Event information
Travelling through the seasons we will explore the history, folklore and culture of three wild plants in bloom (or at least in foliage!) that month. The session will encourage you to search out plants in all seasons and enjoy the history in folklore and culture, and their use for medicines, cooking as well as the many and varied traditional names which help us trace that history. Each month the lecturer will choose plants which you can find on your rambles at the time of the talk, from the earliest primrose through Lenten lily, Easter violets, hawthorn, orchids, cowslips, into the summer with ox-eyes, cow parsley, poppies, hedge nettles, campion, corncockles, cornflowers, harebells, dog roses, and round to the autumn harvest of berries and hips (recipes included!), and the shortening days when the Toadflax and Teasel come into their own with the wild hops and spindle fruits. Join us through the year or dip in and out as we explore our hedgerows, meadows, ditches and gardens.
This course is part of a series, you can see the whole series here.
Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. She is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the role of flowers, gardens and landscape in art and culture of all kinds. Her talks and books reflect that endless curiosity, with themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature, and her desire to follow unknown paths towards the unexpected. From gnomes in Neasden to hollyhocks from the Holy Land, every plant has a tale to tell, every garden a past. Twigs is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and her history of the Chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is currently working on the equally golden daffodil.
Please note this is an online course. No specialist software is required to participate, but a device with a microphone and webcam will be needed. Full joining instructions will be emailed a few days before the date of the course.
This is a live interactive course, and will not be made available as a recording to watch at a later date.
