Boston Flora

Tag: Gardens Trust

  • Wednesday, May 20, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – A Loudon Celebration: Prospects of Perambulation, Online

    The fifth in The Gardens Trust’s online course celebrating the bicentenary of The Gardener’s Magazine takes place May 20 at 1 pm Eastern.

    It was exactly two hundred years ago that John Claudius Loudon (1782-1843) started publishing The Gardener’s Magazine, the first periodical devoted solely to horticulture. As Loudon described it, the aims of the magazine were ‘to disseminate new and important information on all topics connected with horticulture, and to raise the intellect and the character of those engaged in this art.’

    In celebration of this bicentenary, the Gardens Trust is hosting a six-part online series that explores the ideas and inventions of this extraordinary Scottish writer and designer, and his equally industrious and radical wife, Jane (?1807-1858). Jane has her own centenary celebrations this year: her novel The Mummy! is set exactly 100 years in the future, in 2126.

    Between them, the Loudons were the driving force behind the rise of the amateur middle class gardener, and also the real professionalism of the 19th century head gardener. Their story is fascinating and will make you realize how much we owe to their non-stop work ethic and enthusiasm.

    Series tickets are being offered at the special celebratory sum of £21 for all six sessions, a 50% reduction on our usual ticket price for a six-part series. Tickets to the May 20 session may be purchased through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available until 10 June) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    This talk reconsiders John Claudius Loudon as not only an eminent landscape gardener and encyclopaedist, but as a visionary urban thinker. Through analysis of his publications and his design for Gravesend Terrace Gardens, it will explore the meanings of the Gardenesque – a style which Loudon evolved and defined over the course of his career. The aesthetic and reformist ideals underpinning this unique approach to landscape design help frame his macro-scale response to the anxieties of the industrial city, which took the form of a radical plan in his 1829 Gardener’s Magazine. Loudon’s prescient proposal, which imagined London growing in alternating, concentric zones of town and country, arguably deserves a place in the lineage of Green Belt thinking. Gardenesque Urbanism, as presented here, perhaps represents an overlooked approach to the reconciliation of urban growth with the innate human affinity for open space.

    Patrick Smith is an architectural designer at IID Architects – a Richmond-based practice which specializes in the education sector. He previously studied Sculpture at Central Saint Martins, and then Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge, he became interested in landscape theory and its intersection with urban design. For his research into the work of John Claudius Loudon, he was awarded the 2025 Mavis Batey Essay Prize by the Gardens Trust.

  • Tuesdays, May 12 & 26, 5:00 am – 7:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Crisis in Historic Parks & Gardens, Online

    An online presentation and discussion on the Climate Change and Loss of Biodiversity Crisis, with the Gardens Trust, begins May 12.

    Our changing climate and the loss of biodiversity are two of the biggest and most urgent challenges facing historic parks and gardens. Join us for a pair of half-day online events to explore some of the latest research and initiatives in these two vital areas.

    Each session will last around 2.5 hours, with talks from sector experts and the opportunities for questions to be raised from the audience.

    These talks and the subsequent discussions will be relevant for anyone working or volunteering in a historic park or garden – or seeking ideas to apply in your own garden at home.

    This ticket is for a single ONLINE talk, price £14 (GT members £10.50). A recording will be made available to ticket holders to view until 12 June. If you would prefer to purchase tickets to both talks at the discounted price of £20 (GT members £15), please follow the link here.

  • Wednesday, March 18, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern- Mythical Gardens: Eden, Online

    Join The Gardens Trust for a new four part series wandering through allegorical gardens with Dr David Marsh

    In a garden, art, science, nature and the mind collide. It is no surprise then, that many stories in ancient religions and philosophies are set in gardens. Christians believe that the Garden of Eden once existed before Adam and Eve were expelled from it, while the Hanging Garden of Babylon has captivated the creative imagination of humans for centuries, as have legends about the Gardens of the Hesperides in the ancient Mediterranean world. Like ancient Chinese stories about the magical gardens on Mount Kunlun and its counterpart Mount Penglai, they all reflect the complex interaction between the human and divine worlds. In this series we will not only be looking be looking at the myths themselves but also, where possible, the reality that lay behind them and their impact on gardens more recently. This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 4 sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 [Gardens Trust members £21 or £6 each]. Register at www.eventbrite.co.uk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    Most of us, even if we are not Christians, will know the Bible story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden – or think we do. In fact, the Book of Genesis says very little about Eden, and nothing really about what it was like or what, apart from the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, grew in it. I suspect that whatever else you think you know it’s because the story of Eden is the most popular Old Testament subject in Christian art, and you’ve simply absorbed the way that artists have imagined it. Do you even know where it was? Most of us I’m sure would say without much hesitation – somewhere in the Middle East, but you might be surprised to know that about eighty different locations have been proposed – from the Baltic to Polynesia, and from the North Pole to China, via Kashmir, the Seychelles, and of course several states of America.


