Full list of lectures 2024-2025
*Tickets booked online incur a fee to KMIS. If you are attending in person, please support KMIS and pay at the door.*
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02/09/24
Kevin Williams and Michael Guidi |Â Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic planting inspired by wild shrublands
Joining us from the US, Kevin Williams, naturalistic gardener, and
Michael Guidi, horticultural researcher and ecologist, will explore the themes of their recently published book 'Shrouded in Light'.
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'Shrouded in Light is a celebration and exploration of shrublands and the shrubs that make them. It is an invitation for you to design, work, live, and play with shrubs. Internalizing the mantras of shrublands will allow you to see the world differently, more complexly, and hopefully, more holistically.'
23/09/24
Nick Macer | Snow in Burma? Plant hunting in the remote wilds of northern Kachin
Join Nick Macer, director of Pan Global Plants, as he ventures from sub-tropical to cool-temperate meeting the charismatic plants of a remote and unexplored part of the world.
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Nick started Pan Global plants in 1997 with the aim of being a one stop shop for the rare, neglected and desirable. He has travelled the temperate world to study plants in their wild habitats on over 35 trips to 26 countriesor territories.
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Insta:
@panglobalplants
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Website:
Fundraising Lecture 30/09/24
John Grimshaw | Outgoing director of the Yorkshire Arboretum, Editor-in-chief of IDS Trees and Shrubs Online and in-coming Editor-in-chief of the Curtis Botanical Magazine
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John has been interested in plants and gardening all his life, and followed a degree in botany with a doctorate in African forest ecology. After that he moved to professional horticulture, working first for the Sahin seed company in The Netherlands before managing the famous snowdrop garden at Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire. While there he led the ‘New Trees’ book project for the International Dendrology Society, published by Kew in 2009. In 2012 he became Director of the Yorkshire Arboretum in North Yorkshire, where he has led a series of significant projects including establishing the UK’s first Tree Health Centre, and a Red Squirrel Enclosure. Simultaneously he runs the IDS Trees and Shrubs Online project, creating a digital encyclopaedia of cultivated temperate woody plants. He remains a keen gardener and is a passionate advocate for horticulture. He was appointed MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List.
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His lecture will discuss the difficult choices facing gardeners challenged by the effects of climate change and the need for environmental sustainability.
07/10/24
Isabel Bannerman | A wilderness of sweets
Isabel Bannerman is a Garden Designer. A designer of many gardens, for many decades, with her husband, Julian Bannerman.
Designing gardens together for over thirty years and for the King at Highgrove and Dumfries House, Isabel and Julian both love topiary and scent in a garden. When designing they use the formality of evergreen hedges in sharp lines and rounded forms and domes particularly to ground a garden with structure, coupling this with a riot of abundant, old-fashioned flowers full of fragrance.
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Their approach is unmanicured apart from the clipped forms, allowing for as much wild-life, birds and invertebrates especially as possible, clipped hedges and areas of mown lawn balanced out by long grass with bulbs and wildflowers.
They believe their gardens should have a ‘lost’ romantic quality which creates a haven for all who live there.
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Isabel has written four books on gardening; ‘Landscape of Dreams’ about her work with Julian; ‘Scent Magic’ notes and ramblings about growing scented plants in their gardens; ‘The Star Nosed Mole’ an anthology of scented garden writing; and coming out spring 2025, “ Wilderness of Sweets”, a seasonal recipe book of scented plantings – which will be the main topic of this talk.
14/10/24
Talk 1: Of Loch and GlenÂ
Talk 2: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden: Tokyo's urban Oasis
Talk 1: With interests spanning from conservation to kitchen gardening, Jessie is in her third year of the Kew Diploma where she is relishing the opportunity to experience working in nurseries, display glass and the surrounding temperate collections that the garden holds. This talk will take us on a horticultural journey around the highlands and lowlands of Northern Scotland through the gardens she visited during her travel scholarship.
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Talk 2: John is a Kew Diploma Student with an interest in the sense of place of gardens and landscapes, their history and their management. In this lecture John will discuss the history of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and his work experience across its three horticultural teams: Gardens, Glass and Chrysanthemum.
