Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Museum

  • Wednesday, May 20, 2:00 pm Eastern – Chelsea Flower Show Lecture with Kazuyuki Ishihara, Online

    Join The Garden Museum online on May 20 for an extraordinary evening with Kazuyuki Ishihara – the Japanese garden designer christened the “Magician of Greenery” by the late Queen Elizabeth II after she encountered his breathtaking work at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

    This year, Ishihara will exhibit the Tokonoma Garden – Samumaya no Niwa, a nostalgic Japanese courtyard garden that invites visitors to reflect, connect, and appreciate traditional beauty.

    Born in Nagasaki, Ishihara began his journey studying Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, before finding his singular vision: weaving traditional Japanese elements – stone gardens, bonsai, moss – into an internationally acclaimed design language. Since his Chelsea debut in 2004, he has amassed an extraordinary 12 gold medals, and in 2025 took home both Garden of the Year and the People’s Choice Award for his garden Cha No Niwa.

    In this rare and intimate lecture, Ishihara will share the philosophy, craft and creative process behind his celebrated gardens. £10 Livestream. Register at www.gardenmuseum.org

  • Tuesday, April 28, 12:00 noon Eastern – A Fresh Breeze: Discovering Khadambi’s Garden

    Join The Garden Museum online on April 28 for a lecture exploring the extraordinary life and work of Kenyan poet, civil servant, and artist Khadambi Asalache, whose home at 575 Wandsworth Road stands as one of London’s most quietly remarkable interiors.

    Since moving into the property in 1981, Asalache spent decades transforming the house into an intricate work of art, carving fretwork from salvaged timber to cover almost every surface of the building. Now cared for by the National Trust, the house has attracted growing recognition as an exceptional and deeply personal creative achievement.

    Less well known is Asalache’s relationship with the garden.

    In this lecture, artist, poet and academic Edward Adonteng, who has been researching Asalache’s life and practice, brings new attention to his work as a gardener, and asks what the garden meant to a man for whom making and beauty were inseparable.

    Register at www.gardenmuseum.org. £10.00


  • Tuesday, April 26, 3:00 pm Eastern – Ukrainian Gardens in Wartime, Online

    At the height of the war around Kyiv in 2022, photographer Sergii Polezhaka began documenting war-torn gardens – an abandoned tank amid neat rows of vegetables; cherry blossom trees with trenches dug around their roots to preserve them; a tended rose garden beside a bombed ruin.

    These images tell the story of a resilient nation. In Ukraine, the words land, soil, country and place share a single word – zemlya – and these gardens offer a powerful new lens through which to understand the ongoing war.

    Sergii and his wife Maria, also a garden photographer, join Clare Foster in conversation to share these haunting images and their experience of living through the conflict.

    Join the Garden Museum online on Tuesday, April 26 at 3 pm Eastern time. A recording will subsequently be available to registrants. Register at www.gardenmuseum.org.uk

    25% of ticket sales will be donated to the Memory Garden, on the grounds of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine in Pyrohiv for those who have lost loved ones in the war.

  • Tuesday, March 31, 12:00 noon Eastern – Gardening with Passion and Patience at Houghton Hall & Cholmondeley Castle

    The Marchioness of Cholmondeley Rose Cholmondeley, Tania Compton and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan discuss the latest developments at Houghton Hall and Cholmondeley Castle, reflecting on recent changes to both historic landscapes and sharing plans for future initiatives, such as Tulips at Houghton, a major new spring event launching in April 2026.

    Constructed in the 1720s for Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall is now the residence of the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, a direct descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, and his family. The Hall, surrounded by extensive parkland, is known for its iconic white fallow deer and features notable attractions including an award-winning Walled Garden

    Cholmondeley Castle Gardens were originally laid out in the early 19th Century using architectural elements from the formal gardens of the Old Hall. Nestled within historic parkland, the 70 acres of beautiful gardens offer magnificent displays throughout the seasons and are filled with colour and botanical delights.

    Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is a Trustee of both Cholmondeley Castle Gardens and Houghton Hall, and alongside the Marchioness of Cholmondeley Rose Cholmondeley will explore the thinking behind the planting, the challenges of working within historic garden settings, and how large-scale seasonal displays can offer fresh perspectives on established landscapes.

    This Garden Museum talk will be livestreamed for £10 and you may register at www.gardenmuseum.org/uk

  • Friday, June 26 – Saturday, June 27 – Garden Museum Literary Festival 2026: Melbourne Hall

    Save the date! The next Garden Museum Literary Festival will take place at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June 2026, hosted by the Marquis and Marchioness of Lothian. Book your stay at www.gardenmuseum.org.uk

    Join us for two days of conversation and inspiration, with talks by garden designers, writers and makers, with plenty of relaxed time to explore the gardens at Melbourne Hall in between. With sweeping lawns, charming avenues, and captivating vistas, Melbourne Hall is a true treasure of early 18th-century English garden design.

