Blog

Garden Blog

Something exciting is happening at Ventnor Botanic Garden. This is very much the feeling we all have at the moment. John and Mylene are working well together with the IOWC as we move through negotiations. Keith Leonard has agreed to lend ...

Chris Kidd, January 31st 2012 1 comment. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

The remarkably warm weather so far this winter has allowed several species to flower at VBG that don't usually get warm enough to fully open. Aloe arborescens, the irritatingly named Octopus Plant (uurgh!) usually gets hit by the cold before ...

Chris Kidd, January 6th 2012 1 comment. » read more or comment

Christmas Blog

A lighthearted look (with pictures) behind the scenes at the Christmas Village.... You just don't get snow in Ventnor... so we had to make our own: "Do you want onions with that?" Beryl is either making yet another wrea ...

Chris Kidd, December 19th 2011 1 comment. » read more or comment

Christmas Blog

The VBG Christmas tree has arrived. Here we have Dean and Alex manouvering it into place. The tree was donated free by a colleague in another garden (you know who you are) and transported courtesy of Trevor Nobes. NDL are very kindl ...

Chris Kidd, December 2nd 2011 1 comment. » read more or comment

Introducing....The Red Hot Chilli Peppers!

Trays of drying chillies are making a very colourful display around the Garden’s buildings! It’s been a bumper year for chillies and our Team Leader, Jason Melia has grown nine new varieties, including two of the hottest chillies in the ...

Della Pragnell, November 23rd 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

Will 2012 be an Echium year? Some years are called Echium Years at VBG, these are when we get an unusually large number of Echium pininana in flower simultaneously. We've not had a good Echium Year for a while due to the dreadful winter ...

Chris Kidd, November 20th 2011 4 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

"I've got this plant growing in my garden..." This is quite a common question we get asked at the Garden. Sometimes its just a description, sometimes a photograph, sometimes a scrap of the plant itself. Quite often the ...

Chris Kidd, October 29th 2011 4 comments. » read more or comment

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone involved with the Healing Day, held at the garden on Sunday 23rd October. Organisers and participants raised £350 for the VBG Friends' Society. It was very much appreciated by everyone at the garden, espec ...

Della Pragnell, October 25th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Winter Opening at the Garden

It's a beautiful crisp autumn we are having but the clocks are about to herald winter. It's an ideal time to visit the garden, free of summer tourists, and browse for Christmas presents in our gift shop, served by our ever-smiling June Burke ...

Della Pragnell, October 21st 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Christmas Fair

Plans are going well for our Christmas Fair, scheduled to take place on 17th and 18th December. There will be live music, mulled wine, local produce and lots of interesting stalls for last minute stocking fillers. The fair will centre on the c ...

Della Pragnell, October 21st 2011 2 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

Coming soon, buy that special gift, plant or packet of VBG seeds online. Our online Gift Shop will soon be selling a range of VBG branded gifts, bottled TropicAle, the highlights from our plant sales and the full range seed collected here at the Garde ...

Chris Kidd, October 21st 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Kates Blog

A letter back from our first scholarship intern, Valérie: " I enjoyed a lot to do this scholarship during two weeks in the Ventnor Botanic garden. I was very happy to meet the staff and the other volunteers whom were very nice a ...

Chris Kidd, October 20th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Kates Blog

We have now said goodbye to our two French students, Thomas and Mathilde and also our first scholarship student, Valerie. It has been a really useful and rewarding couple of weeks with them and we hope to be kept up to date with all their activities ...

Kate Ingrem, October 14th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Cafe Blog

The Café have been taking advantage of the unusual botanic fruits to make seasonal preserves. Bridget’s Apple Chutney, made from a variety of garden apples, is an established favourite served with Cheddar Cheese or o ...

Bridget Wells, October 14th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

First scholarship student arrives

Valerie has now started with us for two weeks. She is currently volunteering at University of Bristol Botanic Garden and is our first student under the new scheme.

Kate Ingrem, October 6th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

Beaufortia sparsa, The Swamp Bottlebrush The majority of Australian plants we see in UK gardens originate from the cool high altitudes of South Eastern Australia and, further south, Tasmania. Beaufortia sparsa, the Swamp Bottlebrush, is native t ...

Chris Kidd, October 4th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

Itoa orientalis New to Ventnor The Flacourtiaceae is a rarely to be marvelled plant family whose distribution tends towards the tropical. From a horticultural perspective, its members are hardly of the most intense floristic beauty.&n ...

Chris Kidd, September 28th 2011 4 comments. » read more or comment

Kate's Blog

We're very pleased to have two students from France with us at the moment, Mathilde and Thomas. They are here via the good works of Ryde Rotary Club who are sponsoring their time with us. They are staying locally with Sally from VBG Friend ...

Kate Ingrem, September 20th 2011 0 comments. » read more or comment

Garden Blog

Autumn Plant Collection 2011 With the hops from this years picking stowed in the van it was time for the annual pilgrimage to Hereford where our hop growing expert and advisor, Peter Davies (above), was waiting at the drying facility near D ...

Chris Kidd, September 16th 2011 1 comment. » read more or comment