21/10/24
Gil Martin | Rewilding: Natural process restoration and why it's so important
Gil will explore and explain what natural processes are and why we are so profoundly dependent on them. Sharing insights and experiences gained delivering ambitious ecosystem restoration projects from rewilding to rewetting, and the emerging natural capital opportunities that can help to fund them.
Taking inspiration from Belmont’s range of nature-recovery projects, he will discuss how understanding, restoring and utilising natural processes is essential not only for tackling the dual crises of climate and nature collapse, but for society and community regeneration too.
Gil Martin is the Director of Estates and Natural Capital at Belmont, an environmental impact organisation with a focus on climate, nature, and community. Belmont aims to inspire community connection, restore biodiversity, and tackle climate change through ambitious nature-recovery and connection projects, rewilding, regenerative agriculture, and outdoor shared experiences. Gil’s extensive career managing farms and estates across the country plus working for conservation NGOs such as the National Trust has led him to oversee Belmont’s far-reaching plans for ecosystem restoration.
28/10/24
Charlotte Seal | Seeds Under Pressure: Coping with environmental change
Charlotte Seal is a researcher at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank and explores the regeneration of species through seed germination and its environmental resilience. Her research integrates functional and mechanistic approaches to gain insight into the biology and ecology of seeds from biodiverse wild and crop species, particularly under “stressful” conditions such as elevated temperature, drought, or salinity.
Charlotte supervises MSc and PhD students, teaches on Kew MSc and diploma courses and hosts visiting scientists from across the globe for research projects on the seed biology and ecology of wild species.
Charlotte joined Kew as an early career scientist in 2006 to focus on the seed biology of wild species, as part Kew’s “Millennium Seed Bank Project”. Having gained 18 years of experience and knowledge of wild species, she currently leads research on seed traits associated with environmental resilience with a particular focus on seed germination, with application to conservation, restoration and sustainable agriculture.
This lecture will explore the ability of seeds to survive stressful environments and the resilience of germination to climate change in biodiverse wild and crop species.
04/11/24
Professor Dave Goulson | Saving our Insects
Dave Goulson will be bringing along books, so if you would like to purchase any, don't forget cash for ease of sale. However, if you prefer not to use cash, card is also accepted.
Insects are fascinating, beautiful, and vitally important; without them ecosystems would grind to a halt. Dave Goulson will explain why insects are declining, and the consequences if we allow this to continue. He will then consider the many ways that we can all get involved in saving our insects, from making our gardens more insect-friendly to supporting systems of farming that are truly sustainable.
Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex, UK. He has published more than 350 scientific articles on the ecology of insects. He is the author of Bumblebees (OUP 2010), and of several bestselling popular books including A Sting in the Tale, A Buzz in the Meadow, The Garden Jungle and Silent Earth, collectively translated in 20 languages.
Dave founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity that has grown to 12,000 members. Awards: Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology (2013); elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2013); British Ecological Society Public Engagement Award (2014); Zoological Society of London’s Clarivate Award for Communicating Zoology (2020). In 2015 he was named number 8 in BBC Wildlife Magazine’s list of the most influential people in conservation. In the 6 years 2018-2023 he was named as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thompson ISI. He is an “Ambassador” for the UK Wildlife Trusts.
11/11/2024
Talk 1: Palms: The supermodels of south Florida
Talk 2: Flammable Flora: Exploring the cape
Talk 1: Anja is a third year Kew Diploma student and Tom has recently started the MSc in Food Security at Kew/Royal Holloway. Prior to this he completed the Kew Special Certificate in horticulture during which he and Anja made the journey to Florida on their travel scholarship. They both share an interest in palms, their infinite ethnobotanical and edible uses, and the roles they play in their natural habitats and horticulture. Their lecture will examine the roles of palms in their natural habitat as well as their use in horticulture, whilst taking us on a voyage across the South of Florida, from botanic gardens and palm nurseries, to the iconic Florida Keys and Everglades National Park.
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Talk 2: Annette is a Botanical Horticulturist at Kew, working in the areas including the Grass Garden, Evolution Garden and Duke’s Garden, her interests in horticulture include edible growing, finding new ways to garden sustainably in times of climate change and making gardens more bio-diverse by creating plant communities that work together naturally. Josie is a third year Kew Diploma student and is fascinated by natural habitats, soils and how this knowledge can be used to restore habitats and grow plants in botanical gardens and collections.
