The Botanic Garden welcomes alumni to the Garden itself and also to the Harcourt Arboretum at Nuneham Courtenay. This web site provides information and news. We hope you will visit.

The Friends support the Garden developments and its very active education programmes. Membership includes a newsletter and free entry to the Garden and Arboretum and also to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Wakehurst Place, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh (and its other gardens), the National Garden of Wales and Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Recent developments

Although the Botanic Garden is the oldest in Britain and retains its original 17th century walls, it continues to develop with much replanting, redesign and new ideas. As a university botanic garden it is a base for research, undergraduate teaching and for highly successful education programmes for local schoolchildren and adults.

Since early 2010 the biggest changes for over 100 years have been under way:

• A major redesign of the Lower Garden to a plan by the outstanding landscape architect and alumnus Kim Wilkie. This will provide enlarged vegetable and soft fruit beds and two splendid large new borders either side of a new path running towards a newly opened view to Merton College tower.

• A Medicinal Plant Garden in the corner of the Walled Garden previously occupied by the compost heap and bamboo.

• A new compost demonstrator in the strip of Garden outside the walls along Rose Lane.

Recent developments at Harcourt Arboretum

The Arboretum at Nuneham Courtenay is part of the historic Nuneham Park bought as an investment in the 1940s. It was originally planted by WS Gilpin as a pinetum in 1835 and was taken on by the Botanic Garden in 1963. After many years of restoration, following a landscape plan by Kim Wilkie and the acquisition of the adjacent Palmer’s Ley’s meadow, it now has 150 acres of woodland and meadows.

There has been much planting, new all weather paths, new fencing and in the 50 acres of Palmers Ley’s, 13,500 trees and re-sown meadow.

A new landscaped car park is about to be laid out and this will enable an ambitious new phase with more facilities, visitors’ interpretation and scope for expanding education programmes.

Our news bulletins

Since April 2010 we have published regular illustrated electronic bulletins of Garden, Arboretum and Friends’ news and events at www.fobg.org. These supplement the regular Garden newsletter available on this website.

The Alumni weekend (every September)

The Garden is open free to holders of the Alumni card. See also alumni weekend programme.

Supporting the Garden and Arboretum

The Friends, who include many alumni, have made major contributions to successful restoration and development at both the Garden and the Arboretum by donations, legacies and by their membership subscriptions to the Friends. We are very grateful for their support.

Other Oxford Gardens and Collections

Much is going on in other Oxford Gardens. Together they are an exceptional collection of historic and attractive design and horticulture.They are well worth visiting and revisiting.

The University Parks is looking better than it has ever done with replanting and improvements in landscaping.

Twelve college gardens are listed by English Heritage as being of special historical interest, four Grade I, one II* and seven Grade II. Others are also of considerable interest. Whilst access to some areas is restricted to college members, much can be seen in college open hours (and perhaps by persuading college porters).

The University has remarkable herbaria and an outstanding botanical art and library in the Department of Plant Sciences (much of it originally collected in the Botanic Garden. These collections are accessible to those with a special interest. In addition, other University libraries, the Ashmolean and several college libraries have important collections of botanical art.

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