Passions, Potions & Poisons: love and death in the garden

Meet sinister plants with deadly reputations, beneficial ones with healing qualities and those with the ability to inflame the heart and woo the lover.

Learn how hemlock became associated with witchcraft and ancient justice, the reputation of the Vinegar of the Four Thieves, and why your bedtime cocoa might be the perfect drink for your sex life

Good Enough to Eat

More is edible in the garden than you might think, from roots to shoots, flowers to seeds. Coupled with that many plants provide extra benefits and more besides. Need a perfume, protection, medicine or magic? Visiting your herbaceous borders just might provide the answer…

Alongside a selection of alternative salad ingredients, discover royal cures for insomnia, meet plants to boost your courage, cure a cold, restore baldness or simply be useful as a compost accelerator

Carrots, Cabbages & other Ancients

Once we realised we could sow seeds, manipulate growth and manage soil fertility all from the comfort of our own allotments, vegetables became an essential part of our diet.

Travel through the centuries and across continents to discover the origins of vegetables and their journey onto our dinner plates. Learn how the potato has influenced politics, the importance of pulses and whether carrots really can help you see in the dark…

Not just Apples and Pears

What is a fruit exactly? And why are we encouraged to eat them as part of our five a day?

From apples to pears, pineapples to oranges, the story of fruit is a fascinating insight into our fruit bowls, revealing a rich and varied social and natural history.

Discover that apples are victims of their own genetic creativity, how important grapes were to the Roman Empire and why blackberries have a connection to the Devil!

The Drunken Botanist

Every great drink starts with a plant. And, coupled with our obsession for alcohol, and its influence on our lives, it’s a marriage made in a garden.

Discover the benefits of fermented fruits to prehistoric man, the advantage of beer over water, that civilised conversation requires wine, and why gin and rum were so important to the Royal Navy. And in the process discover the botanical origins of our favourite drinks – beer, wine, spirits and even a mixer of two…

Once upon a time at Christmas

Deck the halls with boughs of holly. Kiss your neighbours under the mistletoe. Keep the Yule log burning and decorate the Christmas tree.

Of all the seasonal celebrations, Christmas has more traditional plants, with their accompanying legends and symbolism, than any other.

Drawing on both pagan and Christian traditions, we explore why we still continue to use such an abundance of greenery today…

The Plant Hunter:
Botanist, Explorer, Spy & Thief

Botany might seem like a safe, stay at home occupation (a bit like stamp collecting) but without the ‘Indiana Joneses’ of the plant world, prepared to adventure to far flung corners of the world in search of new and exciting specimens, our gardens would be all the poorer.

Meet some extraordinary men, and one woman, on their fantastic adventures as they single-mindedly venture into unexplored territory, encounter warring factions and civil unrest, run the risk of kidnap, disease and death, and are not adverse to a spot of botanical espionage into the bargain…

Chocolate Unwrapped

The treat that lies quietly in its wrapper carries a story of exotic places, long journeys and delicate tropical fruit trees.

As you peel back the cover, you are joining people the world over who have turned to this mysterious food for ritual, medicine and sheer pleasure over the last 4000 years.

Food of the Gods. Divine drink. Addictive confectionery. Mood changer. Obesity maker. The story of chocolate is as irresistible as its taste.