Earlier this year Josie and Annette undertook a botanical research trip to South Africa to learn about how plants have adapted to cyclical fires in the Fynbos and Renosterveld habitats of the Western Cape region. Together, they will us an give an insight into some of the unique factors that contribute to the huge species diversity in these habitats.
18/11/24
James Alexander-Sinclair | A life in five gardens
James Alexander-Sinclair FSGD is one of the foremost garden designers in the United Kingdom. He has designed gardens from Cornwall to the Western Isles and from London to Moscow.
He is a full member of the Society of Garden Designers. He is also an award winning writer, a compelling speaker, frequent broadcaster and served ten years as a member of the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022. He is the RHS Ambassador for Garden Design and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers.
He has given talks in Russia, China, Canada, Europe and the USA as well as at garden societies the length and breadth of the UK.
Internationally, James helped to set up the Moscow Flower Show in 2012 and has also judged gardens in the USA and China.
So join us to learn from this well of gardening expertise on this evening, you won't regret it!
25/11/24
Kevin Hobbs | The story of trees: Is our story, your story and my story
Join Kevin as he celebrates trees and their immense contribution to our lives beyond the obvious. Encompassing utility, edibility and cultural importance from archaeological and written history to their role in current and future technologies - on earth and beyond!
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As a Hillier Nurseries apprentice Kevin had a great start that launched him into the world, and business, of woody and herbaceous perennial plants. Kevin has gone from growing rare and unusual plants from seed, to production manager of an alpine plant nursery, to being back at Hillier as their Nursery Director, and now as a Director at Pinnacle Plants International; where having customers in a range of climates has expanded his plant exploration beyond those of temperate regions.
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A full on "plant nerd", horticulturist, and grower with over 35 years' experience, Kevin Hobbs has one foot planted in the botanical world, the other in commercial production, and, for the last couple of decades, a mind increasingly focused on sustainability and countering climate change.
Working with likeminded friends and colleagues globally he enjoys sharing knowledge and introducing new ornamental and edible plants to the market through his role as New Product Director at Pinnacle Plants International.
Kevin is a passionate advocate of all things green and growing, shared through talks, social media, and publications which include the book 'The Story of Trees' published by Laurence King, and 'EDIBLE' published by Thames & Hudson.
02/12/24
Aljos Farjon | Biodiversity and ancient oaks: the example of High Park, Blenheim
Aljos Farjon is a world-renowned botanist who worked at the Universities of Utrecht and Oxford and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on the taxonomy of the world’s over 600 species of conifer. He has published 11 books, many of these standard reference texts, and over 100 papers on conifers.
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After retirement Aljos became an HRA at Kew and shifted his research to the native oak trees (just 2 species) in his adopted country England. RBG Kew published his highly acclaimed book Ancient Oaks in the English Landscape in 2017 (2nd edition 2022).
He organised and led a comprehensive survey with over 60 participants to describe the biodiversity of High Park, Blenheim, the top site for ancient oaks. A book describing the results of these efforts is in press and the present lecture summarises and illustrates the results.
Fundraising Lecture 09/12/24
Ann-Marie Powell | Weaving colour into landscape
Ann-Marie has over 30 years’ experience of research into different aspects of plant and fungal chemistry with an emphasis on the economic value of natural products, including quality control of medicinal plants. She has co-authored patents for compounds in the areas of malaria, cancer, pest control, cosmetics and has been involved in getting food, medicinal and cosmetic products to market. Her research aims to increase the diversity of plants entering the trade and supporting human wellbeing through illustrating the economical important of plants and fungal diversity. Ann-Marie has worked in 81 different countries and (co-)supervised 42 PhD students. She has experience in working with different business sectors (retail, pharmaceutical and agricultural companies, commodity, architects and designers, banking and insurance) and linking different aspects of plant diversity with their respective activities, especially helping start-ups in different parts of the world.
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The lecture will cover early work on pest control and how this then linked to research on medicinal plant projects in different parts of the world. It will also cover some of our forensic work and our more recent work with the cosmetic sector. The work illustrates the importance of the Kew Collections in meeting the opportunities and challenges we face today.