    It was laid out by Rt. Hon Thomas Coke, Vice Chamberlain to Queen Anne, with help from the garden landscape designers George London and Henry Wise in the formal style. It is noted for its long tunnel of Yew, its wrought iron arbour created by Robert Bakewell and its statuary by Jan van Nost, notably the Four seasons monument, a gift from Queen Anne.

    The Marquis of Lothian took over running the Melbourne estate in 1987. His wife the Marchioness of Lothian is a painter of both portraits and landscapes. Her passion for gardening has developed the garden at Melbourne in many ways. Her eye for colour and detail means that the Melbourne garden is a haven of delightful and unusual specimen trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders.

  • Tuesday, January 20, 2:00 pm Eastern – Rory McEwen: An Evening of Nature’s Song

    To coincide with the end of the Garden Museum’s beautiful exhibition of McEwen’s delicate botanical paintings, this January 20 livestreamed event will see Nicola Shulman, author of the illustrated exhibition catalogue, joined by art critic and brother of the artist, John McEwen, and Rory’s friend and collaborator, botanist Martyn Rix.

    If you’re curious to hear what ignited McEwen’s interest in botanical painting, or keen to learn more about his technique for painting on vellum, then this special event is well worth attending. McEwen was an artist who could produce minutely detailed and accurate paintings of petals and dying leaves, whilst experimenting with abstraction and mixed media sculpture; the impressive diversity of his work will be discussed.

    Rory lived a full life in which folk music and painting were abiding passions. This panel of speakers will discuss his story and the people who influenced his art. £10 Livestream. To book, visit gardenmuseum.org.uk

  • Wednesday, February 11 – Sunday, May 31 – Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s

    In the Garden Museum’s next exhibition opening early 2026, discover the exchange of botanical knowledge shared between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London between 1766-1773, displaying a collection of Chinese botanical art and research for the first time in Britain since it was commissioned 235 years ago.

    The exhibition will explore the relationship between John Bradby Blake (1745-1773), an English botanist who worked as a supercargo for the East India Company in the 1770s, his Chinese interlocutor Whang At Tong 黃遏東, and the botanical artists Bradby Blake commissioned to document plants native to Canton.

    Featuring 30 botanical paintings by the artist Mauk-Sow-U together with herbals, maps, models, a portrait of Whang At Tong 黃遏東 by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and watercolors and drawings of Canton from the V&A, Seeds of Exchange will tell the story of a little-known international botanical collaboration. If you plan a trip to London, be sure to attend, and check their website https://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/

  • The Garden Museum Website Relaunch

    The Garden Museum launched its newly transformed website, a major step forwards for the Garden Museum and what it offers online audiences:

    It’s now easier and more accessible than ever to book tickets, browse the new online shop, book a school visit, watch a livestream, or explore stories and films from our events, collection and archives.

    To celebrate the launch, they’ve released their entire back catalogue of past livestreams to watch FREE in the Film Library! Enjoy conversations with garden designers, writers and artists on the art of gardening, hours of free inspiration for garden lovers around the world.

    One of the core values as a museum is sustainability, so the new website is designed to be much more energy efficient, and you can even check the sustainability of each page using a new website carbon checker in the footer!

    A huge thank you to Arts Council England for generously funding the Digital Transformation Project and making this possible, and to the developers HdK for designing and building the beautiful new website, and the brilliant project manager Oliver Vicars-Harris and consultants Rod Barlow Digital Consultancy.

    To explore the new website, visit https://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/?mc_cid=0de23a7a15&mc_eid=03faa403db

  • Tuesday, December 2, 2:00 pm Eastern – Can Nature Friendly Gardens Be Beautiful? Online

    Celebrating the launch of the National Trust’s Book of Nature Friendly Gardening, the Garden Museum is hosting a conversation on December 2 between five professional gardeners who have all been on their own journeys to adapt the way they garden in light of the twin climate and biodiversity crises.

    Our expert panel are: Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy at The Royal Parks; Kate Bradbury, a garden writer and broadcaster who specializes in wildlife gardening; Sean Harkin, Head Gardener at the Inner Temple Gardens in London where he has been evolving the historic Garden to combine biodiversity and beauty; Rebecca Bevan, the National Trust’s Specialist for Environmental Horticulture.

    Their conversation will be chaired by Sheila Das, Head of Gardens at the National Trust, bringing insights of her own from her deep love of food growing and nurturing soil health. £10 Livestream. Book HERE.

  • Tuesday, November 25, 2:00 pm Eastern – A Lucky Dip into Alan Titchmarsh’s Archives, Online

    Join the Garden Museum online on November 25 for an evening with Alan Titchmarsh, and take a magical mystery tour through his personal archives, which he has donated to the Garden Museum’s Archives of Garden Design. He will take us on a journey through those archives, sharing highlights from his own collection, brought to life with stories, voices, and unexpected discoveries. Joining him is Garden Museum Archivist Alexandra Sullivan, who will reveal behind-the-scenes insights and favorite finds, which three special guests share how the archives have shaped their work. £10 Livestream. Book tickets HERE