GARDEN HUNTING IN CHINA

While many English gardeners have visited China to ‘collect’ plants, few have gone to look for gardens. The Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship Scheme funded Timothy Walker’s six-week trip to visit gardens and meet gardeners, with a view to building bridges between Chinese and English horticulture. In addition to examining gardens and gardening, this talk looks at the wider cultural aspects of a country full of contradictions, wonderful food, and very welcoming people.

From 1988 to 2014, Timothy Walker was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them the way museum curators talk about their collections. People often think of gardens as places where science and art meet on equal terms. Timothy’s lectures often investigate this relationship. Since 2014, he has lectured and tutored in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College, Oxford.