We have started selling our garden plants in aid of the Gardens. There are two ways to buy: head over to our online shop where we have a selection of lovely perennials available ‘click and collect.’ Or for more specialist seed-raised plants, contact Peter on fobs.plantsales@gmail.com for a list of the items currently available

The latest edition of our monthly newsletter News Shoots is now available in the password-protected Friends Area of the website. It has been distributed to Friends by email, and print copies will shortly be on the way to members without email addresses.

Our next online lecture will be on Tuesday 20th April, by Katy Merrington, Cultural Gardener at the Hepworth Wakefield Garden. She’ll describe the process of transforming an unused piece of land into a beautiful free public garden, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith.

Thanks to Paul Rabbitts for an enormously informative and enthusiastic lecture this morning on public parks. We learnt much about their development, use and features over the centuries and had a whistlestop tour around the best of them. A recording of the lecture is available in the password-protected Friends Area of the website.

Our next online lecture is by Mike Byford, holder of a Helleborus National Collection and owner of Hazles Cross Farm Nursery in Staffordshire. He’ll be telling us ‘All About Hellebores.’ The lecture is tomorrow (Tuesday 23 March). It will NOT be recorded so anyone interested in hearing Mike should tune in via Zoom at 10.30.

Now it’s Spring, we’re getting ready to start selling some of our wonderful garden plants. Although the usual big sale sessions in the greenhouse are unlikely this year, we have devised three ways for people to buys plants. You can register now to receive lists of specialist, seed-raised plants for sale: email Peter on fobs.plantsales@gmail.com to receive plant lists by email.

As Covid restrictions start to ease, volunteers will be allowed back to work in the Gardens from 29th March. Numbers working at any one time will be limited, but it will still be splendid to have them back and contributing to keeping the Gardens looking beautiful.

We’re hoping restrictions will ease enough by the summer that we can start up our programme of monthly public tours of the Gardens. Two tours are now pencilled in: one featuring the rose garden in June, and a high summer tour in late July. No need to book; you can just turn up.

Thanks to John Grimshaw for an inspiring talk this morning on the horticulture, places and people who have influenced him over almost 50 years as a gardener. A recording of the lecture is available in the password-protected Friends Area of the website.

The latest edition of our monthly newsletter News Shoots is now available in the password-protected Friends Area of the website. It will shortly be distributed to Friends by email, and print copies will be on the way to members without email addresses.

Today (1st March) Nicola Thorpe, our Education Project Officer, has submitted a grant application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the second round of funding for the Education and Engagement project in the Gardens.

The easing of Covid restrictions sadly hasn’t come in time to save our planned Spring Blossom tour, which had been due to take place in March, but we do hope to launch a series of monthly public tours of the Gardens as soon as the regulations allow. Look out for news of the dates and themes of each tour on our Talks and Tours page and in our Events Calendar.

Our next online lecture should be a corker. It will be ‘Plants, Gardens, People’ by the director of the Yorkshire Arboretum, John Grimshaw. Access to the live lecture and the recording will be free for Friends. Members of public are welcome to join us for the live-streaming of John’s talk on Tuesday 9th March. Registration is easy and costs just £5.

Thanks to Simon Olpin for an excellent lecture this morning on his Sheffield garden. He explained how the site evolved into the small slice of suburban jungle that it is today, with hardier exotic shrubs and trees creating a permanent tropical effect, and all managed without chemicals. A recording of the lecture is available on the password-protected Friends Area of the site.

Simon Olpin's exotic jungle garden in Sheffield featured on BBC Gardeners’ World a few years ago. We’re delighted he’s giving an online lecture for the Friends next Tuesday on the garden's evolution and its plants. Members of the public are welcome to join us.