Here are five inspirational plant activities for June including to garden festivals of different sorts. All suggestions are based on the assumption you have endless wealth and free time at your disposal. If you can’t do all five, one is good too.
1. Rhodope Wildflower Festival, Bulgaria – 21-29 June
If you need any more reason to visit mountains in Bulgaria than the promise of a profusion of wildflowers (almost 2000 recorded species), then this festival has organised events through-out the week. Activities include botanical tours, workshops – crafts, photography, traditional food making techniques – and more. The Rhodope Mountains are in Southern Bulgaria and the area has a ‘mosaic of forests, meadows and farmland’. All sounds rather idyllic.
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2. Life and Art exhibition, Dulwich Picture Gallery
The artist Winifred Nicholson had an unapologetic love for painting flowers. A review of this exhibition in the Telegraph quotes her as saying “I like painting flowers,..I have tried to paint many things in many different ways, but my paintbrush always gives a tremor of pleasure when I let it paint a flower … to me they are the secret of the cosmos.” Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981) was born in Oxford and in 1920 she met the painter Ben Nicholson. They married and worked alongside each other, together becoming a dominating force in the British modern art movement from the 1930s. Their story, including travels and relations with other artists is all very interesting, but it is Winifred’s floral pieces that makes this exhibition rather tempting. A significant number of her artworks are viewable online and they clearly show her quirk and originality in the composition and rendering of flowers. Hopefully there will be enough of her floral works on display at this exhibition to satiate. Starts 4th June and runs until September.
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3. Escorted Garden Walks at Levens Hall
With all the topiary talent on show, Escorted Garden Walks with one of the Levens Hall gardeners sounds like a really great way to spend an afternoon. Every wednesday at 2pm until the 8th of October you will have the chance to hear about what goes into maintaining a garden that has been the inspiration for artists such as Norman Stevens and recent award winning IGPTY photographer Richard Bloom (see image below). The cost of the tour is included in the price of garden entry but you do have to get there and let’s face it, the Lake District is nearly as far as Bulgaria – but well worth the trip!
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4. Garden Festival at the Horniman Museum – 8 June
Just to hang out in the garden is fun but there will also be family events including guerrilla gardening. How it is going to be very guerrilla-like if happening inside the garden and organised by the museum is anyone’s guess, but maybe it’s a case of picking up some tips to apply elsewhere. There will also be tours of the garden which is home to a 300 year old oak tree (see image below). If that is not enough then there is always the museum itself, a possible source of plant-related things that are maybe even older than the oak.
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5. Unbelievable Umbels at Great Dixter – 16th June
One doesn’t really need a reason to visit Great Dixter, it is just a thrilling garden full stop. But there are a few interesting events this month. The brilliantly named Unbelievable Umbels and the Miniature Hurdle Making Workshop sound like a good chance to learn about some plants, their application (ie wooden fences) and how they can inspire our creativity. Get in quick though as they are filling up fast.
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