Learn about the beautifully coloured, fragile rarities that are English Tulips, largely preserved by members of the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society, from Teresa Clements, former Secretary of the society, and now Chair of the RHS Bulbous Plants Committee.

This talk takes place in the Peter Sowerby Building at the Yorkshire Arboretum, but can be streamed via Zoom.

Booking Information

Gardens Talks cost £10 to attend in person or £5 to attend via Zoom. Please book by selecting your preferred option below:

The Yorkshire Arboretum’s Garden Talks series is back for 2023.

We are glad to be joined by Katy Merrington with ‘The Hepworth Wakefield Garden – transforming an unused piece of land into a beautiful free public garden.

The garden at The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery has been designed by internationally renowned garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith and opened to the public 2019. Katy Merrington will speak about the creation and development of this beautiful new public space, along with inspiring ideas for creating year-round interest through perennial plantings.’

This talk takes place in the Peter Sowerby Building at the Yorkshire Arboretum, but can be streamed via Zoom.

Booking Information

Gardens Talks cost £10 to attend in person or £5 via Zoom. Please book by selecting your preferred option below:

Owen is Assistant Registrar of the Tree Register and few people know this country’s trees better. He’ll tell us about finding and measuring the great trees of Yorkshire that have achieved championship status.

This talk takes place in the Peter Sowerby Building at the Yorkshire Arboretum, but can be streamed via Zoom

Fee: £5 Online, £10 In Person

To book, please telephone 01653648598

The Yorkshire Arboretum’s Garden Talks series is back for 2023.

On Thursday 13 April, John Grimshaw will deliver a fascinating talk about the garden in Ray Wood ‘A Plantsman’s Paradise’.

The garden in Ray Wood, within the Castle Howard grounds but curated by the Yorkshire Arboretum’s staff and volunteers, is an under-visited gem. John talks about its creation by Jim Russell, its restoration and maintenance and the rich diversity of plants that grow there.

This talk takes place in the Peter Sowerby Building at the Yorkshire Arboretum, but can be streamed via Zoom.

Booking Information

Gardens Talks cost £10 to attend in person or £5 via Zoom. Please book by selecting your preferred option below:

Debs has been a committed organic gardener for many years, first at Osborne House and later as Head Gardener at Highgrove for HRH The Prince of Wales. Now living on the Isle of Wight she will use these experiences to tell us about the principles and practice of organic gardening. This talk will be given remotely via Zoom.

In the 1800s the Backhouse family of York were amongst the world’s leading nurserymen, with extensive production grounds, partly now occupied by West Bank Park, Acomb. Gillian Parker has been researching the dynasty for some time and in this talk will tell us about their tree-growing business - which did particularly well in Queen Victoria’s jubilee years.

Ben is Head Gardener at York Gate, at Adel near Leeds, the flagship garden for the horticultural charity, Perennial. The body of the talk will describe the layered planting through the seasons and how York Gate has evolved from a small family garden to one open to the public from April to September. Full of interesting plants and the development of a wonderful Yorkshire garden.

Fully Booked

John Grimshaw describes how the arboretum is managed for both the mostly exotic woody plant collection and the natural biodiversity found on the site. The arboretum is one of the richest locations for native plants remaining in the Howardian Hills - and with the plants come the insects, birds and other animals.

This talk take place in the Peter Sowerby Building at the Yorkshire Arboretum, but can be streamed via Zoom. Book your ticket below:

Seamus, who is Curator of the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh, in County Wicklow, Ireland, will tell us about his visits to the mountains of northern Myanmar (formerly Burma) following in the footsteps of Frank Kingdon-Ward and other plant hunters of the past. As a hotspot of plant diversity this area has an incredibly rich flora, a magnet for botanists - but it is easiest to learn about it from the comfort of one’s own home!

This talk will be given over Zoom. To book, please click below. A link will be sent to you on the day. Please sign in to the event by 7:15pm.

Our first talk of the 2022 season will be by Mark Weathington, Director of the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, North Carolina, speaking about this remarkable collection and its work. As a ‘horticultural hotspot’ the JCRA punches above its weight promoting good plants and horticulture in the south-eastern United States, and even a virtual visit is bound to inspire anyone interested in exciting plants.

This event is now fully-booked.

We are very fortunate that the well-known American gardener and author Dan Hinkley will join us from Washington State, to tell us about the beautiful garden he has created at the aptly named Windcliff, and some of the many wonderful plants he grows there. This is not to be missed!

This Garden Talk will be hosted by Zoom. Book your ticket below, providing your name and email address. A link will be issued to you on the day of the event.

This is a fundraising event with contributions funding new planting in the arboretum.

TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

From palimpsests and pointers, to well-being and carbon capture, John charts the development of his interest in trees with examples from around the world (and especially the Yorkshire Arboretum), and considers why they are so important to us all, in so many ways.

This Garden Talk will be hosted by Zoom. Book your ticket below, providing your name and email address. A link will be issued to you on the day of the event.

This event is now fully booked.