  • Wednesday, March 11, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Mythical Gardens: Mythical Chinese Gardens, Online

    Join The Gardens Trust for a new four part series wandering through allegorical gardens with Dr David Marsh

    In a garden, art, science, nature and the mind collide. It is no surprise then, that many stories in ancient religions and philosophies are set in gardens. Christians believe that the Garden of Eden once existed before Adam and Eve were expelled from it, while the Hanging Garden of Babylon has captivated the creative imagination of humans for centuries, as have legends about the Gardens of the Hesperides in the ancient Mediterranean world. Like ancient Chinese stories about the magical gardens on Mount Kunlun and its counterpart Mount Penglai, they all reflect the complex interaction between the human and divine worlds. In this series we will not only be looking be looking at the myths themselves but also, where possible, the reality that lay behind them and their impact on gardens more recently. This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 4 sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 [Gardens Trust members £21 or £6 each]. Register at www.eventbrite.co.uk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    Many gardens in Chinese mythology have a cosmic role connecting earth to the heavens and underworld. Ancient stories tell how most are in inaccessible places such as high mountains, or islands that float away when anyone nears them, and how they serve as homes to deities and immortals. Others are hidden utopias where humans and nature are at one. Although very varied in style and imagery, these gardens usually include features such as peach trees which bear fruit that confers the gift of eternal life, magical lakes and streams, caves and grottos, moon gates as symbolic entrances, winding paths, layered mountain terraces and strange animals and plants. These mythical gardens still have a profound effect on the way that Chinese gardens are designed today.

  • Wednesday, March 4, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Mythical Gardens: The Garden of the Hesperides

    Join The Gardens Trust for a new four part series wandering through allegorical gardens with Dr David Marsh

    In a garden, art, science, nature and the mind collide. It is no surprise then, that many stories in ancient religions and philosophies are set in gardens. Christians believe that the Garden of Eden once existed before Adam and Eve were expelled from it, while the Hanging Garden of Babylon has captivated the creative imagination of humans for centuries, as have legends about the Gardens of the Hesperides in the ancient Mediterranean world. Like ancient Chinese stories about the magical gardens on Mount Kunlun and its counterpart Mount Penglai, they all reflect the complex interaction between the human and divine worlds. In this series we will not only be looking be looking at the myths themselves but also, where possible, the reality that lay behind them and their impact on gardens more recently. This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 4 sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 [Gardens Trust members £21 or £6 each]. Register at www.eventbrite.co.uk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    The garden of the Hesperides belonged to the queen of the gods – Hera in Greek [Juno in the later Roman version] and lay somewhere at the western edge of the known Mediterranean world. It became the setting for several well-known myths including the story of tree [or maybe an orchard of trees] which bore golden apples said to give immortality to those who ate them. These stories date back to at least the 7th century BC, and there are at least 15 different retellings in Greek texts over the next thousand years and at least six more in Latin. Then, in the 17th century it was picked up and reinvented by artists and garden writers writing about “golden apples” of a different sort.

  • Wednesday, February 25, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Mythical Gardens: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Online

    Join The Gardens Trust for a new four part series wandering through allegorical gardens with Dr David Marsh

    In a garden, art, science, nature and the mind collide. It is no surprise then, that many stories in ancient religions and philosophies are set in gardens. Christians believe that the Garden of Eden once existed before Adam and Eve were expelled from it, while the Hanging Garden of Babylon has captivated the creative imagination of humans for centuries, as have legends about the Gardens of the Hesperides in the ancient Mediterranean world. Like ancient Chinese stories about the magical gardens on Mount Kunlun and its counterpart Mount Penglai, they all reflect the complex interaction between the human and divine worlds. In this series we will not only be looking be looking at the myths themselves but also, where possible, the reality that lay behind them and their impact on gardens more recently. This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 4 sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 [Gardens Trust members £21 or £6 each]. Register at www.eventbrite.co.uk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    Babylon was the capital of one of the great empires of the ancient world, renowned for its wealth and architectural splendor, and of course for its Hanging Gardens, which were one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. So, you might be surprised to know there is absolutely no archaeological evidence – at least in the surviving remains of Babylon – to prove the garden’s existence. That hasn’t stopped artists imagining what they looked like, with varying degrees of fantasy. Indeed, Babylon and its gardens continue to inspire those with fertile imaginations, and the only problem is separating myth from reality.

