Garden to reopen/ Black Lives Matter/ Online talks/ Summer School for School Leavers (16-18 year olds)/ Plant Walks/ Younger visitors

Garden to reopen
The beautiful botanical garden is to reopen from this Thursday 9 July. Like other gardens opening to the public now, pre-booking (online here) is necessary. You will be able to spend your time in the garden enjoying the plants, birdsong and pondlife. Sarah Davey, the Head Gardener, will be on hand for any questions you may have and there will also be plants for sale - including some grown by SLBI members for our planned plant sale in May (cash only and no change given, to keep you all safe).  There will be four slots through the day, of 45 mins each, and hopefully this will continue on further Thursdays (to be monitored and tickets made available accordingly). Other details regarding safety procedures and facilities etc are available on the garden booking page of the SLBI website. 

Black Lives Matter
Like many other organisations in the botanical, environmental, educational and heritage sectors, the SLBI has been considering its position in the light of recent anti-racism protests. The SLBI fully supports the Black Lives Matter movement and have written a statement to reflect their thinking and intentions - read more on their blog and get in touch with them if you have any positive ideas for improvement in this area.

Online talks
There are a number of forthcoming bookable online talks on the website, including:
- 5 Plants that changed the world - with Michael Holland (Tuesday 7 July)
- Botany & Botanists in Madagascar: international inequality in plant diversity knowledge - with Maria Vorontsova (Tuesday 21 July)
- Cannabidiol - with Chandni Hindocha (Wednesday 12 August)

First online two day Summer School for School Leavers (16-18 year olds)
This will be on 'Lockdown Botany for Aspiring Plant Scientists'.  There's a great line-up of tutors -  Joshua Ajowele, Sophie Leguil, Jonathan Mitchley & Mark Spencer - leading sessions on different topics (Tuesday 28 & Wednesday 29 July 2020). 

Plant Walks
Roy Vickery is starting some weekly plant walks in actual green spaces on Friday 10 July, starting in Streatham - booking essential to ensure safe numbers.

Younger visitors
The SLBI will be 'Making Summer Memorable', organising a children's trail close to the SLBI and six bookable workshops for children (aged 7-13) in August. These are currently planned for limited numbers in the SLBI garden, with full details on the website soon. There are also resources uploaded frequently  to the website here: videos, activity sheets etc.

All events can be found on the SLBI website and will be kept updated in line with any changing Covid-19 regulations