The grass family is one of huge ecological and economic importance. Grasses play a dominant role in the landscape and provide food for a vast variety and number of animals including humankind. Their role in evolution and throughout history cannot be overestimated. On top of all this they enhance our lives with their grace and elegance. This course is designed to help the beginner to develop a taste and a confident passion for these beautiful plants. By mid-June many of the grasses will be flowering when they are at their most attractive.
The English landscape garden, for all its aesthetic ideals and painterly compositions, was ultimately intended for leisure and relaxation. Small-scale garden buildings lent themselves to lofty architectural experimentation, but practically they provided for picnics, teas and candlelit soirees.
On day one you will collect leaves and fallen plant material from the Garden and take these back to the classroom 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.
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.
Trees make up one of the most impressive and beautiful features of our landscape – undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of our natural heritage. The different seasons are reflected dramatically in their changing appearance throughout the year. Late May is a great time for looking at broad-leaved trees: their leaves are fully formed and some will still be flowering. This course is concerned with their identification. We will explore the natural history of our native trees and show you how to recognise individual species.
Water provides very different conditions for plants from dry land. Aquatic plants are often ‘plastic’ i.e. very variable in response to depth and flow. They have a reputation for being difficult to identify. Yet they include some of the most beautiful flowers in our region, as well as inhabiting special habitat like rivers, drains, ponds and lakes (or flooded pits). Owen will seek to demystify aquatic plants and introduce the group to those that occur in our region.
A look at what’s involved in taking beautiful photographs of plants and gardens with Botanic Garden photographer Howard Rice. This course is aimed at those who already enjoy garden photography but want to find out how they can improve by developing a better understanding of some straightforward techniques. There will be a combination of indoor tutorials and practical sessions outside in Cambridge Botanic Garden. You will be encouraged to ask Howard about particular aspects of garden photography that interest you and problems that you might have encountered.
Learn the basics of watercolour on this one day course in the garden. John Wiltshire will introduce you to watercolour technique with simple and effective demonstrations which lead to your own painting in the gardens.
Suitable for all abilities
This morning course is aimed at those with some previous experience of either general biology or of horticulture, who would like to learn more about the hows and whys of flowers. We will begin with a brief discussion of participants’ previous experience, to ensure that the course is pitched at an appropriate level.
What is your experience of speaking out? What does it feel like to be heard or unheard? What does it feel like to be hidden or silenced? Spend a creative afternoon at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science getting hands-on, and exploring your experiences of power.
Zine making is an exciting and accessible tool that can be used to record personal experiences giving agency to the maker and can represent acts of resistance against power. Zines have been used to protest, resist and encourage collective activism.