  • Tuesday, February 24, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – What’s In a Name? Online

    Stories of horticulture and garden-making are often bound up with stories of empires. From the global trade in plants and the economic imperative behind botanic gardens to the acquired status and symbolism of certain plants and the realities of human exploitation, this series will explore the myriad ways in which economic and political power has influenced the seemingly commonplace activities of gardeners.

    This January 8-part online series from The Gardens Trust picks up themes and ideas from the Gardens and Empires conference presented in June 2025 by English Heritage and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in association with the British Library. Some of the speakers from the conference will be expanding on the topics they presented, and additional researchers have been invited to share their perspectives. The series will focus on European empires and will examine their global impact and influence on plants and gardening. We will explore issues from the perspective of both the coloniser and the colonized, of individuals and institutions, of the past and continuing legacies today – and will see both the triumphs and cruelties inherent in the stories around empires, plants and gardening.

    This ticket link is for the series of 8 talks at £56 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 8 for £42). There will be an opportunity for Q & A after each session. Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks.

    Lecture 6 will be held on February 24. In My Garden (1991), Antiguan American writer Jamaica Kincaid wrote that the renaming of indigenous plants by Western botanists ‘emptied worlds of their names’. This lecture will present early modern lexical strategies to erase or (often erroneously) promote indigenous and regional plant names. Before the adoption of the binomial system for scientific terms in Latin and before today’s controversial efforts to update the International Code of Nomenclature with indigenous names, the naming of plants in the seventeenth century in France was as fascinating as it was complex. ‘‘What’s in a name?’ asked Juliet to Romeo. ‘That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’. In this lecture, we will provide other answers to Juliet’s question.

    Jérôme Brillaud, Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Manchester, has published books and articles on early modern French culture. His current research is on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French kitchen gardens. His forthcoming book is entitled ‘Cultivating Knowledge: Translation and Fruticulture in Early Modern France and England.’

    This session will be chaired by Jill Sinclair of the Gardens Trust.

    Image: Detail of frontispiece to Nicolas de Bonnefons, The French Gardiner, translated by Philocepos, 1658, ©The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence

  • Tuesday, February 17, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Deep in the Weeds: Colonial Language in British and North American Weeds, Online

    Stories of horticulture and garden-making are often bound up with stories of empires. From the global trade in plants and the economic imperative behind botanic gardens to the acquired status and symbolism of certain plants and the realities of human exploitation, this series will explore the myriad ways in which economic and political power has influenced the seemingly commonplace activities of gardeners.

    This January 8-part online series from The Gardens Trust picks up themes and ideas from the Gardens and Empires conference presented in June 2025 by English Heritage and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in association with the British Library. Some of the speakers from the conference will be expanding on the topics they presented, and additional researchers have been invited to share their perspectives. The series will focus on European empires and will examine their global impact and influence on plants and gardening. We will explore issues from the perspective of both the coloniser and the colonized, of individuals and institutions, of the past and continuing legacies today – and will see both the triumphs and cruelties inherent in the stories around empires, plants and gardening.

    This ticket link is for the series of 8 talks at £56 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 8 for £42). There will be an opportunity for Q & A after each session. Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks

    Lecture 5 will be held on February 17. From petty banter to agricultural concerns, the battle rhetoric imbued with the full force of colonial violence dominated the discourse on nineteenth-century weeds in North America. The colonial implications of displacing people and forcing compliance in human and plant subjects was often used when debating the value and strength of plant species. In doing so, subjective prejudice cast a shadow on botanical science in which man-made nationalities were mapped out onto nature. Using colonial language, Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), William Darlington (1782-1863), George Lawson (1827-1895), and Edward Waller Claypole (1835-1901), among others, advocated for a North American resistance against European weeds. Addressing their writings, this lecture will present how authors wrote about European weeds in North America and analyse their links to colonial warfare rhetoric. In doing so, we can critically interrogate the ideological binding of native plants with native people alongside foreign plants and settlers in North America.

    Kimberly M. Glassman is a Research Associate of Botanical Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum; a postdoctoral position with the Collections-Connections-Community Initiative at the University of Cambridge. Kim investigates transatlantic 18th and 19th century botanical histories by drawing connections between correspondence archives, botanical artwork and herbarium specimens in the UK and North America. Her current research focuses on the aesthetics of plant disease. Kim has previously focused on highlighting Indigenous knowledge and women’s voices within 19th century Floras based on archival research at Kew Gardens. Kim is a postdoctoral associate of Newnham College, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

    This session will be chaired by Dr Caroline Cornish of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

    Image: Jules Breton (1827–1906), The Weeders, 1868, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain

  • Wednesday, February 4, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – In Search of a New Occupation, Online

    The fourth talk in The Gardens Trust’s online six part course in partnership with FOLAR showcasing women pioneers takes place February 4, individual tickets £8 (members £6). Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.