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16/12/24
Mark Nesbitt | A history of Kew (and the world) in 10 objects
Mark joined Kew in 1999. Always interested in how people and plants interact, today he helps look after the Economic Botany collection, carries out research into the history of useful plants, and helps enable Kew projects that bring together the arts and sciences.
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Join us for this talk where Mark shares with us a very personal perspective on Kew’s historic collection of useful plants. He has chosen ten items – some very surprising - that shed light on Kew’s connection to the great events and changes of the world in the last 200 years.
13/01/25
Talk 1: Volcanoes, plants and permaculture
Talk 2: Saving space for desert
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Talk 1: Louie has a love of islands, and for the unique plants and people found on them, as well as their conservation most islands are in need of more protection, and their native plants are often facing multiple threats. Something that will be explored on this trip. Travelling to the mid-Atlantic volcanic archipelago, the Azores, home to 'Europe's rarest orchid' along with a plethora of other endemic and native species. Three islands were visited over the two weeks in this busy itinerary. Exploring the history, challenges successes and presenting wild plants, projects, and field work Louie was fortunate enough to learn about and participate with. The plants are amazing, the people are passionate, and the volcanoes are extraordinary.
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Talk 2: Aidan is a second year horticultural apprentice with a particular interest in desert ecology/flora stemming from an early childhood spent in California. While studying he had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles and work with the California Botanic Garden (CalBG), gaining experience and insight into their ongoing efforts to conserve and restore native flora. Alongside nursery, horticultural and herbarium work, he went on several field botany projects into the Mojave desert to survey, record and collect endemic plants. His lecture will give us an insight into the work of California Botanic Garden – an organisation devoted to conserving and restoring California native flora – with a particular focus on field botany work carried out in the Mojave desert.
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20/01/25
Elisabeth Karlstad Larsen | Small trees, big impact: The role of garden trees in making cities liveable
Elisabeth studied ecosystem services provided by garden trees; especially those related to regulating services such as rainfall attenuation, temperature regulation and C02 uptake and storage. She is interested in understanding the relationship between environmental drivers and transpiration of different tree species and cultivars.
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Elisabeth did her PhD at the University of Alicante in Spain, where she studied ecophysiology of Mediterranean Aleppo pine forests. in 2020 she started as a research fellow with the Royal Horticultural Society, where she is researching ecosystem services provided by garden trees.
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The lecture will go through different ecosystem services provided by trees, with focus on regulating services and how it relates to a species water-use strategy. It will also talk about the role trees can play in our urban environment, the abiotic stresses they have to withstand and adaptions to cope with these stresses.
Fundraising Lecture 27/01/25
Fergus Garrett | The biodiversity audit of Great Dixter
Fergus has spent over three decades as the Head Gardener at the iconic Great Dixter in East Sussex, former home of the prolific garden writer Christopher LLoyd. He is interested in wildflower communities, managing gardens, and growing a wide range of plants and is renowned for his dynamic approach to gardening. With his innovative approach to planting schemes and commitment to biodiversity, Fergus has transformed Great Dixter into a leading example of sustainable gardening. His expertise blends traditional horticultural techniques with bold experimentation, making him a highly respected voice in the gardening world. Fergus is also a passionate educator, regularly lecturing and writing to inspire the next generation of gardeners to embrace creativity and ecological responsibility.​
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This talk will demonstrate how an intensively managed garden like Dixter can support a high level of biodiversity, with evidence garnered from the studies carried out on the property.
03/02/25
Edward Flint A diet of worms: Horticultural heresies, enlightenments, and indulgences
Edward has been a Head Gardener for over 20 years, evolving a family garden in Sussex. His interests include meadows, woods, ponds and plants.
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Join this talk for Edwards personal thoughts on gardens and gardening; The ideas, places, people, plants and things that have mattered to him, making him, and his gardening.
10/02/25
Ã…sa Gregers-Warg | Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens: Past, present and future
Åsa is the Head Gardener at Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens. The informal 7.5-acre gardens near Colchester, Essex, is the former home of Beth Chatto OBE (1923-2018), one of the most influential British gardeners of the post-war era, known for her sustainable approach to planting.
