Avery Hill Winter Garden

The Friends of Avery Hill are updating on forthcoming plans to improve the Winter Garden, on site on this Saturday April 11 at 11am.
The group has been working with the Garden's owners, the University of Greenwich, to start making some improvements to the appearance of and access to the historic Victorian glasshouse, the highest of its kind in the country.

VOTE, VOTE, VOTE for Avery Hill Park and Winter Garden!

https://app.actionfunder.org/fund/907/vote?sharingToken=aa9d079a-d893-4c40-89bf-987cc2dd2aa0

We have the chance to win £20,000 to help open up the Winter Garden's 'West Wing' with plants and planters.

Plus £28,000 to upgrade the terrace garden entrance and path.

You can vote for three projects! Do it by Feb 8th.

Please share this post widely as possible.

School project cancelled!

The moon this evening over Avery Hill Winter Garden. The Friends of the Winter Garden are hoping to secure a grant in this year's round of the Greenwich Neighbourhood Grant Scheme to work with the University team to start re-stocking and landscaping the West Wing of the garden, which has been empty of plants since a heating failure more than a decade ago.

Big weekend at the Winter Garden next Saturday!

Roses starting to bloom on the terrace garden, four colours of 40 each planted out by the Friends group last year and with a mulch of horse manure added today. The two wisterias are flowering again after the Friends team started a regime of pruning last year.

Colourful blooms on the terrace garden outside the Winter Garden, wisteria, viburnum and ceanothus; the Friends group have been restoring the upper and lower terraces in recent years, with 160 roses getting ready to flower in the coming weeks.

Some personal news from me (Amy) - it's time for me to say goodbye 💚

I'm more than a little sad to announce that this was my final weekend working at the Winter Garden, but so very excited to share that it's because I've been offered a job at Kew Gardens 😍 It's hard to know what to say, because the past year and a half working here has been a whirlwind. I'm incredibly proud of the work that I've done in the garden, and what we have been able to achieve in that time with the resources available to us. I think it's fair to say that when we re-opened in 2023, the garden was looking pretty grim. And while it's nowhere near it's former Victorian era glory, it's looking better every day! It's taken a lot of hard work and love to get it to where it is today 💪💚

But what I really want to say, is just an enormous thank you to everyone who has visited and cared about the Winter Garden. I've met some of the most wonderful people who I maybe would never have had the opportunity to connect with otherwise. I've met so many people who share a passion for nature, and see the immense benefits that gardens can offer to our community. We've received donations of plants, compost, our beautiful hand crafted sign out front, and so much more, all from generous people who just want to help make the Winter Garden better for everyone. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the conversations and interactions that I've had with some visitors have restored a little faith in humanity for me. Hearing about how much this place means to people, and how much public support there is for the Winter Garden has been truly heartwarming, motivating, and inspiring. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much 💚 I'll be a regular Winter Garden visitor from now on, so you're sure to see me around, but otherwise come find me at Kew!

- Amy the gardener.

Winter Garden embracing spring!

Our beautiful arum lilies are starting to bloom! Just stunning to see the Winter Garden in the sunshine this weekend, and with so many lovely visitors 💚
- Amy the gardener.

I've been excited to post about this for a while now! Back in December, we were lucky enough to have these two Chusan palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) donated to us by the Tye family! This was no easy feat, with sorting out transport, manpower, and a bunch of other issues. We were able to plant the small tree in the pond room straight away, but the large one has been waiting patiently in the west wing of the Winter Garden until we could figure things out. I was starting to worry that it might die before getting in the ground, but I'm so happy to say that she was finally planted earlier this week! Huge shout out to everyone involved, but especially a huge thank you to Michael, Neil, Rosie and the Tye family for this generous donation! Donations like this make a huge difference to our beautiful garden, and I'm so grateful that we have so many lovely people in our community who care about the Winter Garden 💚
- Amy the gardener.

Wintery Garden this morning at Avery Hill (pic by Ricky Hough)