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Head Gardener’s Update
It’s been some time since I have written an article for the newsletter, so it does seem rather appropriate to look back at what has been happening since I last penned a piece. March and April are really transitional months in the garden as the plants within it really start to come to life and…
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How to make a snowdrop kokedama
If you’ve visited Winterbourne this month, you may have spotted our display of 125 hanging kokedamas along the Nut Walk, blooming with snowdrops. The installation forms part of the widespread celebrations across University of Birmingham, marking 125 years since the University was established by royal charter. If the display has inspired you to get creative…
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Cultivating knowledge
In 1944 Winterbourne’s grounds became the University’s Botanic Gardens and were used to provide plant material for teaching in the Botany department. Produce from the vegetable garden was used in the kitchen of University House. Initially the gardens were also used to provide decorative plant material for Great Hall. Natural order beds were planted in the…
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A passion for plants: women in botany
The University Herbarium contains 60,000 preserved plant specimens, collected by some 2,000 botanists and collectors over the University’s 125-year history. Most of these collectors were men, but some 260 women also worked on this valuable archive – some well documented, others entirely unknown. My name is Lottie, and I’m currently studying an MA in Art…
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Sources of inspiration
Head Gardener Dan recently described Winterbourne’s garden as ‘a patchwork quilt of ideas developed over decades by dozens of brilliant, talented and creative people’. When designing the garden, Winterbourne’s first mistress Margaret Nettlefold was particularly influenced by the gardens of Gertrude Jekyll, something that shows in many of the garden’s features. Following a recent visit…