    Building on FOLAR’s popular series of Women in Landscape, this new collection of talks brings together insights into the motivations and work of three leading contemporary landscape designers and their teams, alongside stories celebrating the lives and achievements of earlier pioneers.

    Each of these women has pushed boundaries to improve the lives of others. Some have studied and worked in the UK before adapting their knowledge and ideas to suit the unique contexts of their home countries – an exciting process of creative cross-pollination.

    Every generation needs its pioneers, those who make lasting, and at times radical, changes, and who also inspire others to think boldly and act with confidence. Throughout the history of landscape design, there have always been people whose ideas and work transform the way we understand and shape our environments.

    As with FOLAR’s previous series, these talks aim to showcase some of the most inspiring people, projects, and ideas in the field — past and present.

    Talk 4. 4th February: In Search of a New Occupation c.1900–1930 with Catharina Nolin

    This talk introduces the first Swedish women working professionally as landscape architects, especially Ruth Brandberg, who trained at Swanley, and Ester Claesson who visited England several times, and their relation to British education and landscape architecture. Catharina will also give an overview of what types of archives she has used.

    Catharina Nolin is a professor of Art History at Stockholm University. She has published extensively on Swedish nineteenth and twentieth century garden history and landscape architecture, especially urban parks (thesis), the gardens of architect Lars Israel Wahlman, historiography, and most recently on women landscape architects, c. 1900–1950.

  • Tuesday, February 10, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Creole Gardens as Decolonial Practice, Online

    Stories of horticulture and garden-making are often bound up with stories of empires. From the global trade in plants and the economic imperative behind botanic gardens to the acquired status and symbolism of certain plants and the realities of human exploitation, this series will explore the myriad ways in which economic and political power has influenced the seemingly commonplace activities of gardeners.

    This January 8-part online series from The Gardens Trust picks up themes and ideas from the Gardens and Empires conference presented in June 2025 by English Heritage and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in association with the British Library. Some of the speakers from the conference will be expanding on the topics they presented, and additional researchers have been invited to share their perspectives. The series will focus on European empires and will examine their global impact and influence on plants and gardening. We will explore issues from the perspective of both the coloniser and the colonized, of individuals and institutions, of the past and continuing legacies today – and will see both the triumphs and cruelties inherent in the stories around empires, plants and gardening.

    This ticket link is for the series of 8 talks at £56 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 8 for £42). There will be an opportunity for Q & A after each session. Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks

    The fourth talk on February 10 explores fieldwork in Seychelles and Guadeloupe on Creole gardens—small plots historically cultivated by enslaved and indentured peoples for food, medicine, and ornamentation. We view these gardens as both a legacy and critique of the plantation system, fostering biodiversity over monocropping, subsistence over profit, and sustainable practices over exploitation. Enduring across Creole societies, they embody local wisdom that persisted through diasporas and capitalist acceleration, sustaining ties between people and environment. Alongside everyday practices, we examine artistic and activist projects inspired by this heritage, where botany, pharmacy, foodways, and horticulture become acts of resistance, memory, and cultural reinvention. These works highlight how displaced and marginalized communities of African, European, and Asian descent transformed trauma and uprooting into creativity, resilience, and ecological knowledge. Creole gardens thus stand as living archives of survival, adaptation and ingenuity, offering lessons for both cultural continuity and sustainable futures.

    Ananya Jahanara Kabir FBA is Professor of English Literature at King’s College London and Fellow of the British Academy. Her research spans creolisation across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, critical philology and the relationship between literary texts, embodied cultural expression, and memory work. During 2013-18, she directed the ERC Advanced Grant-funded project ‘Modern Moves’ (on the global popularity of African-heritage dance). She has been awarded India’s Infosys Prize in the Humanities and Germany’s Humboldt Research Prize.

    Rosa Beunel-Fogarty is PhD in English and Francophone postcolonial literature and theory and associate research fellow at King’s College London. She specializes in Indian Ocean Island literature and researches on the culture of creolized societies, archipelagic theory, and the relationship between local cultural production and global networks. She is developing a postdoctoral project entitled ‘Creolization and Globalization: The Creative Economy of Indian Ocean Archipelagos.’

    This session will be chaired by Jill Sinclair of the Gardens Trust.