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Today, gardening in a changing climate, with needs for more resilient gardens, Beth’s mantra ‘right plant’, right place’, using plants adapted to, and in harmony with, local conditions, is as relevant as it ever has been.
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This lecture will focus on telling the story of Beth Chatto OBE (1923-2018), one of the most influential British gardeners of the post-war era, and her iconic 7.5-acre gardens outside Colchester, Essex. Åsa will also speak about her role as head gardener and the importance of moving the garden forward, while respecting its heritage, and the current challenges of dealing with climate change.
17/02/25
Talk 1: Caring for Scotland's temperate rainforests
Talk 2: Putting the bee in Bryony
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Talk 1: After a career-change into horticulture, Steph began her studies at RBG Kew in 2021. She is now working as a botanical horticulturist in the evolution and grass garden. She loves to learn about plant conservation through the lens of ecology and the communities of life that surround it. In this lecture she will take us on a journey through Scotland's temperate rainforests. Lured by carpets of moss and dripping lichen, Steph travelled along the west coast of Scotland meeting gardeners, lichenologists, bryologists, ecologists, and conservationists. Her talk explores what she learnt when she wondered how to care for one of Britain’s most precious ecosystems, temperate rainforests.
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Talk 2: Carlos Martel joins Aneel Odhwani, to tell the tale of how a chance encounter one sunny day by a green waste skip at Kew led to Aneel developing a curiosity for the often unwanted “weed” Bryonia dioica, or Bryony, and the endangered bee Andrena florea who is entirely dependent on it. Carlos Martel is a pollination ecologist from Peru who’s interest is to understand how pollinators and plants depend on each other, and how floral cues effect these associations. Aneel Odhwani is an apprentice in horticulture at Kew who is currently in his second year.
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24/02/25
David Hill | Towards a Honduran Fern Flora
David is General Secretary of the British Pteridological Society, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and Chair of Cofnod, the North Wales Environmental Record Centre. He has a particular passion for lycophytes and ferns.
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David has an unhealthy passion for ferns and lycophytes, which act as a distraction from his day job of dealing with teenagers in a vocational college in North Wales.
Originally studying Forestry at Bangor University, but with a career in IT and teaching, he returned to learning as an adult learner to do an MSc on Marsh Clubmoss, and more recently an MRes looking at Quillwort environmental DNA at Edge Hill University.
In his spare time, he teaches Fern Identification, and is currently working on the Fern Flora of Honduras with a team at Edge Hill University, World Museum Liverpool and Zamorano University in Honduras.
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In June 2023 David took part in an ongoing project to create the first Fern Flora for Honduras. His talk will look at historical collections, day to day expedition practicalities and future stages of this long-term project.
03/03/25
Hannah Gardner | Revisiting the gardens of Japan
Hannah Gardner is a kew trained gardener and writer with an arts background. Having trained in historic gardens she moved into head gardening, developing sustainable practice and travelling widely to study wild plants and deepen her plantsmanship which she now applies as a planting design and horticultural management consultant in the UK and Europe.
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Hannah will guide you around a curated collection of Japanese gardens and landscapes, both ancient and contemporary
10/03/25
Heather Lindon | Can you name a notable woman botanist? You will after this lecture!
Heather is an honorary research associate for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She works on the intersection between plant and fungal names data, and women in botany.
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Over the past 10 years, she has worked with her fellow researchers to mine the rich databases of plant and fungal names to uncover the stories of women botanists. She will explore some of the questions they sought to answer, such as who was the first woman to publish a name after Linnaeus? Who is the most prolific female publisher of names right now? and which women (real or mythical) have been honoured in generic plant names and why?
17/03/25
Tom Pickering, Will Spoelstra and William Baker | Conserving the endemic plants of the Comoros Islands
24/03/25
Andrew Gdaniec | Modern cactus explorations: Challenges, benefits and adventures
Andrew has been passionate about succulent plants since a very early age, and has spent much of his life working to develop knowledge on this group of plants. Andrew is a Kew Diploma graduate, who's work includes over 40 years of practical experience in the cultivation of cacti, being the ex curator for Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, field work in 26 countries, and he is currently undertaking a PhD on the taxonomy and biogeography of Caribbean cacti.
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Join us whilst Andrew talks about the challenges, benefits, and adventures of his modern cactus explorations.
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