The Kew Mutual Improvement Society (KMIS) was started by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1871. He wanted to create a space where new thinking and cutting-edge ideas in the world of horticulture and botany could be discussed by the passionate students studying it. KMIS is run by diploma students who curate and present a varied program of lectures. Our program now reaches beyond students with audiences from all over the world and we welcome anyone who shares a passion for plants and fungi.
Join us this season for a wide range of lectures from the likes of Alan Titchmarsh to Kew’s very own diploma students. We will also have live demonstrations from Bonsai master Peter Chan and farmer florists Marianne Mogendorff and Camila Klich from Wolves Lane Flower Company. And don’t miss Joey Santore from Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, who will be joining us online from America.
Lectures will be held in Kew Gardens as well as online, both live and on demand.
Regular: £3 Fundraising: £10 All proceeds go to KMIS Register at https://www.kew.org/learning/talks-and-lectures/kew-mutual-improvement-society
- 21 November: More than weeds: Rethinking our relationship
with wild plants with Sophie Leguil (Ecological and Horticultural Consultant) - 28 November: Tom Hart Dyke: A plant hunter and gardener with passion with Tom Hart Dyke (Curator of the World Garden)
December
- 5 December: The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership: Coordinating conservation across continents with Dr Aisyah Faruk (Conservation Partnership Coordinator (Europe and Oceania) at the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, Wakehurst)
- 12 December: Why plants travel: Plant exchange with West Africa during the period of the transatlantic slave trade (c. 1500–1860s) with Silke Strickrodt (Botanical Horticulturalist and Historian)
January
- 9 January (Fundraising lecture and online talk): Soils, geology and plant speciation with Joey Santore (Filmmaker, Botanist, Artist, and Comic)
- 16 January (Fundraising lecture): Small is beautiful: Gardening in confined spaces with Alys Fowler (Garden Writer)
- 23 January: Ecologically driven horticulture in the north-east
of the USA with Hattie Moore (Diploma Student) and The hidden flora of the Caucasus: Does Georgia hold the key to the future tree species selection for the changing European climate? with Timothy Shaw (Diploma Student) - 30 January: Fighting on the frontlines of extinction: A Hawaiian journey with Cecily Eltringham (Diploma Student) and Climbing the Schachen: Exploring the Alpine Garden and Munich Botanic Gardens with Vicki Thompson (Diploma Student)
February
- 6 February: Integrated approaches for exploring medicinal plants in South Africa, a biodiversity hotspot with Dr Nokwanda P. Makunga (Associate Professor of Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University)
- 20 February: Managing Richmond Park, National Nature Reserve, in the 21st century with Simon Richards (Head of Special Projects, Richmond Park)
- 27 February: Plants and people: Finding the roots of community across the tree of life with Sara Lil Middleton (Doctoral Researcher in Plant Sciences, University of Oxford)
March
- 13 March: Nymans: Adapting to the times with Joe Whelan, (Head Gardener, Nymans)
- 20 March: Rhododendrons of India’s North East frontier with Tom Clarke (Head Gardener, Exbury Gardens)
- 27 March: From the Atacama Desert to the Valdivian rainforest: Exploring Chilean endemics and endangered species at the end of the world with Eleanor Edmonds (Diploma Student) and Using endangered orchids in ornamental display – a global partnership to save them with Francesco Gorni (Diploma Student)
