The Gardens are re-opening! Starting with 2 special weekends for Members Only: 6th/7th and 13th/14th June. Opening to the general public will start on Wednesday 17th June (Wednesdays to Sundays). We are really pleased to be able to welcome people back into the Gardens again. We know spirits will be lifted by a wander –…
Thanks to our lovely supporters we have hit, and exceeded, our target to ensure we can buy our spring bulbs next year! Whoopee! That really is a great relief to our gardeners, who are always thinking seasons and seasons ahead. Your help now, and in the future, really will make a difference to the Gardens’…
Dracunculus vulgaris: the Dragon lily It’s arrived! Also known as ‘snake lily’ and ‘devil’s tongue’ -we can see why. We’ve been lucky with warm springs of recent years and has given us quite a few years of spectacular moments. It grows wild in the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. The flower is also noted for…
Gardens inspire poetry, poetry inspires Gardens. The urge to be creative during lockdown has been fuelled, happily, by many tv programmes, blogs and online memes. Hopefully the creativity will not be lost as we emerge slowly from our hibernation. The radio poet Ian Macmillan, the Barnsley Bard, works extensively with arts groups in Yorkshire. Attached is…
4 selections of photos from long, and not so long, ago. Plus some of the photos we have from the beginning of the restoration. 1 2 3 4 Some of the pictures from before the restoration.
Have you been using the inaturalist wildlife spotting app on your walks out and about Castle Bromwich and surrounds? The On your Doorstep project run by our friends over in B37 has so far gathered 212 different species of plants, insects, animals and birds…. Our Gardener on site has been participating too – although most…
Our specialist insurers, Ecclesiastical, aren’t just a financial institution, their charitable purposes are written into their very constitution; a ‘Movement for Good’. This year they are distributing £1million to good causes. We would love to be one of them. As a Charitable Trust the Gardens are dependent on visitor income and grants. Closure this spring…
Planting and growing beans and potatoes has always meant a lot to us in the Gardens We try to keep some of the really old varieties going, but we have also wanted to encourage people – especially children – to feel confident about growing their own food. In February and March schools and family visitors…
You can travel the world through the plants in our Gardens. By the early 1700s plants from five* different continents could be found growing in England. Plants had been gathered and collected over time for their economic potential as crops or medicine, or for their rarefied beauty and shown off by the rich and powerful,or…
A volunteer and member of the U3A (university of the third age) Art Class, which takes place in the Gardens, sent us some lovely pictures she has painted during the sessions. A great way of remembering a time when she, and others, could take their reflective and creative time in the Gardens. Thanks Anita. Enjoy…go…