Juniperus Conservation at VBG Botanic gardens talk a lot about conservation. Mostly our contribution is by safekeeping taxa in cultivation, a very worthy role. BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International) estimates a third of the world's plants are held in...

November Newsletter  Kew Symposium on The State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2023 A Race Against Time Our Director, John Curtis, recently attended the three-day symposium at Kew’s Jodrell Laboratory titled, “The State of the World’s Plants and Fungi.” To conserve...

April at VBG To the north of the Olive Grove several types of citrus trees are in fruit. In the Mediterranean where these are cultivated they flower in February and fruit in winter. Our trees have been outdoors for 15 years now following the same flowering and...

September Newsletter  Clerodendron bungei is to be found in severalspots in the garden. It can be quite aggressiveand has a scent that is divisive, some say theflowers are sweet, others that the leaves arenauseous. Introduced by Robert Fortune in1844 as a greenhouse...

Aliens at Ventnor They’ve arrived! The aliens are at Ventnor Botanic Garden! A headline grabber that could announce the extraterrestrial arrival of beings to rewrite our knowledge of the Universe. Or, a headline referring to the plants we refer to as aliens, those...

July Plant Fix In the Further East area of VBG the spring planted specimens are establishing despite the very dry conditions. The Ventnor soil is unforgiving in the first year of planting, so we support with water during this period. Amongst the rarer plants are some...

The Far East Collection is now the biggest development at VBG since the Australian and South African Gardens in 2004 and the Arid Garden in 2008. In November 2022 we made room for this project by clearing nineteen Holme Oaks, an invasive, alien climax tree species now...

The rewilding concept has gained traction in Europe over a period of years as a way of returning high volume biota to a biota depleted environment.  The wording implies a return to a wild state, but the question is: what is the wild? The wild is an interesting...

A Month of Colour, Smell... In our car park are a group of plants often commented on at this time of year, they are seedlings of a Coronilla “Brockhill Blue” that grew nearby, planted in 2005. These seedlings are quite different to the original parent plant that has...

  Anthropogenic climate change is visible at Ventnor Botanic Garden in many ways. Our comparatively cold winter in 2022/23 seems at odds with our allegorical claim to be Britain's Hottest Garden, but it actually highlights the anticipated consequences of global...

Intrigued by last years national press interest, the Guardian sent Mark O'Connell to investigate the story behind the headlines. Read the article here  

Frost damage in the Garden  A high pressure system over Greenland and Iceland combined with a second system over Russia have squeezed Arctic cold air south, creating a cold snap here in the U.K. during December this year. We push the boundaries of half-hardiness at...

Further East Members’ ProjectUpdate In October 2022 we began the next phase of expansion of the Living Collection from the climatic regions of the Far East that match VBG’s microclimate. The project is entitled Further East; firstly, as it continues east of the...

  Ventnor Botanic Garden - Silver for Best Small Attraction We are absolutely blown away that our beautiful Garden here at Ventnor Botanic Garden has received Silver in this year's Red Funnel - Isle of Wight Awards 2022 for Best Small Attraction here on the Isle of...