Full list of lectures 2025-2026
*Tickets booked online incur a fee to KMIS. If you are attending in person, please support KMIS and pay at the door.*
*** Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, we've had to rearrange some lectures. ***
Always check the website for the most up to date information!
More descriptions and images to follow soon. Stay tuned!
22/09/25
The Well-Gardened Mind
Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, Psychiatrist and Author
Findings from recent research showing that nature alleviates anxiety, stress and depression.
29/09/25
The Other Orchids
Dr. Helen J. Millner, President of The Orchid society of Great Britain
A closer look at Pleurothallids and the Orchids of the high Andes.
06/10/25
Navigating The Crisis Without a Map
Professor Sam Brockington, Curator of The Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Re-envisioning the Future of Living Plant Collections
Living collections have been central to the identity of botanic gardens for centuries — but I believe we now stand at a crossroads. I will share findings from two recent global analyses of the world's living collections and pose the question: where do we go from here?
Fundraising Lecture
20/10/25
35 Years of the Merlin Trust
Paul Cook, Trustee of Merlin Trust
The history of the Merlin Trust and Travel bursary highlights
Join me on my exploration through the enchanting lands of Spain and Portugal - from inspiring restoration projects found nestled in the countryside, beautiful wildflowers through the mountains, and the wild beats that call this place home, we'll experience the wonderful sights found in this peninsula.
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27/10/25
Talk 1: From Pigs and Goats to Orchids and Oaks
Indigo Wyatt, Kew Diploma Student
Tales from the Iberian Peninsula
Talk 2: The Pearl of Africa
Harry Thomas, Kew Diploma Student
Agroecology, and the Mountains of the Moon
For my travel scholarship, I travelled to Uganda to explore the relationship between sustainable land use and biodiversity. My work focused on agroecology and beekeeping as tools for environmental resilience and community livelihoods. I also spent time in the Rwenzori Mountains, studying the region’s unique and exceptional montane flora in a truly special environment.
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02/11/25
Greenland’s Greener Past
Professor Jenifer McElwain, Head of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin
Exploring a tropical Arctic and mass extinction event using fossil plants
The lecture will delve into a trove of over 5000 fossil plants collected by the speaker and colleagues from Triassic and Jurassic sediments preserved in the cliff faces of Jameson Land, East Greenland during two Arctic expeditions. What do these fossils reveal about plant extinction and resilience and past and future climate change? How can Greenland’s lost landscapes be reconstructed using science and art.
17/11/25
Talk 1: Seagrass Meadow Restoration
Laura Oxley, Kew Diploma Student
Devon and Carmarthenshire
A look behind the scenes of two of the UK's leading seagrass restoration projects and their purpose-built propagation facilities. (With a little bit of saltmarsh and other non-marine plant botanising thrown in for fun...)
Talk 2: The Mascarene Islands
Patricia Stadler, Kew Diploma Student
​Conserving habitats and their endemics
Patricia is a third-year diploma student at Kew. As part of her travel scholarship, she visited Réunion and Mauritius to study the islands’ in-situ conservation efforts. As a glimpse into her trip, this talk showcases the plants, habitats, and conservation practices she encountered while working with three conservation organisations.
15/12/25
Colombia
Luigi Leoni, Glass House Team Lead, Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Botanical Insights and Field Notes
Colombia’s landscapes offer remarkable biodiversity, from tropical lowlands teeming with life to dry tropical forests and vast savannahs with unique plant adaptations. This talk explores the diversity of these environments, highlighting extraordinary plant species and the expertise of those who study them.
Talk 1: Plains to Peaks
Georgia Timpson, Kew Apprentice
Colorado and the Rocky Mountains
Georgia is a second year apprentice at RBG Kew. She travelled to Colorado in search of alpine plants in the high Rocky Mountains, and along the way she found herself in the wide grass plains of the eastern state, a Buddhist commune in the northern forests and the high plain deserts to the south. Spending time in some of the most highly regarded gardens in the western USA, Georgia will cover the plants and people which she met along the way.
Talk 2: Key elements of the Japanese Garden
Florence Akanbi-Guei, Kew Botanical Horticulturist
The Exploration of Japanese Garden Styles: The Historical Context of Famous Gardens in Kyoto & Tokyo.
