One of the fun things that we did at 3600m (11,800′) in the Himalayas was make snow angels!  We thought that it would be particularly fun to try this now, seeing as we had loads of spare snow! As you can see, they’ve turned out quite well!  Who said school is no fun!? Especially in […]

Yay! School is closed which means a day off, playing in the snow… or does it? Unlike students, plants don’t like having a ‘snow day’ and as a result – plant people have to be in looking after them!  This, of course, doesn’t mean that there’s no playing in the snow. First we must check […]

New year is a time we think about all the lovely people we work with around the world. So Happy New Year to our friends in Durban both at the Botanic Garden and at West Park School. Happy New Year as well  to the pupils and staff at the Erica Primary School in Cape Town, […]

One of the real pleasures of having a greenhouse is escaping those cold gloomy winter days into your own little tropical paradise. This morning I escaped to Brazil thanks to Sophronitis cernua. I had the pleasure of seeing this species in the wild on our last school expedition to the Brazilian costal forest (Mata Atlantica) […]

Writhlington School may be closed for the holiday but the plants in the school greenhouses never take a break. In fact, christmas is a lovely time with lots of plants flowering in the run up to our peak time in March. Most of the plants we grow are cooler growing orchids native to the tropical […]