From Wild Herbs in the Kitchen to Horticultural Workshops

“Green School” offered by the Botanical Gardens

The rich programme being offered this year at the Botanical Gardens of Heidelberg University is bound to entice. Alongside the regular guided tours on offer, the “Green School” is reaching out with excursions, horticultural workshops, vacation activities for children, a chocolate workshop as well as creative courses. The early-summer garden party and the traditional autumn festival are further mainstays of the annual programme for 2010.

Anyone wanting to learn more about the Botanical Gardens would do well to take one of the over 30 guided tours offered to the public. The tours are usually conducted early Sunday afternoons. For some of its excursions, the “Green School” has also selected botanically attractive destinations in the Heidelberg environs. In the botanical identification course “What Plant Is That?” (Was blüht denn da) starting in June, the focus is domestic flora. “Tropical Plant Families” is the subject of a series of guided tours on offer in November and December.

Courses on wild herbs in the kitchen (April, June, September and October) will provide instruction on collecting herbs and then preparing them for use in sophisticated dishes. Plants can also enhance beauty, as the natural cosmetics courses will demonstrate. The next of these is on 27 February. The chocolate workshop for families with children is scheduled for 6 March. Offerings planned for the Easter, Whitsun, summer and autumn vacations are targeted at young nature-lovers between the ages of 7 and 11. While the activities are principally designed to inform and edify, there will be no shortage of games and fun.

“Learning from the Pros” is the motto of the horticultural workshops. On 6 March the topic is plant proliferation. Aficionados of cactuses and succulents are catered to in various events from March to June and in September. Other workshops on offer in April and June are designed for orchid fans. In November, participants can learn how to weave Advent wreaths.

Under the direction of art historian Dr. Elisabeth Südkamp, the Botanical Gardens is also offering a creative program. Alongside drawing courses that focus on garden motifs, there are ikebana workshops, courses in macro photography and a painting course for children. Also on the agenda is an introduction to the fine art of Japanese ink drawing.

There are two other dates plant and garden lovers should make a note of. On 6 June the early-summer garden party will be held during national Botanical Gardens Week. The traditional autumn festival will take place on 3 October. Further information on these and all other events can be found at http://grueneschule.bot.uni-heidelberg.de.

Contact
Dr. Andreas Franzke
Botanical Gardens
Institute of Plant Science
phone: +49 6221 545753
afranzke@hip.uni-heidelberg.de

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phone: +49 6221 542311
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