Greg Loades started working in the rose industry before moving into the world of gardening magazines. Greg has worked for Garden News, Garden Answers, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine and The English Garden. He is editor of The Alpine Gardener, journal of the Alpine Garden Society, and a freelance writer, currently writing his first book with Timber Press, due for release in 2020.

Living in Hull with a tiny garden packed with plants, a real challenge for a plantsman, this talk will tell us how he does it.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary refreshments available from 7:15pm.

Booking required. Please call us on 01653 648598 or email visit@yorkshirearboretum.org

Tom is a lifelong dendrologist and gardener and has travelled the world extensively to see trees in the wild, especially as part of his role with the International Conifer Conservation Programme based at RBG Edinburgh. This talk will take us to a diversity of interesting places to see their remarkable trees.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary refreshments available from 7:15pm.

Booking required. Please call us on 01653 648598 or email visit@yorkshirearboretum.org.

Ken Cox is a well-known Rhododendron expert, based at Glendoick in Perthshire, where three generations of the Cox family have created a magnificent woodland garden, nursery and garden centre. This talk, based on his latest book Woodland Gardening, is a history and practical guide to this gardening style. Ken shows film and photographs of woodland gardens from the UK and around the world.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary refreshments available from 7:15pm.

This event is now full booked.

Join us for a midsummer’s evening of poetry reading in the beautiful surroundings of the arboretum, with guest Laureate’s Choice poets selected by Carol Ann Duffy, including Karen Smith, Yvonne Reddick, Victoria Gatehouse and Natalie Burdett.

Ticket includes a free glass of wine or soft drink and nibbles. The arboretum will be open from 6pm for those wishing to take a stroll before we begin.

Click on the images below to read our guest poets’ bios. If you are a mobile user, select an image and tap the orange circle to view the bio.

Food security and climate change: how plants can provide sustainable solutions to global challenges. Sue Hartley is Director of the York Environmental Sustainability Institute, an arboretum trustee and much more. Her ecological interests are broad, and this talk brings an expert opinion to matters that affect us all.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary refreshments available from 7:15pm.

Book required. Please call 01653 648598 or email us at visit@yorkshirearboretum.org

Raz, a native of Transylvania, presents a talk that explore a land best know for Dracula and his castles, but also boasts amazingly diverse wild plants in woodlands, meadows and high mountains.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary refreshments available from 7:15pm.

Booking required. Please call 01653 648598 or email us on visit@yorkshirearboretum.org.

Dr Benjamin Lichman is a lecturer in plant biology at the University of York. He investigates how plants make complex and useful chemicals.

For the last three years he has been investigating catnip (Nepeta): how did this garden favourite evolve to make chemicals that repel insects and attract cats? In his latest project he will be searching for unusual chemicals with potential medical use in the Arboretum’s collection.

FREE but donations welcome.

Complimentary tea and coffee will be available from 7:15pm.

Booking required. Please call 01653 648598 or email visit@yorkshirearboretum.org.

Russell, a Floral Team Leader at RHS Garden Harlow Carr, describes the development and planting of the magnificent winter walk there, one of the finest anywhere. Not to be missed for inspiration for your own winter garden!

This event is free but donations are warmly welcomed. Booking required: Please call us on 01653 648598 or email visit@yorkshirearboretum.org

Complimentary tea and coffee is available from 7:15pm.

Combined with a unique display of artworks from the 16th-21st centuries, our Director John Grimshaw shows how botanical art and reproduction methods have evolved over time.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

This event is now fully-booked.

The benefits of urban trees are well known - but which species are most suitable? Henrik Sjöman from Gothenburg Botanic Garden, Sweden, discusses how he is looking for the best to create a diverse and resilient urban forest.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

Riz Reyes is a young Filipino-American, making a name for himself in horticulture there. This will be his first UK talk, covering the exciting garden scene in his home city of Seattle.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

One of the world's foremost botanists, former Keeper of the Kew Herbarium and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Professor David Mabberley celebrates the participants in Captain Cook's voyage 250 years ago and the great artwork that resulted.

Tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Tickets £5 per person. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

As Chief Plant Health Officer for Defra, Professor Nicola Spence is uniquely well-placed to tell us about the ever-growing threats to our plants from pests and diseases. Be prepared to be terrified!

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

A botanist, ecologist and gardener from Hexham, Professor John Richards knows the Greek flora intimately, and will take us to see many wonderful plants in beautiful places.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

Roger Brooks is a very pragmatic practical gardener with a great blog: nodiggardener.co.uk  In this talk he tells us about gardening for wildlife in two East Yorkshire graveyards.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

Our Chair of Trustees, Prof. Alastair Fitter, talks on  ‘When will it Flower? Phenology in a Changing Climate’

Please note: this is a change to the previously published talk.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.

Prof Roland Ennos from the University of Hull takes us inside a tree and explains how these remarkable organisms are built and function.

Complimentary tea and coffee from 7:15. Talk starts at 7:30pm. 

Free but donations welcome. 

Booking required please. Please book below, call the Visitor Centre on 01653 648598 or email us.