During the three days you will look at the structure of the flowers and draw them first before painting them in watercolour. Instruction will be given on mixing appropriate colours. There will be a variety of plants with different structures and colours taken from the collection grown at the Botanic Garden. The seed heads are also lovely to draw and the plants have striking dark green leaves. The course is open to students of mixed abilities, and who have painted before.

Whether you are looking to green up your grass or tackle pests and weeds, we can provide a step-by-step action plan for everyone. This half-day session will include a practical demonstration as well as a tour of the Garden’s show lawns with our expert greenkeeper Adrian Holmes. You will learn the main principles of maintaining your lawn all year round. The course aims to give you the knowledge and confidence to grow a lawn that is the envy of your neighbours.

The wonderful world of scientific nomenclature has embedded a ‘secret’ history of plant hunters and horticulturalists in the plants and flowers we grow in our gardens. The honour of naming a new species was taken by many as an opportunity to honour past heroes or current friends, but the temptation of having one’s own name go down in history was often too much to resist, especially after a lifetime of ‘derring-do’ plant hunting with little other reward.  Markedly different from the naming of cultivars, we will encounter few from outside of the closed world of plants.

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.

Citrus fruit has dimpled and shiny outer skin and an inside that looks like the surface of the moon, whilst the pith is matt and very bumpy. During this half day online course Janie will show you how to make both these areas look realistic using coloured pencils.

Suitable for intermediate level

A kit of materials containing everything you will need will be posted to you in advance of the course.  Please note we cannot post kits outside of the UK.

Join RHS medal-winning garden designer Paul Herrington, for advice on how to deal effectively with small gardens which have their own practical challenges such as a lack of privacy, heavy shade, poor soil and visually dominant fences or walls. Over three separate half-day sessions Paul will guide you so that you come away with clear ideas of how your garden can look.

On this three-day course you will focus on a selection of bulbs from the alpine section’s collection at the Botanic Garden – including Iris reticulata, Narcissus and dwarf tulips.  Time will be spent drawing the plants in accurate detail, both in the classroom and the Glasshouse Range. You will then move on to painting in watercolour and achieving the accurate hues for each plant subject.  Reinhild will use a combination of group demonstrations, but particularly individual tuition, to help you to improve your drawing and painting techniques.

Why do we look like our parents and siblings? What is a species? How are organisms adapted to suit their environment? What is a gene? Plants have been used for centuries to help answer these and other similar intriguing questions. Whether we are talking about natural selection, inheritance, the discovery of genes that can jump, or about one of the first multicellular organisms to have its entire genome sequenced, it is to plants that we must look.

Farming has often been blamed (with some justification) for the decline in British wildlife. However, many farmers, supported by national and international programmes have tried to manage their land with wild plants and animals in mind. Owen has spent most of his research life looking at both the impact of farming and ways to encourage plant life on farmland. This course will examine changes in the flora of arable land over the past century and the actions taken by conservation agencies, NGOs and individual farmers to bring the wild flora back onto arable farmland.

During the three days you will look at the structure of the flowers and draw them first before painting them in watercolour. Instruction will be given on mixing appropriate colours. There will be a variety of plants with different structures and colours taken from the collection grown at the Botanic Garden. The seed heads are also lovely to draw and the plants have striking dark green leaves. The course is open to students of mixed abilities, and who have painted before.