Garden

Explore the wildflowers of the Botanic Garden with our early-morning guided walks, a special opportunity to experience the Garden before it opens to the public. Each walk highlights seasonal species, from bee orchids in the Old Pinetum to eyebright on the Ecological Mound, offering insight into their identification, ecology and distribution. You’ll also hear about their historical uses and folklore. Join us for one or more sessions and discover the rich diversity of British flora.