Our first lecture of 2022 will be given by Advolly Richmond, who Friends will know from her frequent appearances on BBC TV’s Gardeners World. Advolly will talk to us about the social history of indoor plants.

Sending Christmas wishes to all Friends of the Botanical Gardens, and hopes for a healthy and restful start to 2022. Remember that 25 December is the one day of the year when the Gardens are closed to everyone, giving our hard-working gardeners a well-deserved day off.

This website has a special password-protected Friends Area (you can find the link at the bottom of every page), which contains over 20 recordings of Zoom lectures we have hosted since last summer, plus past and present copies of our regular newsletter News Shoots. The password changed on 14th December and Friends should look out for an email from our webmaster with the new version.

The latest edition of our regular newsletter News Shoots is now available to view in the password-protected Friends Area of the website. Among lots of features, it has information on upcoming events (online and increasingly in person), news of the job advert for our Education & Engagement Co-ordinator, our plant of the month, and a Christmas quiz.

We’re working with the Council and the charitable Trust to recruit a full-time Education and Engagement Co-ordinator for the Gardens. Thanks to National Lottery players, the post will be funded for two years. The job is currently being advertised with a closing date for applications of 22 December.

It was great to see so many Friends at this morning’s Christmas Social, despite the necessary Covid precautions and the arrival of Storm Barra! Thanks to everyone involved in organising, and congrats to the team quiz winners.

Join us tomorrow (Tuesday 7th December) for our annual Christmas get-together for Friends. We’ll be supplying drinks and mince pies, team quizzes, a review of the year, the chance to buy our Christmas cards, and just an opportunity to catch up with Friends.

Thanks to Swallows and Damsons florist Anna Potter for naming the Gardens as one of her favourite places in a piece yesterday (4th December) in The Guardian.

Join us on Tuesday (30th November) for our last public Gardens tour of the year. We’ll be focusing on some of our wonderful tree collection as part of National Tree Week. No need to book. Just turn up.

Thanks to everyone who volunteers to work alongside the paid staff in the Botanical Gardens. For October they contributed well over 400 hours (the propagation team worked 138 hours and the garden volunteers 300 hours).

Thanks to Dr Maria Val Martin for her fascinating talk on Air Quality Gardens, including details of the one she helped create within the Botanical Gardens. It was splendid to have another lecture held in person in the Dorothy Fox Education Centre.

Thanks to landscape architect Zac Tudor for a fabulous talk after our AGM on the greening of Sheffield City Centre. It was a delight to hear about the environmental and aesthetic benefits of the various planting schemes and about how influential and admired they have become.

At our 2021 AGM we were delighted to award honorary membership to four Friends for their ‘distinguished services.’ Anne Martin and Bob Merryweather were recognised for their work as volunteers in the Gardens, and Rene May and Jill Sinclair for their contributions to the executive committee.

Our Annual General Meeting takes place this Friday (12th November) in the Dorothy Fox Education Centre in the Botanical Gardens, followed by a live lecture by Zac Tudor on ‘Urban Greening in Sheffield’ - giving an overview of the Grey to Green planting in Sheffield city centre.

Thanks to Emma, Fiona and Kate from Wessex Archaeology for a fascinating glimpse into the excavations at Coleshill Hall gardens and moat, uncovered as a result of the HS2 project. A recording of the lecture is available to view in the password-protected Friends Area of the website.