Lectures and Talks for Horticultural and Gardening Societies

All talks and lectures last for 60 minutes but can be extended if required.

Tulip Mania!

The story in context and art of the infamous bulb speculation bubble in seventeenth century Holland.

Andre le Nôtre and the Sun King's garden

The history of the French formal garden in France (1650–1750) and its stylistic influence on the palace gardens of European courts, including those of Imperial Russia.

Eighteenth Century Gardens — Parterres and Panoramas

Formal, landscape and picturesque garden designs in Britain and France.

The Rose of Martinique

Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the consort of Napoleon, and her rose garden at Malmaison: her life as a respected botanist and her patronage of the arts and fashion.

The Gardens of Impressionism

Monet and other Impressionists as gardeners and painters of gardens, in the context of the craze in France for horticulture as a middle-class leisure activity.

Tudor and Jacobean gardens

The development of the Renaissance garden in Italy and France and its influence in England during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James I.