The Friends’ special events programme is growing all the time and is increasingly popular. If you would like to join the active and sociable group which organises and helps with events, please contact our special events and volunteer co-ordinator Mary Isaac on maryisaac606@hotmail.com

Tickets for special events must be booked on the booking form which is sent to Friends with the newsletter. For enquiries, please phone the Garden office on 01865 286690, or e-mail the Friends’ Administrator on secretary@fobg.org

New Chamber Opera perform Il re pastore

Once again New Chamber Opera will be treating us to an evening of operatic delight. While Il re pastore (written when Mozart was only nineteen years old!) may not be as well-known as Così fan tutte or Le nozze di Figaro, it is nonetheless a substantial piece in its own right which provides a glimpse into the themes and stylistic devices employed in his subsequent works. Originally a pastoral opera seria, the libretto by Pietro Metastasio was compressed from three to two acts in Mozart’s serenata version, and the plot places emphasis on benevolence and appreciation of the royal archetype during the time of Alexander the Great. The evening will begin with a glass of sparkling wine in the wonderful setting of the New College cloisters. The first act of the performance will start at 6.30pm in the Warden’s garden (in the ante-chapel if wet). During the 75-minute interval guests will return to tables set out in the cloisters to enjoy their picnics.

Wednesday 11th July, 6.30pm
Warden’s garden and cloisters, New College, Oxford

5.00pm: pre-performance talk, tickets £2.50
6.30pm: opera performance, tickets £42.00

Please book on the opera booking form below

Friends’ plant sale

The wonderful biannual Friends’ plant sale is our largest fundraising event. Do come with your family and friends to enjoy the beautiful grounds of the Arboretum which will be in their late spring glory, with the final bluebells and the beginnings of the rhododendrons, azaleas and the flowering wild meadows. In addition to lots of top-quality plants, we will have advice tables, secondhand gardening and cookery books and a large raffle which is being very well supported by our local garden centres and nurseries. All your purchases can be taken to your car by wheelbarrow. There will be the usual delicious refreshments throughout the day.

What is new this year?

We welcome the Oxford and District Alpine Garden Society Local Group who will be bringing a variety of plants and giving expert advice.

We will be trialling a new stall this year selling secondhand garden tools, ceramic and terracotta pots and your old single unworn gardening gloves. (Usually it is the left–hand one that goes on the second and third fingertip and so bring in your washed and not-very-worn right-hand gloves to the sale.)

How can you help?

We are always very grateful for the many ways in which Friends help:

• During the early spring please remember the sale when dividing, sowing and potting up plants. We are particularly keen to sell a very wide range of vegetable seedlings and herbs and would be most grateful for donations of unusual and heritage varieties.

• Collecting, sorting and labelling plants from Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th May; setting up on the day of the sale, staffing stalls, selling teas or taking money.

• Producing homemade cakes for the refreshments stall.

Sunday May 27th, 11.00am to 4.00pm
(please note that this is a change to the originally-advertised date)
Harcourt Arboretum, Nuneham Courtenay, OX44 9PX

For queries or offers of help and donations, please contact Maura Allen: mea@armitstead.com, 01865 311711. Thank you.