In the halls of natural history museums all over the world, you can peer through the glass and come face-­to-­face with the ghosts of extinction. Extinction has been going on as long as there has been biological life—in fact over 99% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct--but extinction usually happen at a slow place. We are now, however, living through the Sixth Mass Extinction, with species rapidly going extinct because of human actions. These are the ghosts of extinction that now make their homes in the museum.

Join us on the 7th February for a day of fun zine-making at the Museum of Zoology for anyone aged 16 and above.

A zine is a small magazine – it comes from the word “magazine”. They are usually independently published, low cost, and easy to distribute. They emerged about 100 years ago and gained popularity in the Riot Grrrl scene in the 90s, when girls and women came together to tackle the lack of women’s representation in the punk music scene.

Tired of overwatering and underwatering? Want to create an indoor oasis where your houseplants thrive and flourish? Join Glasshouse Senior Horticulturist Kathryn Bray on this one-day course, covering a diversity of house plant topics. 

Packed with colour and pattern, interior designs vie with brightly coloured bedding schemes, and artificial flowers inside reflect artifice outside. Rich fashion fabrics are resolutely plain, but do the corsets and constrictions, bustles and flounces mirror the contrivances and deceptions in the garden where topiary and carpet bedding entertain? Inside and out are brought together in the middle-class home where ‘taste’ rules all.

Second part in a monthly series examining the interplay of textiles, fashion, culture, and garden design. Each session is sold separately.

In this one-day course you will learn all the processes involved in designing, carving and printing a lino block. 

This hands-on workshop brings together science and creativity to explore the world of natural dyes – co-taught between the Curator, who specialises in the science of plant pigments and our artist in residence. 

Transform your skin care with plant power! Discover how to use ordinary plant-based ingredients to enhance your daily beauty routine and create sample masks straight from the kitchen larder to soothe, nourish and rejuvenate your skin. During this class we’ll also make our own nourishing, healing and luxurious lip balms, a facial moisturiser with added precious essential oils to nourish the skin, and a gentle skin cleanser. These will all be made from plant-based ingredients (plus a little beeswax) and packaged in eco-friendly tins.

Would you like to understand how plants grow and reproduce in the enticing world of succulents? Then come and join our beginner’s course! Learn how to propagate and grow succulents from cuttings and explore the substrates in which to grow them. Learn propagation methods: stem, seed, leaf, rosette cuttings and plantlets. Delve into cacti propagation: globular, columnar or flat stem cuttings, as well as grafting and division. The course will include both practical and theoretical elements, including a tour of the succulent and cacti collection at the Botanic Garden.

Identifying trees in winter often means that the traditional identification features such as leaves and flowers are not visible. We will look at the features which can be used to identify trees in winter and throughout the year. With the Botanic Garden’s wonderful tree collection as our backdrop, we will focus mainly on broad-leaved deciduous landscape trees, as well as looking at some evergreen conifers. We will discuss some basic concepts, tree anatomy and spend time around the Garden identifying trees and comparing features.

Muslins and cottons, prints and sprigs, influences from India and the growth of merchants. We will explore links between parks and parades of spa towns, Reptonian gardenesque for the newly monied classes, aviaries and exotics for the Regent. Portraits and conversation pieces give us insights into clothing and landscape, as polite society dictate fashion inside and out as literature joins the cultural milieu.

First part in a monthly series examining the interplay of textiles, fashion, culture, and garden design. Each session is sold separately.