26/01/26
Explorations in Tropical Rainforests
Simon Pugh-Jones MBE, Doctor of Science
Growing Orchids from: South and Central America, Africa, the Himalayas, South and East Asia and Borneo
Fundraising Lecture
02/02/26
Transformational Urban Landscapes
Professor Nigel Dunnet, Planting and Landscape Designer
A range of current and recent projects highlighting dynamic and sustainable planting for urban landscapes
The lecture will give an overview of the speaker’s work and foundational principles, using a range of current and recent projects, including Grosvenor Square, The Barbican, Tower of London, Sheffield’s Grey to Green and Peveril Gardens. The focus is on the power of dynamic and sustainable planting to change highly urban places for people and nature, and the maintenance and stewardship challenges and opportunities that they bring.
09/02/26
Talk 1: Hoyas: The Moth Cinderella Story
Charlotte May-Miller, Kew Special Certificate
Travels in Borneo in pursuit of Hoyas
Follow Kew Specialist student Charlotte, as she meets with world leading experts in Singapore Botanic Gardens, and goes searching for Hoya in the rainforests of Sarawak, Borneo. It turns out, in the jungle… many things look like Hoya! There are orchids, pitcher plants, and many more species endemic to Borneo we will also discover along the way. We will learn about their amazing adaptations, and by the end you will see Hoyas as more than just a nice houseplant.
Talk 2: Ant plants, orchids, and palms.
Oh my!
Leah Jegermanis, Kew Diploma Student
Island hopping adventures in Fiji
16/02/26
A 21st Century Fungarium
Lee Davies, Fungarium Curator, Kew
Kew's Curator of the Fungarium shares passion for all thing fungi
Arguably it is the most important scientific collection of fungi on the planet; Kew’s Fungarium collection spans 170 years, every country on earth, and around 60% of the worlds currently known fungal diversity. But its use has changed dramatically since the 19th century. This talk will explore its origins, its use, and its continuing evolution as we plough through the 21st Century.
23/02/26
Conservation horticulture
Alex Hudson, BGCI Project Manager
Research to improve restoration of Mt Mulanje, including the Mulanje Cedar tree
Mt Mulanje is under pressure from resource overexploitation (e.g. timber harvests of the valuable Mulanje Cedar tree), uncontrolled man-made fire restricting native vegetation regeneration and agriculture expansion driven by high population density, extreme local poverty and increasing extreme climate events. But restoration efforts have also been hampered by inadequate knowledge and the use of good horticultural practices. BGCI led projects since 2016 have worked to improve that situation: from improving propagation practices to understanding micro-climates, microbiomes and planting practices that could increase the survival and growth of trees, and the Mulanje Cedar in particular.
02/03/26
Wildlife gardening in London
Benny Hawksbee, Community Gardener, Eden Nature Garden, Clapham
Ecological discoveries from professional gardening
Benny will talk attendees through his journey from a sea turtle biologist to becoming a London gardener with a heavy bias towards insects; in particular solitary bees. Benny will share his most notable ecological discoveries from professional gardening and the moments that humbled him and consequently reshaped his approach to gardening, over the last ten years.
Fundraising Lecture
16/03/26
What is the future of horticulture in public parks?
Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy, The Royal Parks
The pressures facing parkland horticulture, from green refuge to economic self-sufficiency
23/03/26
Plants and Gardens of the Western Cape
Alex Goodyear, Head Gardener, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens
An exploration of the native flora and the gardens of Babylonstoren
A three-month bursary funded trip to South Africa to explore the native flora and local horticultural scene whilst working in the internationally renowned gardens at Babylonstoren.
06/04/26
Talk 1: Tales from a Temperate Rainforest
Daisy Baggs, Kew Diploma Student
Enchanted by Chile
Talk 2: Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden
Nathan Caplen, Kew Diploma Student
Gardening at the extremes
This lecture will give an insight into the two weeks I spent at Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden for my travel scholarship. I will look at how the garden works, what plants they grow and how the deal with the extreme weather within the Arctic Circle. In addition, I will be sharing my experience of the fieldtrips I went on to collect seed as part of the initiative to preserve endangered Norwegian plant species.
