Our volunteers are delighted to be back in the Gardens after the enforced absence during lockdown. Teams have been busy since 29th March, when they were allowed back, and completed just over 500 hours in the period to the end of April - about half on specialist propagation work and the other half on garden tasks and producing plants for our online shop.

Our next online talk, on 11 May at 10.30am, is by environmental horticulturalist Pilar Medrano Dell. She’ll explore issues around restoring historic gardens back to their original inception or to a more contemporary take, using examples from her own work, including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, English Heritage Wrest Park, and the Kensington Roof Gardens.

The Friends have a new Facebook page, which will feature details of the plants we currently have for sale, as well as snippets of other news about our lecture programme, tours and of course the occasional photo of the Gardens.

We enjoyed a wonderful talk this morning by Katy Merrington, the Cultural Gardener at the Hepworth Wakefield. She told us about the creation and development of this beautiful new public space by Tom Stuart-Smith, and gave us some inspiring ideas for creating year-round interest through perennial plantings.

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.